What does this code mean?

[bucksfanjimj1]

My wife's computer keeps shutting down and gives this code.

0x000000CA (0x00000001, 0x897F2298, 0x89D76E50, 0x00000000)

She must use the power button to shut down and restart her computer.
I have no clue what this means. I googled it and got nothing in return.

The computer is an HP Pavillion a250n.
XP Home
2.6 GHZ P4
120 GB hard drive
CD rom
DVD combo
XFX 7600GT video card
FSP 450 watt power supply
1.5 GB of RAM
2 separate external HD attached via a 5 port USB card
Standard keyboard and mouse combo

[TwoRails]

It could be an external drive problem. Disconnect them for a test.

Could also a smart card reader problem. Disconnect one if attached.

In general, it doesn't hurt to disconnect all the external devices for testing purposes.

[juppy]

Have you updated any drivers recently or reconfigured the system in any way? Because, from what I can find on that error, the 0x000000CA part of it means a problem with the Plug & Play device manager. Possibly two devices trying to use the same ID or memory area. If you've installed anything new right before the problem started, I'd start with that. So, if you updated drivers, try rolling back to the old drivers. If you set up a new printer or something, try disconnecting it and uninstalling it from the system. It's just trial and error to find which two parts are conflicting.

[bucksfanjimj1]

Two Rails,

I believe you are right about the external HDs. The BSOD has gone away but the screen continues to freeze up. Here's is what I don't understand though.. the wife had both drives connected and XP had assigned sequential letters to both drives. One drive has 2 partitions and the other one has 3 partitions. Drive letters assigned were K-O. She wasn't having any problems for quite awhile then this error showed up to my knowledge out of the blue. Would a reformat of the computer's hard drive and reinstall of USB card solve this problem? She is wanting me to reformat anyway (too much junk on it).

Juppy, we have been dealing with this problem for almost 2 months now so it hard to say what may have been done to the computer before this problem started. No new hardware or anything. But please keep thinking. You and Two Rails know a heck of lot more than I do.

[TwoRails]

A total redo pretty much fixes everything (except hardware problems) but that is the last resort in my opinion. The drive letters should go away when the drives are unplugged.

So how far can you get into Windows before it blows up?

Have you disconnected the hub and other devices?

[juppy]

Also, does it act up on any program in particular, like ONLY when she's using, for example, MS Office, or does it just decide to lock up any time it feels like it regardless of what program is running at the time? Or, as TR mentioned, does it even get very far into Windows before crashing?

Another possibility might be the memory. A couple ways to test that. One way, you can download memtest86+ from THIS LINK and run it through a few cycles to see if it comes up with errors. You'll have to scroll down the page a bit.....there's several versions down there, the ones that run from floppy or USB key are my favorites (read: easy to use ).

The second way you can test the memory is if you're comfortable opening the case up and working inside, and if she has more than one stick of memory, you use one stick installed at a time to boot up and see if the error still happens. If it does, power down and use a different stick to see if you get the error with that one too. If one gives the error and the other one doesn't, then that stick is likely bad. If both of them still give the error, it's probably NOT the memory then, because it's not too likely that BOTH sticks would go belly up at the same time.
EDIT: NOTE.....if your computer is still under warranty, you don't want to open up the case, as that would void your warranty altogether.

[bucksfanjimj1]

Just ran memtest on it and it started to error out. Will need some time to work on narrowing down which sticks. I am thinking that it may be the motherboard honestly.

Here's why...
earlier this summer I bought a pair of Kingston Value Ram (512 x 2) to upgrade it to 1.5 GB of ram. I ran into this problem. Sent the KVR back for a refund about 4 months ago and went back to the OEM sticks and 1 stick of KVR (512) that I had added a long time ago. I just within the last week replaced the single KVR stick with Corsair Value Select. Same amount of ram (512 x 2) as earlier attempt at upgrading. OEM with 256 x 2. However for the longest time I've had the OEM sticks and one 512 stick of Kingston in it. Now we started to have that freezing up problem again. Yes I made sure that I ordered the right speed, PC2700. I used EVEREST Home Edition to get the specs on the computer.

