startup problem with Win XP Home

[kausikdatta]

Of late, I have started having a boot-time problem with my laptop that runs win XP home on a AMD Athlon XP 1800+ machine with 768 megs of RAM. Sometimes the computer gets stuck at booting, and I have to power off and power on again; sometimes it starts up normally. But in both cases it gives me the error reporting message that "the system has recovered from a serious error", and the error message says: "problems were found in the following:
C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini121803-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~2\Owner\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER2.tmp.dir00\sysdata.xml"

Upon reporting the error, the Microsoft online crash analysis says that this problem is due to a device driver failing, but they cannot specify the device driver.

Is there anyone who can help?

 

[bcastner]

The dump file may not make a great deal of sense to you, but the faulty device driver will be indicated.

Similarly, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer should have a system event in something vaguely like english to indicate the device driver name.

You could run the MS device driver verification tool:

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp&NoWebContent=1

 

[linney]

Does this apply?

This behavior may occur if the driver installed for the video adapter is the incorrect version.

318023 - Computer Stops or Continually Restarts With ATI RADEON Video Adapter

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;318023&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

 

[kausikdatta]

Thanks very much, guys, for replying. But I am in the same bind. I think my problem started when I downloaded the latest ATI driver from the Windows Update website. This driver is (of course) digitally signed by Microsoft's driver verification system, so I am hesitant to roll it back. However, upon reaching the ATI website from the MS KB article suggested by Linney, I found that ATI does not provide drivers or support for their Mobility series of ATI RADEON chipsets that they equip the Notebooks with. I guess my best option would be a roll-back eventually...

 

[NJcow]

I was going to suggest the saem idea with video adapters. I had similar prob on a dell laptop with nvidia g05200. Updated driver and all was well.

 

[SYAR2003]

kausikdatta !
I never load drivers from windows update .
If i did that my system would be relly screwed.(i think).

I'm not sure that applies for you ,but i have an example.

After installing nvidias latest chipset driver pack
for nforce (video,sound,chipset,lan etc,)
Version: 3.13
Release Date: November 3, 2003
U.S. English
File Size: 12.9 MB
WHQL Certified

Windows update still insists to offer me older drivers
even today .
Just tested it offers sound drivers September 08 2003
and display driver October 06 2003 .
And the descriptions is poor .

As this 3.13 is a bundled pack with drivers related to eachother how would the pc be if exchanging individual drivers .(thank you not for me)

Always go to the chipset manufacturer ,or
the manufacturer of the device in question.
Thats my motto , and seems that it has payed off this far.

syar

 

[kausikdatta]

Thank you, NJcow and Syar, for your inputs. I would bear in mind, never to download drivers from windows update. It is just that I never had any problem till this one... ATI, as I said, is not offering any support, so I don't really know how to get that driver from somewhere.

Take care all, and have a good Holiday.

 

[linney]

If in the past if you have used a driver that worked with your system and now your updated driver is causing problems, then the obvious solution is to rollback to the driver that worked.

306546 - HOW TO: Use the Driver Roll Back Feature to Restore a Previous Version of a Device Driver in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306546&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

You Receive a "System Has Recovered from a Serious Error" Message After Every Restart (Q317277)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q317/2/77.asp