XP Crashing to blue screen

[mjsfuk]

Hey guys,

over the last few months my PC has been crashing when i run mostly game apps for long periods of time.

Specifically, the error has recently been occuring when i run games such as everquest 2 and battlefield 2 for more than 30 minutes or so (sometimes they can list for a few hours at a time with no crashes). Each time the PC crashes, i hear a audible but not too loud mechanical 'click' from within my PC tower, then between 5 and 10 seconds after the click the system freeze's up and i recieve either a blank blue screen with a high pitched whine coming from the speakers or an actual blue screen with error codes on it. I must say these blue screens have varied slightly, but not by much. I will detail the error codes at the end of my post.

Let me go through the steps i have taken to try and find the cause.

I have updated all my video, sound and mobo drivers to their latest versions from all manufacturer websites.

At first i attributed this problem to the memory modules, however after running memtest86 on each configuration (each 512 meg stick individually, together and then together in dual channel mode) i have encontered no errors.

I am running 2 ide HD's at the moment, one of which is getting close to 5 years old. I have used diskeeper to defragment and chkdsk each drive (both have 3 equal partitions) and have so far only encountered the error that the MFT on my main C: is at 91% of the total MFT size. no other errors have occured. Could this be the cause of the problem?

I have also changed the IDE cables used for 2 extra sets, but with no change.

Now, the error codes i have encountered as follows.

When a BSOD is visible after a crash (1 in 3ish times) i have recieved the following code most times -

KERNAL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR

with the stopcode :- 0x00000077

then when windows starts again i recieve the 'you have encountered a critical error' message with the error codes stated as -

BCCode : 7a BCP1 : C03DDD68 BCP2 : C000000E BCP3 : F775A130
BCP4 : 28F91860 OSVer : 5_1_2600 SP : 2_0 Product : 256_1

and the files it points to are:-
C:\DOCUME~1\Matt\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER0ccd.dir00\Mini063005-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\Matt\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER0ccd.dir00\sysdata.xml


The most recent blue screen message i recieved (last night) was this -

KERNAL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR

with the stopcode:- 0x0000007A

and with the inclusion on the live below the stop code, this message:-

* atapi.sys Address F775A130 (then more address's).



My System Specification is as follows:-

Processor - P4 2.6 processor
mobo - Abit AI7-GURU SKT 478 865PE 800FSB Dual DDR
Memory - Crucial 512x2 sticks running in dual channel mode
Video - ATI Radeon 9800 128meg AGP
Sound - Creative Audigy PCI
HD's - 1 maxtor 160gig x 1 maxtor 200gig (windows partition on 160gig)
DVD - 16x liteon burner
PSU - 400w
Network card - generic 10/100base ethernet


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

M.J

PS. Apologies for the length of this post

[pam123]

Read through this : http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q315266


edit : I'd say your guess about the hard drive was the right one.

[glc]

I would download Powermax from Maxtor and test your hard drives.

[macko72]

Stop 0x00000077 or KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR
The Stop 0x77 message indicates that a page of kernel data requested from the paging (virtual memory) file could not be found or read into memory. This Stop message can also indicate disk hardware failure, disk data corruption, or possible virus infection.

Interpreting the Message
This Stop message has four parameters. The following set of definitions applies only if the first and third parameters are both zero:

This value is 0x00000000 (zero).
Value found in the stack.
This value is 0x00000000 (zero).
Address of signature on kernel stack.
Otherwise, the following definitions apply:

Status code.
I/O status code.
Page file number.
Offset into page file.
Frequently, the cause of this error can be determined from the second parameter, the I/O status code. Some common status codes are:

0xC000009A, or STATUS_INSUFFICIENT_RESOURCES, indicates a lack of nonpaged pool resources.
0xC000009C, or STATUS_DEVICE_DATA_ERROR, generally indicates bad blocks (sectors) on the hard disk.
0xC000009D, or STATUS_DEVICE_NOT_CONNECTED, indicates defective or loose data or power cables, a problem with SCSI termination, or improper controller or hard disk configuration.
0xC000016A, or STATUS_DISK_OPERATION_FAILED, also indicates bad blocks (sectors) on the hard disk.
0xC0000185, or STATUS_IO_DEVICE_ERROR, indicates improper termination, defective storage controller hardware, defective disk cabling, or two devices attempting to use the same system resources.
For information about other possible status codes that can be returned, see the file Ntstatus.h of the Windows XP Professional Driver Development Kit (DDK). For more information about the DDK, see the Driver Development Kits link on the Web Resources page at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources.

Resolving the Problem
The following suggestions are specific to Stop 0x70 errors. For additional troubleshooting suggestions that apply to all Stop errors, see "Stop Message Checklist" later in this appendix.

Stop 0x77 messages can be caused by bad sectors in the virtual memory paging file or a disk controller error. In extremely rare cases, depleted nonpaged pool resources can cause this error. If the first and third parameters are zero, the stack signature in the kernel stack is missing, which is an error typically caused by defective hardware. If the I/O status is 0xC0000185 and the paging file is on a SCSI disk, check for cabling and termination issues. An I/O status code of 0xC000009C or 0xC000016A indicates that the requested data could not be found. You can try to correct this by restarting the computer. If a problem with disk integrity exists, Autochk, a program that attempts to mark bad disk sectors as defective so that they are not used in the future, starts automatically. If Autochk fails to run, you can manually perform the integrity check yourself by following the instructions to run Chkdsk provided in "Stop 0x00000024 or NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM" earlier in this appendix. For more information about Autochk and Chkdsk, see "Troubleshooting Disks and File Systems" in this book.
Another cause of Stop 0x77 messages is defective, malfunctioning, or failed memory hardware, such as memory modules, Level 2 (L2) SRAM cache, or video adapter RAM. If you added new hardware recently, remove and replace it to determine if it is causing or contributing to the problem. Run diagnostics software supplied by the system manufacturer to determine if the component has failed.
The problem might also be due to cracks, scratched traces, or defective components on the motherboard. If all else fails, take the system motherboard to a repair facility for diagnostic testing.
Problems that cause Stop 0x77 messages can also cause Stop 0x7A messages. For more information about Stop 0x7A messages, see "Stop 0x0000007A or KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR" later in this appendix.

[mjatas]

someone told me it has to do with RAM. I had the same problem before, however I check my RAM with memtest86 and no problem, so I don't think it's the RAM or even hard drives because I also tested my hard drive. I am talking about my old PC the P4 not my new AMD which is listed on my signiture.

Maybe the motherboard is acting up?

[mjsfuk]

I have just downloaded the PowerMax app suggested above. After running the complete test, it came back as a full Pass, displaying no errors on the drive. I guess that counts out the hard drive as the culprit.

[mjsfuk]

Well just an update,

2 nights ago i decided to swap out my graphics card with an identical one (ATI Radeon 9800) owned by a friend.

I then left the pc running everquest 2 (with high graphics settings) and a macro to continuously move the onscreen character in a circle so as to ensure movement. the pc was left on over night and all throught the following day (16 hours in total) without a single crash.
Then after replacing the card with my own, i conducted the same test and the computer blue screen crashed at some point during the first 5 hours of testing.

This has lead me to believe that the culpret is most likely the onboard memory on the graphics card.

[Digitalic]

Back off hardware acceleration on your vid settings a notch which should transfer some of the memory load to system and off your memory card.

[mjsfuk]

Cheers, just altered the settings now, hopefully they will have some benifical effect. Incidentally i already have a new graphics card on order anyway (an ATI x800 pro) so hopefully that will remedy these problems i have been having.