XP Problem

[dmack973]

Hello All,

I am having a major problem with my Mom's Computer. She is running Windows XP SP2. Up until about a week ago the computer was running fine. She started complaining off crooked/distorted video occasionally. I suspected the video card and told her on the next visit I would replace with a extra one I had. Last weekend it wouldn't boot at all and displayed a distorted screen in both Windows and the system bios. I replaced the video card with a known good one yesterday and the computer booted and seemed to run fine. After loading windows the first time the "Tell Microsoft about this problem window started" about five times in a row and the system crashes to a restart. Now I can't do anything with it. Safe mode runs for about 5 minutes before crashing in the same manner. I managed to be able to get the blue screen of death to stay up after a while and this error message was generated:

Machine_Check_Exception

I tried booting from the Windows xP cd but as soon as I click R for repair or try to re-install the same error message occurs immediately. Any help would be greatly apprectiated.

[Liquidparadox]

What are the specs of the computer? Have you checked the temps yet in the bios after restart? Could be a Heat issue. I would also turn off the automatic reboot, to do that you need to go to start, run, and type in sysdm.cpl, and then go to the advanced tab. Once there, under start up and recovery, click on settings. Under system failure, uncheck the automatic restart button. From there, we will have a better idea from the error code.

[dmack973]

Thanks for the quick response.

Temps are all fine in the bios. Just for testing I selected ignore in the system bios for Hardware Monitoring. No change.

As for the automatic restart, that is how I managed to get the blue screen of death with the Machine_Check_Exception error. At the bottom of that error screen it has Technical Info:

***stop: 0x and then a whole bunch of numbers and letters.

As for system specs, it is a homebuilt, did it myself 4 years ago. ASUS P4 motherboard Intel chip, onboard audio, Generic TI 4800 vid card. Sorry I don't have more system info but I don't remember what I built back then.

[Negeva]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284

That might help.

From what I just read I'd be inclined to try a memory (RAM) test first - I'd clean the machine by removing the dust (if any), remove all the RAM and then test one stick at a time using Memtet86. You can get away with just running a few scans/cycles.

If the RAM passes then it could be the CPU or a dodgy BIOS setting. Try resetting the BIOS to defaults.

[ITlover]

If you are facing the similar problem even after replacing the video card with a new one, then there might be something wrong with your RAM. The distorted video on your screen usually happen either because of faulty RAM or maybe there is a dust in your video card slot.

Try to boot your computer after inserting 1 RAM chip, and see if it boots successfully. If it boots successfully then shut down your computer, insert another RAM chip and then boot again, if it successfully boots, then insert the next one, this way you will be able to discover which RAM chip is faulty.

I think there is something wrong with your boot program.

Are you using a VGA or AGP card?

[dmack973]

There are only 2 chips of ram in, I will let them know to try that tonight.

It is a AGP card.

As far as the boot program, are you meaning Windows XP? The curious thing is whether I boot using the XP CD or use the Hard Drive I get the same error. Even if I try to repair or just press continue to go through a regular install.

[dmack973]

Sorry guys I didn't read the link post you gave me before posting my initial reply. I will definately get them to test the ram first tonight. While I was there I did a thorough cleaning of the box.

One more thought along the lines of my previous post. Sometimes the computer will boot into windows and after a intermittent period of time I get the error. Other times it will not even get to the Windows XP splash screen before the error. It is very erratic. The only sure thing is when I boot from the Windows XP CD and try a repair or full install whenever I press R or space to continue..bam immediately I get the error screen. Does that help pinpoint things at all?

From the help article this sound alot like a wild goose chase to narrow it down.

[dmack973]

Ok,

Just finished testing the ram. I still get the Machine Check Exception(MCE). We removed both sticks of MWAVE PC2700 256MB of ram. Like I said in previous post everything was cleaned. First put one stick back into the third slot that wasn't being previously used. Upon boot a immediate MCE. Removed that stick and installed the other. This time it booted into windows normally but after running 15 minutes I had her go to shutdown and as it was shutting down MCE. On restart it wouldn't boot and went right into MCE.

This is the full error code:

Stop: 0x000000009c (0x000000000,0x8054d570,0xcc0000ff,0x20040189)

Is there a way to decode that? Any further help is greatly appreciated.

ASUS P4PE-X
512 MB PC2700 Ram

[glc]

I would now suspect the hard drive or a bad IDE cable. You can download diagnostics from the hard drive manufacturer.

[Negeva]

Originally Posted by glc I would now suspect the hard drive or a bad IDE cable. You can download diagnostics from the hard drive manufacturer.

That would be next easy test. If that fails then you're looking at the mobo and/or CPU.