PC shutting down - too quick to see error

[dn0]

Hey everyone-

  By brother brought me his problem PC to look at. Windows XP (notsure if SP2, can't get there yet)

It is AMD Athlon 950MHz - 256MB RAM.

When I fire it up, everything loads up fine, it will sit for a couple of minutes, then there's a quick blue death screen flash and it shuts down.

The other odd part, once it comes up, if I try to open anything, that instantly kills it.

The blue screen is much too quick to read.

It will run in safe mode, and I have ran multiple AV's and spyware scanners in safe mode, only 1 scumware prog found and fixed.

The hard drive chugs along pretty good after boot before the blue screen.

One more note, I ran the MicroSoft memory test (bootable disk downloaded from them) and that passed.

My main question, does WinXP log the blue screens o' death?

If so, where do I find that, maybe it will shed some light.

Any ideas will be appreciated.

edit: It is running SP 1, I'm sure I won't be able to update without it dying on me.

[Guest kamil234]

virus, no choice but to refragment, i had it before, it sucks, if you have a quick restore disk that brings your computer to the state it left the factory, it will get rid of it, i happened to me like 3 times before and i couldnt do nothing about it, reformat is the best and i believe the only way for it

P.s. also had SP1 when it happened

[cak46]

Have you tried booting into safe mode?  Hit F8 key as you start the machine.  A menu will appear and have a list of options to select from.  Select start in Safe mode.  If you are able to run for a while in safe mode, scan the system for adware, viruses, etc..  If you select safe mode with networking, you will be able to download scanners such as ad-aware, spybot, torjanhunter and anti-virus such as AVG or Avast if there are none on the machine.  Let us know.

[Guest kamil234]

Have you tried booting into safe mode?

[cak46]

Hey everyone-

By brother brought me his problem PC to look at. Windows XP (notsure if SP2, can't get there yet)

It is AMD Athlon 950MHz - 256MB RAM.

When I fire it up, everything loads up fine, it will sit for a couple of minutes, then there's a quick blue death screen flash and it shuts down.

The other odd part, once it comes up, if I try to open anything, that instantly kills it.

The blue screen is much too quick to read.

It will run in safe mode, and I have ran multiple AV's and spyware scanners in safe mode, only 1 scumware prog found and fixed.

The hard drive chugs along pretty good after boot before the blue screen.

One more note, I ran the MicroSoft memory test (bootable disk downloaded from them) and that passed.

My main question, does WinXP log the blue screens o' death?

If so, where do I find that, maybe it will shed some light.

Any ideas will be appreciated.

edit: It is running SP 1, I'm sure I won't be able to update without it dying on me.

Sorry, didn't mean to post my prior post.

There should be a log entry of some sort.

Your logs are available here: 

To open Event Viewer, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel. Click Performance and Maintenance, then click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management. Or, open the MMC containing the Event Viewer snap-in.

2. In the console tree, click Event Viewer.

The Application, Security, and System logs are displayed in the Event Viewer window.

Excerpted from : http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&sd=tech#XSLTH3126121122120121120120

And you can look up more info on errors here (have source of error and error id handy):

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/support/ee/search.aspx?DisplayName=Windows%20XP%20Professional&ProdName=Windows%20Operating%20System&MajorMinor=5.1&LCID=1033

[dn0]

Thanks for the advice and info everyone.

I am going to give these tips a shot a little bit later after the kid is in bed.

I am alone with my 2 yr old, and obviously he won't let me sit at the computer for more than 3 minutes.

[cak46]

when i had it, i tried it, same thing happened, as soon as windows loaded up the screen flashed and computer turned off

I've seen a faulty device driver do this as well.

[organ_shifter]

If you want to see what file/program is causing the problem, see if this helps.

Perform this in safe-mode:

1.) Right-click My Computer.

2.) Select the Advanced tab.

3.) Under Startup and Recovery, click the Settings button.

4.) Under Write debugging information, the first available option should be a drop down slot.

The default selection is normally set to "Small memory dump (64KB)".

5.) Change it to "Complete memory dump".

6.) Ok your way back to the desktop.

7.) Reboot the system in normal mode.

8.) When you get the blue screen of death, it will sit there long enough to see what file/program is causing the problem. Make a note of it and search for it in safe mode. That way you will be able to see what folder it's in.

Hope that helps out some.

[dn0]

Thanks,Organ_Shifter, that stopped the screen o' death long enough to get the info.

Now I need to figure out what the H it means.

0x0000008E (then dozens more in parenthesis)

edit: looks like a memory problem; I ran MSofts memory test the other day, and it passed repeatedly, hmm. I will troubleshoot memory modules later. I may try a whole different single stick. I'll report back; Thanks.

[organ_shifter]

Very welcome.

Sometimes, at the end if the blue screen, it tells you the exact file that caused the problem.

My hardware firewall was conflicting with a software one, and I kept getting the BSOD. I noticed the name of a certain .dll file in the report. I searched for it and the results showed the it was indeed within the Nvidia Network Access Manager folder.

I disabled the software firewall and everything was fine. Had I not seen the .dll file listed in the report, I would've been uninstalling lots of programs for nothing.

I hope your problem is something simple as well.

Good luck.

[dn0]

Still working on it (between entertaining my 2 year old).

Here is a snapshot of the blue death screen, in case it helps:

(sorry, it is a photo of the monitor, little blurry)

[php]

I think it's a memory error... I did some quick research and found this...

http://www.smartcomputing.com/techsupport/detail.aspx?guid=&ErrorID=21389

[dn0]

Thanks, php.

Looks like the fix is updating to SP2.

I will try updating in safe made tomorrow, getting a little late now.

If I start it, I know I'll be up until 3AM and regret it at work tomorrow.