Spontaneous Reboot, XP Home, PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

[Don Cohen]

Hello,

I have a 2 year-old Gateway 700XL (2.2 GHz Pent 4, 1024 mb RAM, XP Home, ATI
Radeon, FPD1810 LCD, 120 GB HD) which has functioned virtually flawlessly
since I got it.

Once on December 24th, my daughter reported that the computer spontaneous
rebooted. It hasn't recurred until 2 days ago. This happened once at the
end of that day, and it has become a recurring problem since then. It
occurs during very minimal usage: web-surfing, reading email, etc. I'm not
a gamer, so now high-intensity video stuff going on.

I have not added any hardware recently. No major OS changes except the
usual NAV 2003 updates. All XP Home Critical Updates installed (but none
too recently).

Trouble-shooting so far:

-booted into Safe Mode, and after a few minues, same reboot occurred.
-opened case, made sure videocard, RAM, power plugs all secure, vacuumed
dust, made sure fan was spinning freely
-turned system off overnight, started up this a.m. and it rebooted after a
few minutes, making heat an unlikely issue.
-am now running memtest86 - so far, after 60 minutes and 2 full passes, 0
errors. I'll continue letting it run.
-disabled 'auto-reboot' function and receive this bsod:

PAGE_DEFAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
****STOP: 0x00000050 (0xB7874E5E, 0x00000000, 0xB78674E5E, 0x00000000)

I installed Support Tools, ran dumpchk.exe on the minidump file created from
the first (12/24/03) event. I'll add the text of that report at the end of
this post. Kmixer.sys is mentioned frequently, and I did some checking but
didn't come across anything relevant to my system (i.e. I don't have a Lexar
card reader which is one specific problem I came across).

A few days ago I received a "Windows has recovered from a serious error"
message during a regular boot, but I didn't note the specifics, and it
hasn't repeated. This was long after the first spontaneous reboot, however.

I don't know how I could test the Power Supply, but from the reading I've
done, am suspicious this could be the problem.


Any suggestions greatly appreciated. I'm inclined to conclude that this is
a hardware issue, not a software one (especially considering the spontaneous
reboot while in Safe Mode), but would like confirmation of that, or info on
why it might still be software (and how/where to look).

Thank you.

--
Don
Photo Website at:
www.dlcphotography.net
remove "lens cap" for email reply

Minidump report:

C:\WINNT\Minidump>dumpchk mini122403-01.dmp
Loading dump file mini122403-01.dmp
----- 32 bit Kernel Mini Dump Analysis

DUMP_HEADER32:
MajorVersion 0000000f
MinorVersion 00000a28
DirectoryTableBase 09d2f000
PfnDataBase 81ad3000
PsLoadedModuleList 80543530
PsActiveProcessHead 80545578
MachineImageType 0000014c
NumberProcessors 00000001
BugCheckCode 10000050
BugCheckParameter1 b7874e5e
BugCheckParameter2 00000000
BugCheckParameter3 b7874e5e
BugCheckParameter4 00000000
PaeEnabled 00000000
KdDebuggerDataBlock 805353e0
MiniDumpFields 00000dff

TRIAGE_DUMP32:
ServicePackBuild 00000100
SizeOfDump 00010000
ValidOffset 0000fffc
ContextOffset 00000320
ExceptionOffset 000007d0
MmOffset 00001068
UnloadedDriversOffset 000010a0
PrcbOffset 00001878
ProcessOffset 000024c8
ThreadOffset 00002720
CallStackOffset 00002978
SizeOfCallStack 00000904
DriverListOffset 00003510
DriverCount 00000096
StringPoolOffset 00006198
StringPoolSize 000014f8
BrokenDriverOffset 00000000
TriageOptions 00000041
TopOfStack eb67c6fc
DebuggerDataOffset 00003280
DebuggerDataSize 00000290
DataBlocksOffset 00007690
DataBlocksCount 00000003


Windows XP Kernel Version 2600 (Service Pack 1) UP Free x86 compatible
Kernel base = 0x804d4000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0x80543530
Debug session time: Wed Dec 24 15:38:31 2003
System Uptime: 5 days 22:18:11
start end module name
804d4000 806aa280 nt Checksum: 001E311B Timestamp: Thu Apr 24
11:
57:43 2003 (3EA80977)

Unloaded modules:
eb776000 eb79d000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb273000 eb27a000 usbprint.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb776000 eb79d000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb850000 eb857000 usbprint.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb3a4000 eb3ab000 usbprint.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb14c000 eb153000 usbprint.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb27b000 eb282000 usbprint.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
eb0df000 eb106000 kmixer.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)

Finished dump check

 

[Don Cohen]

Additional follow-up:

memtest86 using "all" tests: after 6 hours, 1 full pass, 77% of the way
through the 2nd, 0 errors found.

Anybody have any thoughts? At this point, it seems I have to assume it's
the Power Supply, and will need to start there and hope the time/money isn't
wasted on the wrong solution.

Any help/experience appreciated.

Don
www.dlcphotography.net

 

[Alex Nichol]

PAGE_DEFAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
****STOP: 0x00000050 (0xB7874E5E, 0x00000000, 0xB78674E5E, 0x00000000)

I installed Support Tools, ran dumpchk.exe on the minidump file created from
the first (12/24/03) event. I'll add the text of that report at the end of
this post. Kmixer.sys is mentioned frequently, and I did some checking but
didn't come across anything relevant to my system (i.e. I don't have a Lexar
card reader which is one specific problem I came across).

Such a page faut would normally suggest a failure in RAM - the Non
Paged area being intended for the central code of the system, that may
not be paged out, and very unlikely now to have major errors. But I
have learned that Symantec put some code there in their software, so if
you have installed anything of theirs - especially Norton INternet
Security I think - I would disable that and see if the trouble goes away

 

[Don Cohen]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the reply.

Such a page faut would normally suggest a failure in RAM - the Non
Paged area being intended for the central code of the system, that may
not be paged out, and very unlikely now to have major errors. But I
have learned that Symantec put some code there in their software, so if
you have installed anything of theirs - especially Norton INternet
Security I think - I would disable that and see if the trouble goes away

The only Symantec product I run is NAV 2003. I experienced this exact same
error message when I booted into Safe Mode. Am I right in thinking that
since NAV isn't running then, that this would eliminate NAV as the culprit?
If not, please advise.

I have run memtest86 (using a bootable CD created with the use of
memtest86), and after running the full battery of tests (extended as well),
for over 6 hours, 2+ full passes completed, no errors were detected. I'm
tentatively concluding from this that the RAM is ok. If you think
otherwise, please advise.

At this point, I'm inclined to think power supply - this system has a 250W
Newton Power unit, which was thought to be marginal when I first bought the
system (2.2 P4, Radeon 8500, DVD-burner, CD-burner, etc.). My plan now is
to replace the power supply (I'm tenatively thinking Antec TruePower 430)
and see if that does it.

But I am still definitely open to critique of my thinking, or suggestions on
other courses of action.

Thanks again.

Don
www.dlcphotography.net