The system is a custom built gaming rig from 2 years ago.
4GB ram AMD Athlon 4600 X2 processor 1.8TB of total disk space, 1.2 open (between 5 harddrives and 6 partitions) nvidia 8500 GT video card running on XP Pro and Media center edition
When i boot to Pro it either never gets away from the welcome screen or goes to the desktop and doesn't load icons before BSODing. First time runnig MCE in a few years and it worked for about 10 minutes before blue screening again.
so I ask all of you, how can I see what the problem is then fix it?
What does the BSOD say? If it is rebooting before you can read it, go into safe mode. Before the graphical part of the windows startup, if you hit F8 you can choose 'safe mode'. When in safe mode, right click my computer, goto properties. goto the Advanced tab, click the Settings button in the Startup and Recovery section. Uncheck the box that says 'Automatically restart' (it's about half way down). Restart again and write down the message from the BSOD when it happens next.
The info the blue screen shows should hopefully give us some direction on what piece to look at.
A problem has been detected and Windows has been shit down to prevent damage to your computer.
MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION
if this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properlu installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any Windows updates you might need.
If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options and then select Safe Mode
Yuck. Interestingly, this is the 4th one of these I've seen this week; I have to wonder if one of the new patches is causing these . . .or if it's solar flares.
In any case, a machine check exception (that's the 0x0000009c) part is usually caused by hardware. Often bad ram, though it could be a driver that isn't working right with another piece of hardware. It could be a pain hunting this down, I'd probably start by grabbing memtest86 and running it for a few passes to see if it complains (if you have any of the recent linux distributions, you should be able to run memtest at the first boot. If you get a linux prompt, just type 'memtest'). You can get a memtest86 iso from here: memtest.org. Hopefully the machine you are on now has a burner.
You may want to crack the case and just take a look around while it's running and see if there's any fans not spinning.
It's even possibly it's your power supply not pumping out enough juice; but that sure is a pain to test if you don't have an extra known-good one laying around.
the only recent change is that it's no longer running 24/7, 2 GB of ram installed a few months ago and the bearings in the northside buss fan are almost all gone so it makes a grinding noise when it turns on for about 5 minutes.
I'll blow it out with a can of air to see if that helps and remove one of the sticks of ram. but those results will have to wait because NOW my laptop's video drivers are fucked up and I need to fix those first.
well ive dealt with many of these before i reccomend going to device manager and update all your drivers this is usually the case otherwise format your hard drive or reinstall xp
goddamnit... no more 4 GB of ram for me. the stick that I origionally put in the conputer when I built it is the culprit. running for an hour and no BSOD.
Hm. 0xF4 is different. Are you using windows classic theme? (try changing it to another theme in safe mode if you have to . . that just seems like a weird thing to cause a bsod though).
This article seems more of a possibility. It's your exact error. Start by checking all your drive cables; I would pull them and reseat them. Maybe one of them was bumped a little loose when you were checking stuff. What kind of drives are in the system (if PATA, how are they jumpered?).
Did you run memtest yet on the stick of ram you do have in the system? How long did it take for it to BSOD, I'm assuming longer this time. Were you doing anything in particular when the blue screen happened; is it repeatable?
Not yet, the current solar cycle reaches its climax in 2012 (no joke), we'll experience power & telecom outages then.
0x000000F4: CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION One of the many processes or threads crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated. As a result, the system can no longer function. Specific causes are many, and often best resolved by a careful history of the problem and the circumstances of the error message. One user, who experienced this on return from Standby mode on Win XP SP2, found the cause was that Windows was installed on a slave drive; compare
A computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP or a later operating system stops responding during resume from standby, and you receive the following KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR stop error message: 0x0000007a (e163a3e4,c000000e,bf8e9313,0697f860) or 0x000000F4 (0x00000003, Parameter2, Parameter3, Parameter4) Note Parameter2, Parameter3, and Parameter4 in the stop error may vary.
This problem occurs on a computer in which Windows XP or a later operating system is installed on a hard disk that is configured as a subordinate and no other device is connected to the same IDE controller channel (primary or secondary).
no classic and no slave drive. it's on a second partition on the primary hard drive. but at the same time the MCE is on that same HDD at the first partition. I'll recheck the cables for all connections and replace a different stick of ram. the computer still takes about 15 min to boot to XP Pro
I'd do it in Windows recovery mode, by popping in an XP disc and selecting recovery mode. Doing it on the C partition is usually not possible in windows. especially with the /X parameter which forces the partition to be unmounted.
Have you thought about at trying to run Linux on it for a hour or so, or partition and try vista, and see if its xp causing it. I mention this only because you said that you think it might be a xp patch, if you simply try like running Ubuntu live off of the cd, and it still happens then it has to be a hardware issue some were.
tried to run it with the media center partition i've got but it didn't work. my guess is that it's a Pro/home thing, not MCE. so I ran the scandisk through the hard drive tools and it's looking like the hard drive is fine.
Right click on "My Computer" Click "Manage" Click on "Event Viewer" Then click "Application" Look for an Entry called 'winlogon' - this should have the result of the Scandisk in it.
