Random crashes

[den2k2]

Hi,
I leave my computer on through the night, like most people probably do but when I come to it in the morning all I see is the blue screen of death. It has happened twice thus far with the folowing problems:

One time the file was 'AVGNTDD.SYS' which is a file for 'AntiVir XP' (a free antivirus from www.freeav.com) with the problem 'PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA.' I have been using this program for months before without any kind of problems.

The other time it just said 'MEMORY_MANAGEMENT.'

I have recently followed a tutorial on the internet which tells you which services can be cancelled (http://www.techreviewer.com/viewpage.cfm/pi/9)

At about the same time I was defragging and there was one block that wouldnt move to the front of the drive so I downloaded a third party command line defragger which crashed halfway through. When I did an 'Analyse' using XPs defragger, the stray block had gone but im not sure if it was replaced at the front or not.

It is hard to tell which event caused this.

Any more information needed please ask.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[glc]

You may have a defective ram module.

www.memtest.org

Test your ram.

[den2k2]

spanks!
Will try when I get home as I am at school at the moment.
Will post results.

[den2k2]

Spanks!
Will try when I get home as I am at school now.
Will post results.
(Sorry if double posted but it didnt seem to work first time)

[den2k2]

Passed all the memory tests.

[glc]

Uninstall the antivirus program and reinstall it.

[den2k2]

I already tried that. But I think I'll try it again with a reboot inbetween. Would that make a difference?
It seems to ahve stopped crashing in the night now but thats because I stopped the nightly scheduled virus scan.
It also crashes at the end of a Spybot S&D scan.
I ran chkdsk and scandisk and no errors showed up.
Ah annoyance!

[glc]

Yes, you should reboot in between when you are having issues like this.

[den2k2]

right!
Going to do that now.

[den2k2]

Done that, will try a virus scan later and post results.

[den2k2]

Hi, sorry about long reply time, been busy.
OK, so I reinstalled the anti virus with a restart inbetween, did a virus scan and boom, blue screen again. This time it said
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
and it also crashed another time for no apparent reason and said
Problem seems to be caused by: S3t3d2x
which I'm sure is a video driver for my relic video card but this has happened before. Any relation between the two?
Bah computers! Can't live with 'em can't live without 'em!

[KHT]

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL can be caused by an incorrect or corrupted memory pointer caused by a buggy device driver, system service, or your BIOS. This will cause a program to try to access an incorrect memory block thus causing the BSD.

Try *uninstalling* your anti virus and running the system and see if there are any probs. Try updating your Vid driver if you suspect that. Did you install any devices just prior to the errors?

If these fail, try pressing F8 during boot up and choose "last known good configuration".

[glc]

S3 drivers are the buggiest things on earth.

What version of Windows and what exact model video card? Is this a Windows default driver or one you installed?

[den2k2]

OK, KHT:
There are no probs when I don't run the antivirus. No devices installed just prior to the errors.

glc:
I'm running windows XP Professional and the video card is an S3 Trio 3D/2X. I downloaded it from some driver website. Should I roll back to the windows driver? But if I do that I have no hardware acceleration at all and can't even watch movie clips.

I think that covers what you asked.

[glc]

That card is a dinosaur - I'd think about an upgrade. Any XP driver for that card other than the default is going to be a hack.

A Radeon 7000 is pretty cheap, and worlds better than a S3 Trio.

[den2k2]

Yep, I intend to but flat broke at the momento. Birthday soon though!
Anything you could suggest until then?
Sorry about the long reply times btw, have exams at the moment and spending lots of time doing that or out with friends.

[glc]

Roll it back to the Windows driver.