XP crashes frequently unless Cache in Bios is turned off

[Vanian]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I will give the memory test a try. I used something called Fresh Diagnose 4.6 and it give the same error when I checked the CPU. It crapped itself. I'm not sure how reliable that program is.

So I guess it's either the memory, CPU, or board right now.

[AllGamer]

Can you post a table of your IRQ table?

to pring out an IRQ table do the following

run msinfo32.exe

go to HARDWARE RESOURCES

select IRQs

right click, Save As Text File

then either attach it here or copy and paste that info here.

[assmunch666]

I think it's important to point out that this system crashes (more or less randomly, with different error codes) when booting DIRECTLY from the WinXP Pro CD. Correct me if I'm wrong, but at that point there's nothing involved except the processor, motherboard, CD-ROM drive, video card and memory. Any drivers or currupt files on the hard drive are being ignored when booting from the CD. It does the same thing weather it has a GeForce 3 AGP card or an old S3 Trio64 based PCI card installed. All other cards were removed.

BTW, we're talking about an AMD Athlon XP 1.7+ processor. Also, this system worked flawlessly for several months with the same hardware, only video driver and BIOS were changed before it started going psycho.

Also, also, one of the error messages is IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

[AllGamer]

Windows 2000 Stop Messages

Previous Topic Next Topic
Stop 0x0000000A or IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000...d_exe_igcc.htm

So, my suggestion still stands.

[Vanian]

Mr. Munch is correct. Another error I receive is PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

[AllGamer]

Ok this is starting to sound more and more like a BAD RAM problem

test your RAM in DOS,
here's a disk i use
http://www.jiffycomputers.com/pphlog...isk/boot98.zip

maybe these guys can suggest a better tool.

[Vanian]

Is it possible that two memory sticks died at once?

[BipolarBill]

Have you tested each stick individually?

www.memtest86.com

[BipolarBill]

With all of your hard crashes, it's quite likely that your hard drive has errors on it. Which came first is the question.

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA is a disk error. Run CHKDSK X: /F /R (where X is your page file drive - probably C). To Run CHKDSK, boot from the XP CD and choose Repair using the Recovery Console.

[Vanian]

I haven't run the memory test yet but I had tried each stick, one at a time.

When I get XP to run, it doesn't shut down. When I boot up it goes to the menu with the choice to run XP or enter setup. The crash occurs almost instantly when I enter the setup.

I will try checkdisk on the drive.

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by Vanian
When I boot up it goes to the menu with the choice to run XP or enter setup.

What's this? That is not a normal XP startup menu. It sounds like you never completed setup and your old, corrupted XP is still there. You really need to format and start fresh.

[Vanian]

I ran http://www.memtest86.com/ and there were no errors.

[merry]

Hi,

This is my first post here, so hi everybody, i'm merry.

I experienced the same problems as Vanian - more or less, I can't recall anything special about booting the XP CD. The minidump thing started after installing new video drivers. I got a message every boot, various error codes, most frequent ended in 50 or 8e (I think they were sthing like100...50 etc).

Also every boot a service reported - event viewer - not finding a file. It's name - I don't remember exactly - contained 'LINX'.

It resisted all actions up to system restore. It stopped by itself after a couple of weeks, then happened again at another driver update, same behaviour.

The P3 runs below 30C most of the time, never beyond 40C, the system temp never gets beyond 35C. The PSU is 300W.

[jake_westmorley]

try increasing the RAM voltage, then the CPU voltage...
Set the DDR voltage to 2.7 or 2.8 (if you can)... see if it solves the problem
If that doesn't solve anything, try increasing the voltage to 1.90 or thereabouts.
If either of those solve the problem, it's one of the components that have "degraded over time". It happened to my RAM once. Perhaps it's caused by static too, or lightning or other "acts of god"... Hehe
Keep us updated

Jake

[assmunch666]

Static doesn't age electronics, it kills it, and lightning vaporizes it. ;-)

The only two forces at work in "aging" electronic components is expansion and contraction caused by heat, and electromigration (esentially atoms of metal or semiconductor being moved by heat and the electrons flowing through them).