Computer crashing

[toppa]

evening all, my computer keeps crashing on me, not freezing up but crashing our to some blue screen with lots of messages on it, something like


"a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down.

a process or thread crucial to the system operation has unexpectedly .....

if this is the first time you have seen this stop error screen,
restart your computer . if this screen appears again follow these steps,

check and make sure any new hardware/software is properly installed.
If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any windows updates you may need.

if the problem continues , disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.
if you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select advanced startup options, and then select safe mode.

technical information

*****stop 0x00000000F4 (0x000000003,0x85759020,0x805c77736)

beginning dump of physical memory "


then when i re start the puter it goes to some screen that says

" DE Channel 2 Master Disk HDD S.M.A.R.T........."

and list a page of to me gobbly gook.... and stays on this page


so any ideas as to why im suddenly getting these, have not installed and new hardware or software latley, last time i did was a few months ago and the pc has been running fine up untill a few days ago :(


Cheers

[Matt_300tdi90]

Sounds like you've got the blue screen of death. Is the computer overheating? that might cause the problem.

[Mseries3]

Have you got some spare IDE cables? Try swapping them over... One of mine died some how and it took me forever to work out what it was :rolleyes:

[toppa]

Sounds like you've got the blue screen of death. Is the computer overheating? that might cause the problem.

mmm dont know, both fans are working as they should, and dont seem to be running any longer than normal.... will open it up tomorrow and have a wee look inside double check though


Cheers

[Satancom]

Lappy, desktop? Have you tried booting into safe mode as this can sometimes cure problems?

[toppa]

Have you got some spare IDE cables? Try swapping them over... One of mine died some how and it took me forever to work out what it was :rolleyes:


Lappy, desktop? Have you tried booting into safe mode as this can sometimes cure problems?


IDE cables, errrm enlighten me please, im not too computer literate im afraid :(

It is the pc in the truck, so mini mother board and lappy hard drive, so a lappy for the sake or argument i think :)


Cheers

[Satancom]

Hmm as its your car pc it could be something has worked loose, including the IDE cables (hard drive to mother board. If the hard drive plugs into a socket check its snug.

May be worth removing the ram and re-seating it, along with the processor and such. Easiest way to rule out a bad connection :)

[toppa]

Hmm as its your car pc it could be something has worked loose, including the IDE cables (hard drive to mother board. If the hard drive plugs into a socket check its snug.

May be worth removing the ram and re-seating it, along with the processor and such. Easiest way to rule out a bad connection :)

removing the ram i can do :)

i will whip it out tomorrow and open it up, yeas there is cables in there connecting the hard drive to mother board, etc, so will check all those,


It keeps telling me there is updates available for it, which in itself it amazing as it is not on line, so how it know i do not know, but is it worth me getting it plugged in and getting any updates it feels the need to download?


CHeers

[Satancom]

Yeah probably worth doing the updates for it :) Shouldn't hurt, all the dodgey updates have been fixed with further updates. So if you get it up to date now you should be fine... That sounded really confusing!

[toppa]

Yeah probably worth doing the updates for it :) Shouldn't hurt, all the dodgey updates have been fixed with further updates. So if you get it up to date now you should be fine... That sounded really confusing!

Lol, your telling me :D


I will get it out tomorrow and get it done, im off to work in a min so cant do it tonight, worst case i can throw the spare one in for the time being and play around with this one when i get the time...

Cheers

[educationalist]

All blue screen tech notes starting with STOP: 0x00000000F4 refer to a physical memory address. Microsoft tech notes informs that this code means the physical address has been interrupted and altered by malicious code.

For none techies this means your system had been physically altered by either Spyware or a virus (malicious code), if you have anti spyware installed run it now, if not download Ad Aware a very good free one here

http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php (http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php)
running this may sort out your problem delete any spyware that it finds
If it is a virus run a virus scan and see what it comes up with. My advice is back up anything you can not afford to loose now as these problems tend to get worse unless they are fixed.

[Lighting90]

While your fans may be working fine, do you have enough air space around the machine to allow it to remove the hot air properly... that is an easy check as you just need to run it when it is not in your vehicle...

