Error Message

Terrysdelight

Hi

My computer has crashed a few times - blue screen with white writing. The technical information is as follows:


Stop: 0x0000008E (0x0000005, 0xBF848990, 0xA8ABCAE4, 0x00000000)

Win32k.Sys.Address BF848990, base at BF800000, Datestamp 513154eo

Beginning dump of physical memory.


Can anyone talk me through step by step of what I have to do?

I'm guessing I have too much stuff on computer and need to delete lots to make space.

Many thanks for some help.

Humphrey10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death

I doubt it has anything to do with the amount of data on the hard drive.

What operating system and which version are you using? I don't know enough about computers to be able to help, but I think people would need to know the operating system to be able to help.

Terrysdelight

Thanks.

I believe it's windows XP - is anyone able to help?

Many thanks.

closed

unless the disk is completely full, it's unlikely to be space related http://www.snapfiles.com/get/wiztree.html, blue screens are usually bugs, eg

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/834450

Suggest you backup to an external drive, and make a rescue cd, http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx , run chkdsk c: /R, check you have the latest service pack (sp3 for xp, your previous hijackthis logs said vista?), and familiarise yourself on how to reinstall windows if it continues

phona

Blue screen errors are usually driver issues or the first symptoms of hard disk or memory failure.

A driver is a small piece of software that allows Windows to communicate with hardware. Have you installed any new hardware recently? This could be the problem. You can check for updated driver software in Device Manager (in Control Panel somewhere - been a while since I used XP).

Your computer may be able to run an automatic check of hard disk and memory (by memory we mean RAM). This would be done at start-up. When you switch it on you press a button (esc or one of the f key ie f1-f12) and look for memory test, hard disk test etc. Not all manufacturers include this and the key to access it is non-standard unfortunately.

If you can do the drivers and self-tests and don't find anything amiss.. at least we've ruled some things out!

nickcc

Used to get the same message and blue screen with Win 7, no matter what I did I couldn't cure it so changed OP system to Win 8 and had no problems since ( except not liking Win 8 ).

phona

nickcc wrote: »

Used to get the same message and blue screen with Win 7, no matter what I did I couldn't cure it so changed OP system to Win 8 and had no problems since ( except not liking Win 8 ).

Using a whole new operating system is a bit of an over-reaction!
You raise a good point though, your problem must have been a software issue somewhere and by installing Windows 8 you fixed it. You could (probably) have achieved the same result by re-installing Windows 7.

In the OP's case, if you're comfortable doing it and have somewhere you can copy all your data (office documents, music, photos etc) like an external hard drive for example, then re-installing XP would either solve the problem or point pretty conclusively to a hardware issue. There may also be way to reset your whole computer to factory settings, which would have a similar effect.

[Slightly off-topic: if we're talking about forking out for a new OS such as Windows 8 on this MoneySaving site, I feel quite obliged to mention Linux!]

nickcc

phona wrote: »

Using a whole new operating system is a bit of an over-reaction!
You raise a good point though, your problem must have been a software issue somewhere and by installing Windows 8 you fixed it. You could (probably) have achieved the same result by re-installing Windows 7.

In the OP's case, if you're comfortable doing it and have somewhere you can copy all your data (office documents, music, photos etc) like an external hard drive for example, then re-installing XP would either solve the problem or point pretty conclusively to a hardware issue. There may also be way to reset your whole computer to factory settings, which would have a similar effect.

[Slightly off-topic: if we're talking about forking out for a new OS such as Windows 8 on this MoneySaving site, I feel quite obliged to mention Linux!]

My Windows 7 was the version before any service packs and I found having to remove all the service pack updates I'd installed and then having to download again too much of a pain so I opted for the £25 upgrade (or not ) to Win 8.

Terrysdelight

closed wrote: »

unless the disk is completely full, it's unlikely to be space related http://www.snapfiles.com/get/wiztree.html, blue screens are usually bugs, eg

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/834450

Suggest you backup to an external drive, and make a rescue cd, http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx , run chkdsk c: /R, check you have the latest service pack (sp3 for xp, your previous hijackthis logs said vista?), and familiarise yourself on how to reinstall windows if it continues

Thanks Closed. I think I'm XP, and I think my son's old laptop is Vista - I've definitely posted a few times re his laptop.

Can you remind me how I can find out what my operating system is, then tomorrow I will follow out your instructions. Also, the error message did say something about drivers.

I did add some software for a printer, so perhaps this has caused an issue.

Many thanks

closed

right click on my computer, properties.

Gillor

Terrysdelight wrote: »

My computer has crashed a few times - blue screen with white writing.....

Try:

http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

Whocrashed will read and analyse the memory dump files and point you in the direction of the problem. Not always successful but has helped me out on a number of occasions.