Win XP crashes randomly

[yalamo]

Ever since I gor my Win XP Home PC, it's beem rebootong randomly, about once a day or once every two days. If I follow the Microsoft Crash Analysis, it says the problem is a device driver. I don't think so, since device manager says that all my drivers are OK. I uninstalled the only peripheral and driver that was working when the problem started (a webcam, about two days after I got the computer), but that didn't help.

It has 256MB RAM, and I changed the RAM to a new one (the old RAM tested good anyway on the Microsoft RAM diagnostic), but that didn't help. The problem is truly random, and can occur with no applications running (the PC may be in standby) or with applications running. I don't have a virus or adware, at least from the scans I've done.

Looking at the event viewer, it says "System Error" Category (102) and Event 1003, with a description "Error code 0000000a, parameter1 000000e8, parameter2 00000002, parameter3 00000001, parameter4 806bb896"

Does any body know what this means, and how to fix the problem?

 

[Marcs41]

Driver, almost 90% sure of it.
Device Manager can only 'think' it is ok, but that does not mean it is in certain combinations.

If you had this for all that time, I would suggest to backup your data and re-install the whole PC.
It will take you a few hours, but after that you should be ok.
I know it is not fun to re-install, but sometimes, with random errors and crashes, finding the reason is more trouble then it is worth.

Marc
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[yalamo]

I am continuing this thread because I think that I have solved my problem, but the solution was kind of strange, so I am sharing with you.

It's now over 130 hours since the last random reboot, so I think that the problem has been solved. According to statistics from Event Viewer, the median time between reboots over the previous 2 months was 5.5 hours. I decided to try a non-invasive procedure first: no reinstall or driver uninstall or software change.

I simply tried removing my peripherals one by one to see if it made any difference - 1st printer, then (USB) webcam, then (USB) scanner. The random reboots continued. Finally, I disconnected the cable modem from its USB port. For 30 hours, I had no random reboots. When I reconnected the cable modem, but still did not connect to my ISP, I started getting them again.

It then occurred to me that as far as I could remember, all the random reboots had occurred when I was offline. (My connection to the ISP was turned off, but the cable modem, and the cable company, were still connected - I couldn't get on the web, but I could still get to the cable company's home page.)

So for the last 130 hours, I have left my PC online, and it hasn't rebooted once.

If anyone can explain this strange behavior, I would be grateful. BTW, I have a Daewoo Cruiser XCM-2300 cable modem, and I can't find any driver updates on the web.

 

[fanghua]

it might also be some kind of USB port problem. Sometimes, even u have 4 USB ports, they are actually two. Two of them might share resources.

I had a very similar problem. My solution was only leave one USB port connected, and connnect scanner, webcam, etc when i need to use it.

Also, if you think it might be the USB problem, you want to check bios to see if usb 2.0 is enabled and if ur device use usb 2. USB support for a lot of motherboard has been enhenced and fixed by Windows XP SP1