[Shandrakor]

Howdy. Normally, I can troubleshoot my PC problems myself...okay, my 'solution' is to reformat my hard drive, which usually fixes the problem.

However, starting about a week ago I've been getting Blue Screens of Death seemingly at random. I didn't change any of my settings or software, so I figured 'Hey -- time to reformat'. So 4 days ago I reformatted & reinstalled XP.

Everything was going fine, then -- BAM! Blue Screen of Death. Exception caused by unknown device driver. Most peculiar, methinks. So I reformatted and reinstalled again; things are fine for a few hours, then the BSoD rears it's ugly head. The really annoying thing is that ever since the first few incidences, the computer restarts itself before I have a chance to read the BSoD text.

This stinks. So, I activate Windows Update. My PC downloads and begins installing SP2, when suddenly the BSoD appears. Now, after it restarts, Windows won't load. I think "Hmm.... It appears to have selected a really bad time to decide to stop things". My guess was that it's stuck somewhere with a half-updated file, and I don't feel like fiddling with it. So I reformat.

At this point, I've reformatted 3 times in 4 days. And the BSoD appears again. Rage!

Whatever is wrong appears to also be randomly causing things to shut down. Firefox shuts down regularly (and refused to start for awhile), and sometimes after a shut-down-and-restart cycle (PC-initiated, probably involving a BSoD) doesn't provide any data as to what went wrong, usually forgetting to mention that it's just recovered from a serious error.

At this point, I was under the impression that it wasn't a software problem. And then I get this...

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/response...2e0b2ae&SID=10

Now, for about the past month my PC's been saying my ethernet connection is unplugged, when I'm well aware that nothing of the sort is eventuating.

When I try to install games they fail to complete installation, usually blaming a corrupt cab file.

I read in another BSoD thread about an "Event Manager"; how do I access this to gain more data about my problem? What information about my computer do you need to know?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Shandrakor

[Shandrakor]

Oh -- more fun news. My system has decided that I have 2 floppy drives, which simply isn't true. I've only got a CD/DVD RW +/_.

[Mak213]

Have you run a Chkdsk on your hard drive lately? It may be that you have a HDD issue. Other than that check to make sure you have the latest drivers for all your devices.

The information we need to know from the event viewer is the Stop Error. It usually looks like Stop 0x0000007E or something similar.

That way we can start to diagnose the issue and find out if it is software or hardware based.

[Shandrakor]

How do I gain access to the Event Viewer to find the Stop Error?

[Mak213]

Start>Run>Eventvwr.msc will get the Event Viewer up.

[Shandrakor]

Okay -- found the event viewer. There are quite a few entries in the Application, Security, and System Logs. Ctrl + A fails to select them all -- are there any ones in particular we're looking for?

Here's some data from the latest system error.

"Error code 1000008e, parameter1 c0000005, parameter2 8053a24a, parameter3 ac66fabc, parameter4 00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp."

As it happens, I haven't run a Chkdsk lately. How do I do that?

[Shandrakor]

Okay, I'm silly -- found it. Should I try to run a Chkdsk now?

[Mak213]

To run Chkdsk go into My Computer>right click on your hard drive>Properties>tools>error checking. You will have to restart for this to run on your XP Drive. But it will tell you if you have any errors on your drive and if so how many.

I will look into the error codes and see if i can come up with something.

[Mak213]

Error code 1000008e = "KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M" - Most of newsgroup comments about this error point to faulty hardware or drivers. The hardware varies from modems, video cards, USB device to memory or sound cards. Sometimes it proves to be hardware that it is not compatible with Windows XP. M310740 gives an example of this error occuring when and old Audigy sound card driver is installed.

[Shandrakor]

Okay. After running Chkdsk on both my HDDs, I've determined that they are clean and not the problem. So. That's one thing down.

A few other Error Messages (not counting 'Warnings' or 'Information' from the logs) :

System:
Generate Activation Context failed for C:\WINDOWS\RtlExUpd.dll. Reference error message: The operation completed successfully.

Syntax error in manifest or policy file "C:\WINDOWS\RtlExUpd.dll" on line 3.

Initialization failed because the driver device could not be created.

Windows Setup encountered non-fatal errors during installation. Please check the setuperr.log found in your Windows directory for more information.

Application Errors:

Faulting application firefox.exe, version 1.8.20060.30804, faulting module firefox.exe, version 1.8.20060.30804, fault address 0x002a2d5d.

Faulting application iexplore.exe, version 6.0.2600.0, faulting module mshtml.dll, version 6.0.2600.0, fault address 0x000d7f86.

Product: Sid Meier's Pirates! -- Error 1335.The cabinet file 'Progra~1.cab' required for this installation is corrupt and cannot be used. This could indicate a network error, an error reading from the CD-ROM, or a problem with this package. (Repeats every time I try to install the game).

Faulting application firefox.exe, version 1.8.20060.42618, faulting module js3250.dll, version 4.0.0.0, fault address 0x00013c14.

Fault bucket 289780461.

Only 1 Security Failure:

IPSec Services: IPSec Services failed to get the complete list of network interfaces on the machine. This can be a potential security hazard to the machine since some of the network interfaces may not get the protection as desired by the applied IPSec filters. Please run IPSec monitor snap-in to further diagnose the problem.

The computer's parts are all newish; Asus A8N5X motherboard, Athlon 2800+ 64 X2 CPU....will the specs help you?

Thanks for all your assistance thus far, and I'll eagerly await anything you can do to help.

Shandrakor