Windows Xp Scrolling Blue Screen Of Death

[pmaddock]

Good morning all,

I have this weird problem on my system as of late. A few weeks ago I added an Adaptec USB 2.0 PCI board to my system in connection with purchasing the latest and greatest Visioneer USB 2.0 scanner (model 9220). Since then I have been plaqued with intermittent blue screens on bootup. It happens just past the windows logon screen, as some programs start to run in the background. It seems to happend in that 5 second period interval between logging on and full desktop startup. It is a very irritating blue screen, which scrolls virtically on my computer screen so fast that you can barely read the error message. It is some kind of mini-dump error that creates several codes in ( ), like OX804EA7AB, OX00000B0, OX0000002, OX000000, etc. It creates a message to send to microsoft upon eventual successful bootup. I have tried everything. Here is what I have done so far:

1. updated my sound, video card, chipset, and scanner drivers
2. Stopped all programs from starting in the background on bootup
3. opened the case and physically moved my USB 2.0 and sound cards to different PCI slots
4. disabled various devices in my configuration

I have called both Adaptec, Visioneer, and Microsoft and all can not figure out why this is happening. Sometimes the problem shows up within a couple re-boots, and sometimes I can re-boot my system several times (like over 10 times in a row last night) and it won't happen. It's like a intermittent car problem - they are the hardest to fix.
When it happens, I have to hit my power button to get back to normal and sometimes (if I let it flash long enough) it re-boots itself. When I boot back up, I can always get into safe mode, which tells me it is probably some kind of driver or hardware problem.

Has anyone seen this irritating Windows XP scrolling type of blue screen before? Does anyone have any other ideas? I really hate to send this scanner back to New Egg, but once I get to the desktop successfully, everything works very well. It's not the worst Windows problem that I have ever seen, but is very annoying none the less. The funny thing is, that I have (2) operating systems on my computer (XP Pro and 98SE), and I have had no trouble with the 98SE mode. 98 boots up fine, with no infamous blue screen problems. The scanner works well in either operating system, once I get through the initial bootup. I'm really shocked about this problem, as I would have expected problems on the 98 side well before the XP side.

Does anyone have any suggestions, because this problem is making me pull my hair out. Microsoft is going to call me later today, as they have delegated this problem to their advanced committee group for support. I eagerly await any input.

PMADDOCK

[andyms18a]

if you right click the my computer icon go to properties/advanced/
start up and recover/ and remove the tick from auto restart on error hit apply and on your next blue screan the computer will hang so you can see the error mesage witch you can post hear and we will help you

[pmaddock]

One problem - I do not have that item ticked. It is not supposed to reboot on failure. It just keeps scrolling vertically at such a fast rate that the error message is difficult to read.

[pmaddock]

Forum,

I was on the phone with Microsoft all day today, with no luck on stopping this blue screen problem. The hardest part about it is that it is an intermittent problem. The microsoft technician suggests that my next course of action is flashing my bios or maybe my power supply is not large enough. I never would have thought that an Antec 400W power supply would not be enough. However, I do have a lot of things running - 7 fans, 3 hard drives, a hellacious video card and sound card, dvd, cdrw, floppy, 4 usb devices, 2 printers, and one firewire device. Could I be overtaxing even a 400W power supply? Do I need to flash my bios? I can always get into safe mode, so I must have some sort of driver/hardware problem. Maybe I am at the upper edge, close enough where a power spike could be causing my intermittent blue screen bootup problem. Does anyone have any ideas? The problems all seem to start in connection with installation of an Adaptec USB 2.0 card, along with a Visioneer high speed scanner. Adaptec thinks that I need to flash my bios also.



PMADDOCK

[Alfie]

If both companies say flash your bios,then do it,it may solve the problem.
Make sure the proper drivers are loaded for both devices.

[pmaddock]

I flashed it a few hours ago. We'll see what happens.

[pmaddock]

Well, I flashed my bios successfully (to date 4-11-2003). The scrolling blue screen problem keeps happening at random intervals. I am now in the process of trying multiple reboots with the Adaptec USB 2.0 car uninstalled and physically removed from the system. So far, so good - 18 reboots with no blue screen. I am going to do 30 replicates total. If I am successful, I will next add the card back and repeat the same 30 reboot test. If this succeeds, then next I will add the scanner and do 30 reboots. Does anyone have any other suggestions? I read in some forums about possible bad memory having an effect on XP instability. I am currently using 512 mb of high quality Kingston Rambus ram. I have 2 more of the same sticks available to swap if you all think bad memory could be a possibility. The funny thing is that I only have troubles on bootup, and it is only past the logon screen and right as the system is booting to the desktop. Once I get to the desktop, all works perfectly well. I can also boot to safe mode at any time, no problem. If these last tests don't work, I guess I'm looking at a format. What do you all think. I'm going crazy over this.

PMADDOCK

[pmaddock]

I am going crazy with these XP problems. Now the latest thing that is happening is occasionally my computer gets to the Windows XP logo screen and freezes in mid-load. I mean you can see the logo in the background, but it never finishes loading up. I have to shut my computer down, turn off the power supply switch (recommendation from Abit web site) for 60 seconds, turn it on, and power up (successfully). Once again I seem to have problems around using my Visioneer USB 2.0 scanner with Adaptec 2.0 card. The vendor insists that they do not know of any XP problems. I am still using the Windows XP driver for the scanner. I just replaced my power supply tonight (substituting a Antec 550 watt for an Antec 400 watt), but am still seeing problems. I am this close to saying the heck with it and doing a system format. Does anyone have any ideas. I have switched cards in slots, flashed my bios, changed my power supply, stopped programs from running in the background, amongst other things. I can always get into safe mode. Does anyone have any other things to try before I format my system. Please help.

PMADDOCK

[pmaddock]

Well, I'm still getting an occasional blue screen problem on bootup. I've been playing phone tag with a Microsoft specialist the last few days, in hopes of figuring out my problem. I have tried everything but switching my ram, which will probably be the next thing that I do. Does anyone have any horror stories similar to this, which could be blamed on ram memory?

[pmaddock]

Well, I'm still getting an occasional blue screen problem on bootup. I've been playing phone tag with a Microsoft specialist the last few days, in hopes of figuring out my problem. I have tried everything but switching my ram, which will probably be the next thing that I do. Does anyone have any horror stories similar to this, which could be blamed on ram memory?

[pmaddock]

Does anyone out there have any similar experiences to relate? I have not seen any blue screens lately, but my Windows XP splash screen hangs up once in awhile. I found out how to see what is going on behind the infamous splash screen. It is loading drivers and doing disk checks of all of my hard disk partitions.

PMADDOCK

[kissfan]

Try using the driver that came with the scanner. It will no doubt be a latter revision than the XP driver you are using.

Does it still Hang / BSOD with the card removed and the drivers uninstalled ?

[pmaddock]

I am using the latest driver that Visioneer recommends. It still blue screens once in a while with the scanner disconnected, but has not with the card removed. Adaptec sees nothing wrong with the card, and I am using Windows XP driver for the card. I think that the problem started with trying to initially install the card with Adaptec's driver, and then later removing the card and using XP's drivers. The trouble is that I have drive images after the card, but not before. I want to make this card/scanner work, and am hoping I can figure out what is clashing on my system. If I can't figure it out by this weekend, I am going to give up and format my main drive. It's about time to wipe the slate clean anyhow and get rid of a lot of unneccessary stuff on my system. Thanks for offering to help.

PMADDOCK

[kissfan]

Have you updated to service pack 1 yet for XP?.

If not can you give it a go, and see if that cures it.

[pmaddock]

I updated to that service pack a long time ago. If I didn't, I wouldn't have USB2.0 support at all on my system, since SP1 provides USB2.0 support.

[kissfan]

You can also find USB 2 support from some mobo mfrs.

OK, they may say nothing wrong with the card, but I put it to you this way:

Card in

Card out

seems to me the card is at fault.

[pmaddock]

You might be right on the card being the fault. I'll know soon, hopefully, who the culprit is.