Jose,
I'll try not to be girlish in my attempts to fix this problem.
The system info and BSOD data are below. There have been no hardware changes
of any kind in several years.
I've disabled Automatic Restart. I downloaded Malwarebytes
and SUPERAntiSpyware and the latest updates for both. Complete system scans
only turned up a few tracking cookies. I'll post info from the next blue
screen of death that occurs.
Many thanks for your help,
Gary
PS
Attempting to start in safe mode always produces the BSOD. Some info in my
reply to Buffalo's post.
---------------------------------
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name GARYR-ZMNIA5KFU
System Manufacturer ATI___
System Model AWRDACPI
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~2533 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Award BIOS for Intel GC11010N.86A.0312.2006.0609.1700,
6/9/2006
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 133.70 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.03 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
------------------------------------------------
==================================================
Dump File : Mini052810-01.dmp
Crash Time : 5/28/2010 3:51:01 PM
Bug Check String : KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug Check Code : 0x1000008e
Parameter 1 : 0xc0000005
Parameter 2 : 0xbf8d5ff7
Parameter 3 : 0xb8223fbc
Parameter 4 : 0x00000000
Caused By Driver : win32k.sys
Caused By Address : win32k.sys+d5ff7
File Description : Multi-User Win32 Driver
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 5.1.2600.5863 (xpsp_sp3_gdr.090814-1258)
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini052810-01.dmp
Processors Count : 1
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 2600
==================================================
==================================================
Dump File : Mini052710-01.dmp
Crash Time : 5/27/2010 6:03:38 AM
Bug Check String : KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug Check Code : 0x1000008e
Parameter 1 : 0xc0000005
Parameter 2 : 0x80544a9d
Parameter 3 : 0xf51a4b7c
Parameter 4 : 0x00000000
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+6da9d
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 5.1.2600.5938 (xpsp_sp3_gdr.100216-1514)
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini052710-01.dmp
Processors Count : 1
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 2600
==================================================
==================================================
Dump File : Mini052210-01.dmp
Crash Time : 5/22/2010 6:52:40 PM
Bug Check String : IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check Code : 0x1000000a
Parameter 1 : 0xa957fc86
Parameter 2 : 0x00000002
Parameter 3 : 0x00000000
Parameter 4 : 0x8051d2e9
Caused By Driver :
Caused By Address :
File Description :
Product Name :
Company :
File Version :
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini052210-01.dmp
Processors Count : 1
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 2600
==================================================
==================================================
Dump File : Mini051210-01.dmp
Crash Time : 5/12/2010 11:01:54 AM
Bug Check String : SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug Check Code : 0x1000007e
Parameter 1 : 0xc0000005
Parameter 2 : 0x804e1abb
Parameter 3 : 0xf7a57c24
Parameter 4 : 0xf7a57920
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+aabb
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 5.1.2600.5938 (xpsp_sp3_gdr.100216-1514)
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini051210-01.dmp
Processors Count : 1
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 2600
==================================================
My computer is about 5 years old and is beginning to have problems -
freezing up and rebooting, , I think, but not certain, that this always
happens with I'm using IE (Ver 8). The OS is XP with SP3 and all updates
installed. I've kept my anti-virus software (Norton) up to date.
I cannot start up in Safe Mode. After reaching the screen that allows the
startup mode to be selected, I select Safe Mode and it starts loading
programs then stops and then after a while returns to that screen. Does
this
imply that the disk is corrupted and that I should reformat C and
reinstall
XP? That is a very painful process for me as I have a dialup internet
connection and downloading all the SP's and updates required takes a very
long time. Aside from the current problems I'm experiencing this computer
is
sufficient for my needs but I wonder if I might not be better off just
buying an new one. What do you think?
Reinstalling XP to solve problems is for girls. