Win xp constantly crashing HELP

[walkon40]

Hi guys, I'm at a loss. Both my pc and my laptop (the latter only 5 weeks old) are increasingly crashing, showing me the blue screen/dump of physical memory/etc. The pc went down to the local pc shop which couldn't solve the problem, and the laptop, as said only a few weeks old, is now developing the same behaviour. Sometimes the blue screen tells me that there is a conflict of software, sometimes sth not recognisable.

I run Win XP home edition, office applications, Norton INternet security, etc. I have BT broadband connection, if that is of any use here.

thanks for your help, and no, I am not a techi, so whatever you come up with, have mercy

 

[Ghodmode]

The cause of problems like this on Windows can often be an unsolvable mystery. (That's why I've switched to a stable OS )

The first thing you should do is go to Windows Update and get all of the patches.

If you are still having problems after updating everything, this is where it gets difficult...

The following can be very frustrating and time consuming and you could end up breaking your OS after all. If you have your Windows XP installation disks and a valid license (or a really effective crack), you may find it easier and more fun to format your hard drive and re-install the operating system. Don't forget to back up your email and favorites

You need to try see if you can reproduce the circumstances leading to the crash. Since the same thing is happening to you on two computers, it seems likely that it's related to an application you use. See if you can remember what you did right before the system crashed. Is it always the same thing?

Try seeing what's running. One of the programs might be causing the problem, or two of them might be having a conflict. Use Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up the Task Manager and click on the Processes tab. You may recognize some of the listed processes, but you probably won't recognize most of them. Write down the ones you don't recognize and type them into a search engine to find out what they are.

For example, on my WinXP VM, I have wdfmgr.exe running. I don't know what it is, so I type it into Google and the first result tells me that it's part of Windows Media Player 10.

If there's anything you discover that's running which you don't need, select it and click the "End Process" button. You might get a warning message, but the worst thing that could happen is that you'll have to reboot. All of these processes will start the next time you start your computer. This is just troubleshooting.

So, after you've ended one or more processes, continue using your computer... play some games, watch some movies, surf a while. If there's no crash, you've fixed your computer... until you reboot

Next, I'll tell you how to stop it from running in the first place. All of the following is at your own risk...

There are a few places to look for programs that start when your computer starts and I don't know all of them, just a few:
[ul]
[li]Start -> Control Panel (Switch to Classic View) -> Administrative Tools -> Services
If you don't know what it is, don't stop it.
If you have decided to stop it, don't forget to set the Startup Type to Manual or Disabled[/li]
[li]Start -> Run: regedit
The important keys (that I know about) are:
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Run
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/RunOnce
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/RunOnceExe
HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Run
HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/RunOnce

HKLM = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
HKCU = HKEY_CURRENT_USER

If you make changes in the registry, you could seriously screw up your machine and you might not even know it until you reboot![/li]
[li]Startup folder. Program installers like to put stuff here without telling you. Right-click on your Start button and click Explore. Look for your Startup folder, but also look for the Startup folder under the All Users folder.
It's probably not dangerous to make changes here, but I won't make any guarantees [/li]
[li]WIN.INI is a text file in your WINDOWS directory that probably only exists for backwards compatibility with old versions of Windows. Look for a line that starts run= and another one that starts load=. They might not be there.[/li]
[/ul]

--
-- Ghodmode

 

[BadBigBen]

I would suggest first you get into the BIOS Setup, Load DEFAULT VALUES (F5 usually), then Turn off both Virus Checking and SMART Monitoring in the BIOS... Exit and Save...

this will reset MEM Timings and other stuff back to Factory Default...

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Place your WinXP CD into the appropriate CD-ROM, then type in a RUNBOX the Following: SFC /SCANNOW and hit return

This will check your SYSTEM FILES for Corruption or Deletion, and replace them...

Then I would suggest you RUN a Full AntiViral Scan, ie. TrendMicro ONLINE aswell as LOCAL...

Then I would also suggest the use of the following AntiSpyware programms and do a full scan aswell: SpyBot S&D, AdAware and MS AntiSpyware...

I would also get a hold of EWIDO AntiMalware (

http://www.ewido.net)

and run full scan aswell...

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if the above does not help any, then I would suggest a Repair Install...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."