The motherboard is an ASUS P4SD-LA. Remember this came out of an HP. I googled this problem back in the summer and couldn't get clear specs on the memory capacity of this board.
Here is a link to HP's spec page on it please read it carefully.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...326411&lang=en

[juppy]

Well, it's *possible* that the motherboard could be the culprit, although not really to say that it's "bad". What I mean is this: Basically, some motherboards are picky about RAM. Even if you get the same speed, if the brands are different, they may not work when installed together in the same computer. That's why it's recommended to get as close as possible to the existing memory as you can when adding more memory (brand, speed, CAS latency, etc).

That page you linked to said the max memory is 4 GB but that HP recommends 2 GB. I don't know why they only recommend half of what it's supposed to be capable of using.....unless there's a known problem with it that they aren't releasing.

Easiest way to find out which it is then would still be the "open it up and try one at a time" method I mentioned above. If they all run fine as single sticks, try adding in the stick that matches each one (for instance, after testing each new Corsair stick by itself and proving it works, try adding the second stick of Corsair). Power down between changing RAM modules, of course....no hot swapping here. Do the same with the old memory, whatever brand it is. If both sticks work fine individually and with the other stick of the same brand, then the motherboard is probably just having a problem with mixing the different brands together.

[TwoRails]

Originally Posted by juppy ... That page you linked to said the max memory is 4 GB but that HP recommends 2 GB. I don't know why they only recommend half of what it's supposed to be capable of using.....unless there's a known problem with it that they aren't releasing....

I believe it's due to XP / Vista RAM limits:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/g...reg_R1002_USEN

[juppy]

Well, that's what I initially thought too TR, but if that's the case, why didn't they make it 3 GB instead of 2 GB? Because the RAM limit stuff doesn't start until 3 GB, does it? Heck, I don't know, maybe they're just trying to be extra safe with that and not even get CLOSE to the limit!

[bucksfanjimj1]

I think you missed my point juppy.

" That page you linked to said the max memory is 4 GB but that HP recommends 2 GB."

"4GB (4 x 512MB) unbuffered (HP and Compaq recommend 2GB)"

I was questioning how 4 x 512 equals 4GB. It should be 2048 or 2GB right? Because of that misstatement by HP I am wondering what the maximum size stick will be allowable in each DIMM slot. Is it 512 or 1024? Did I buy a stick of RAM that it won't accept because of its size and therefore waste time and money ordering it? However saying that, I'm positive a stick of 512 will work because I have had a single stick of 512 in this computer for nearly 3 of the 4 years that we have had it. XP has recognized the computer having 1GB of RAM (originally bought with 512k of RAM). That's all. I was somewhat confused by HP's misleading statement regarding memory specs.

Anyhow, if time pemits I will continue to work on singling out the bad stick(s). I still think MB might be bad this and previous episode seems to be too much of coincidence to me.

Thanks for your continued assistance guys.

[TwoRails]

Ya, juppy, maybe "close" is good enough

bucksfanjimj, I don't work on "store-bought" systems, so I couldn't even guess if it has 2, 3 or 4 RAM slots. I'll assume 4 due to the mention of "4x512". I wouldn't worry too much about (most likely) typos like that; lots of manuals from higher end companies have such typos. As long as it doesn't cause a failure, that is... Perhaps they meant 4x512 is the max recommendation.

[juppy]

Originally Posted by bucksfanjimj I think you missed my point juppy......I was questioning how 4 x 512 equals 4GB. It should be 2048 or 2GB right? Because of that misstatement by HP I am wondering what the maximum size stick will be allowable in each DIMM slot. Is it 512 or 1024?

Heheh....sorry about that. You said read that link carefully....and I did....and I STILL missed what you were asking about.

I see what you're saying now, and yeah, I think TwoRails hit it on the head....most computer manuals and internet pages have typos (some more than others). I don't know where they got that 4 GB max number honestly, because the memory configurator at Crucial shows the maximum to be 2 GB (2048). It says there's 4 slots with a max of 512 per slot. Here's a link to that page if you want to see it.
http://www.crucial.com/store/listpar...vilion%20a250n