Windows XP keeps crashing and rebooting itself!

skodaseven

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Aug 11, 2010
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Hi! I have Windows XP home edition, 2002 version, with service pack 3. My machine uses an AMD athlong 64, 4000+ (2.41 Ghz) with 3GB ram. My machine crashes and reboots itself regularly, though it has run for 2 weeks without crashing at certain times. I have used 'Who Crashes' and the report for the crashes, which are all identical, is as follows:
On Wed 11/08/2010 13:27:28 your computer crashed
This was likely caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe
Bugcheck code: 0x9C (0x4, 0x80546E70, 0xB2000000, 0x70F0F)
Error: MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION
Dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini081110-02.dmp
file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect, possibly the culprit is in another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.

My XP was a clean install on a new hard drive. If you know how this can be resolved please help. I run Linux on the same machine (swapable hard drives), and it doesn't crash. Thanks in advance!
 
Let the system tell you what the error is.

Start computer, poke the F8 key once per second until the Windows boot choices screen appears. Use cursor keys and select prevent computer from restarting on error.

press enter, select your XP install to boot and when it crashes this time there will be a blue screen of death that won't go away.

There will be a "Stop" error that includes a description of the error and a lot of numbers.

Record the error message including the numbers.

Come back with that info.
 

skodaseven

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Aug 11, 2010
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Hi again. The computer is still restarting after it crashes. I have used the F8 menu to select 'prevent the computer from restarting' twice but it has still rebooted both times. I have looked in the Windows Minidump folder, but they are all dmp files which I can't open. Any advice?
 
Remove power cord.

Take the cover off the machine.

Make a map of where all the plug-in boards are located.

Remove all plug-in boards except video.

Remove all USB devices except mouse & keyboard.

Restart.

If it restarts, even in safe mode, go to:

Start>Settings>control Panel>System>advanced>Startup & Recovery (Settings)>System failure>

Uncheck all except "Write an event to the system log."

In the drop-down box labeled "Write debugging information" make it None.

Click OK.

Shut down normally.

Try restart normally, if previous start was into safe mode. If Ok, allow windows to complete start up sequences.

Shut down normally. if previous start was into safe mode.

If previous start was normal,

Replace in any one plug-in board, back where it was originally.

Try restart normally, if Ok, allow windows to complete start up sequences.

Repeat until a board causes crash.

This time machine should not restart. Error codes on screen, but you'll know the card that crashed.
Re-install it's driver, even with board removed. Re-try start normally.

If none of the above works, try removing a memory module, swap modules, etc. May be bad memory.

 

skodaseven

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Aug 11, 2010
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Thanks I will try that. Might take a while as I want my other PC ready in case I balls this one up! I may also try reinstalling the nvidia video driver, too, as I have heard they can cause crashing. I'll post here afterwards. Thanks again.