Dreaded BSOD! Help please!

madmum33

I keep getting the blue screen of death, the first time when I shut down two days ago. Yesterday I managed to start up by going to last safe configeration, but it crashed again on shut down last night.
System:
Windows XP Home SP2
Evesham AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 2.19 Ghz, 512 Mb Ram

The first error message was:

STOP: 0X00000074 (0X00000003, 0X00000002, 0X80087000, 0XC000014C)

No other info, except suggesting I should disable BIOS memory options (no idea how to do this!)

This morning I got the same message on startup, restarted in safe mode and while backing up all the files I hadn't backed up previously (fortunately only a small number) it crashed again with this error message:

STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xBF837895,0xF7FFEA6C, 0x00000000) win32k.sys - address BF837895 base at BF800000, Datestamp 45f013f6

When I restarted again it booted normally.

Any ideas?

Thanks for any advice you can give!

foreversomeday

How old is the computer?

madmum33

About four years old.

wakandem

It is good you have backed up. 1st impression is, the hard drive is failing though it could be a multitude of things. If it is the hard drive it will be intermittant for a bit then it will fail completely. A new drive is less than £50 delivered & with the restore disks you will be able to set up the pc as it was when it was bought. You will need to reinstall all your progs & printers etc so have disks ready.

Pressing F2 or DEL on start up will take you to the bios though it unlikely these have changed settings by themselves.

There is a 'safe configeration' or 'default' setting in the bios which you could try buty that may just make it run slower and you will need a record of all the old values & settings in the bios to return it to normal, so unless confident don't

madmum33

Thanks, I thought this might be fatal I'd better start searching for all my discs!!!!

wakandem

You have backed up to a seperate item such as cd - usb stick - portable hard drive? If not, do it

madmum33

Yes, backed up to an external hard drive. Just looking for a more thorough back up, to include more programmes etc. - I have Norton Ghost installed, think that would work?

BillScarab

Ghost is ideal, create an image of your entire hard drive on the external drive. Then if you do replace the hard drive you can just restore form the image. Having said that a clean install does get rid of a lot of crud so make sure you have all of your docs and photos backed up spearately in case youd ecide to go down that route.

Can you hear any unusual noises form the PC? If it is a failing hard drive they often become noisier and start making grinding type noises.

wakandem

Certainly have a go with norton ghost but i hav'nt used it for yrs so can't really advise with reinstalling to a new hard drive with it. sure someone on here can help
I generally reinstall all the progs mannually ( with the disks ) and that means all the old progs i havn't used for ages and general crap that has accumulated over the years is removed

madmum33

Bill, no strange noises at all, everything seems OK. Could it be the RAM rather than the hard disk?

Good point about the clean install getting rid of all the crud, I'll stick to a manual reinstall if it comes to that.

I'm going to try a disk scan (Norton disk doctor) and see what that finds, but it only works on startup and I'm worried it will speed up the demise. Backing up emails and bookmarks now (something I usually forget about!).

wakandem

bill is right that there is normally noise assosiated with hdd failure but you will only hear it when there is a problem like bsod. Other clues can be intermittent slow response to opening/moving files and opening windows, bad start ups that want you go into safe mode.
it could be the ram but i very rarely come accross that . Possible motherboard problem is more likely, clues being excessive heat & heat evidence on components & sudden shutdown. Are the fans clear of dust?