To check overheating, just start up and go into your BIOS, most have the temp's displayed in there...

The other possible problem might be that the hard drive has had a problem due to a sudden vibration which it could not cope with while trying to write to the disk. Do as James suggested and try booting up in safe mode, and see if you can run everything okay, if so, run scan disk/defrag and see if it finds any errors...

[biosbill]

my 2 pence worth;

Sounds very RAM to me! Most of the BSOD's ive ever had have been down to faults with the ram...if its got two sticks, try taking one out for a bit and seeing if it does it, then do the same with the other..thats the quickest way ive found to test them...you can sometimes try and make it bsod quicker by opening loads of programes and I think theres a RAM tester that I used to use. (memtest?)

As all above; check connections..but id go with RAM, easilly damaged by spikes etc too!

biosbill

[Satancom]

And if it is ram drop me a PM before you buy any ;)

[educationalist]

I am still going with malicious code; the script written on a blue screen is stored in Dr Watson and sent back to Microsoft if you have report enabled, you can also read the log in event view STOP: 0x00000000F4 followed by the memory address line refers to a physical memory address that has been overwritten by malicious code.

The reason that the script appears on the blue screen is to give system anaylist the information what went wrong.

Try to examine the system and application error logs in event viewer for recent errors that might give you further clues to what went wrong. To do this, launch EventVwr.msc from a Run box; or open Administrative Tools in the Control Panel, then launch Event Viewer, search for errors and then Google for answers.

[educationalist]

Sorry i forgot to add when running EventVwr.msc from a run box when the logs have loaded look for a yellow warning box in the list of logs, these usually indicate wher the problem file is and often give a http address that gives further information and help

[toppa]

thanks fro all the replies, i will try to get it out tomorrow and give it all a go,

not sure it can be a virus etc as the pc does not have an internet connection, well a live one anyway, and everything that has been added on there has also been added on my lappy which is running fine...

the last time the pc was on the internet was about 6 months ago, so unless the virus etc has sat dormant for sometime??

will try the other things when i get it out...

From memory it only has one 1gig stick of ram in there, but will confirm when i open it up...

CHeers

[Esqulax]

Its all been said really :)
Make sure all your cables and cards are plugged in properly, cos the BSoD is most likely a hardware issue, seeing as its not been connected to the internet for so long

[educationalist]

the last time the pc was on the internet was about 6 months ago, so unless the virus etc has sat dormant for sometime??


CHeers

Theres the rub though, Virus and Trojans can sit on your machine for months just waiting for a trigger to activate them, JPEG images can also have maicious code embeded in them and sadly Norton and Mcaffe and many others are not sufficently powerfull to stop all attacks, that is why every month Microsoft realese thier owm malicious code zapper! in thier update downloads.
I use a copy symantec corporate edition which is a little more powerfull than the retail anti virus programes

[Matt_300tdi90]

Theres the rub though, Virus and Trojans can sit on your machine for months just waiting for a trigger to activate them, JPEG images can also have maicious code embeded in them and sadly Norton and Mcaffe and many others are not sufficently powerfull to stop all attacks, that is why every month Microsoft realese thier owm malicious code zapper! in thier update downloads.
I use a copy symantec corporate edition which is a little more powerfull than the retail anti virus programes

Yes, malware can sit dormant until you meet the conditions for it to start like opening a certain program or it just activates at a certain date. Even with the latest anti virus software, there is nothing to stop your computer from getting a virus that hasn't yet been caught by an anti virus company. They reverse engineer the virus and then a fix can be made to prevent it causing any damage, that is why it is important to keep anti virus upto date. Not say that you don't ;)

[toppa]

right puter on table in front of me and all up and running, lets try a few of these things :D

Cheers

[toppa]

Sorry i forgot to add when running EventVwr.msc from a run box when the logs have loaded look for a yellow warning box in the list of logs, these usually indicate wher the problem file is and often give a http address that gives further information and help

ran this and there is quite a few erors and warnings come up yesterday, and over the last few days since the problem started,

"Service control manager" occurs regularly
"Net BT" a couple of times

warning "BTHUSB" once or twice

that is all the warnings and errors, i assume net bt is looking for the internet, as that is the provider i am with and this machine has used in the past to gon on line?


Cheers

[toppa]

now the damn thing wont connect to the internet,

all the connections are connected and showing up in the task bar as connected :(

[toppa]

well it has been running on the table with no problem for an hour or so, although it will not conect to the interenet,....

so weird :(


Cheers

[Lighting90]

It could point to an issue with over heating, not enough air flow to assist with keeping certain parts cool... or even just moving it has been enough to put back in place the problem conenction...

With regards to your internet connection, try connecting with no other computer running... just inc ase you are getting some for of conflict...

[educationalist]

although it will not conect to the interenet,....


Type cmd in your run box and click OK them at the command prompt type ipconfig /all and press enter, this will display a lot of information. If it scrolls off the top you may need to enlarge the window.
Check that you have this information listed
IP address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, and Name Servers. You could write them down for reference if you wish. Type exit to close the window.
Now open control panel and double click Network Connections. You may have several network connections in this window. right click on the one you use to connect to the internet and chose properties then click Internet Protocol(TCP/IP) and then the Properties button in the box that pops up, now check that the Obtain an IP address automatically is checked if not enable it. Click OK and then see if you can connect to the internet. If you can not go back to your network connections box and un tick the Obtain an IP address automatically box then type in the numbers you wrote down for the IP address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway in the boxes, now try and connect again.

[toppa]

Type cmd in your run box and click OK them at the command prompt type ipconfig /all and press enter, this will display a lot of information. If it scrolls off the top you may need to enlarge the window.
Check that you have this information listed
IP address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, and Name Servers. You could write them down for reference if you wish. Type exit to close the window.
Now open control panel and double click Network Connections. You may have several network connections in this window. right click on the one you use to connect to the internet and chose properties then click Internet Protocol(TCP/IP) and then the Properties button in the box that pops up, now check that the Obtain an IP address automatically is checked if not enable it. Click OK and then see if you can connect to the internet. If you can not go back to your network connections box and un tick the Obtain an IP address automatically box then type in the numbers you wrote down for the IP address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway in the boxes, now try and connect again.

tried a ping and ipconfig earlier and it bought up errors, so something is really not right :(


May format the machine and start again, just a pain to have tyo back up all the info on there :(

[toppa]

ipconfig i get this message...

"Windows ip configuration
An internal error occurred . the request is not reconised.
Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services for further help./

Additional info, unable to query host name. "


so something has really gone south somewhere :(

[educationalist]

ipconfig i get this message...



after you type cmd in the run box, and press ok, are you typing
ipconfig /all
exactly as it is typed above at the command promt. If so and you still recieve that message try resetting your sytem back to a time you know everything worked fine by using the sytem restore feature. Found in programs, accessories, system tools.

[toppa]

after you type cmd in the run box, and press ok, are you typing
ipconfig /all
exactly as it is typed above at the command promt. If so and you still recieve that message try resetting your sytem back to a time you know everything worked fine by using the sytem restore feature. Found in programs, accessories, system tools.


Yes i was typing as it appears,

never thought to system restore, will try that now...


Cheers

[shifty]

Yes i was typing as it appears,

never thought to system restore, will try that now...


Cheers

Regarding the general condition of the pc...if I were repairing it I would be checking the seating of the components..particularly the ram. The biggest clue here is the beeps upon startup. Tell us what they do. If there is more than one beep you can trace that code and find out exatcly what the problem is.

As for your internet connection..search in google for IPV6. if you have done any updates this could have been installed and it doesnt like all pcs....especially custom made beauties with other than microsofts favourite configuration.

[toppa]

Just plugged it in and there is only one beep on start up...

I have been installing stuff onto the other pc, which is the same except only has 512mb ram where the one crashing has 1gig ram...

Cheers

[Newsreader]

Re the net connection issue, try pinging the network card (ping 127.0.0.1) - if it fails check the status of the network card and drivers in Device Manager, if all is ok there, see if reseating the network card makes any difference. if not you may have a duff network card.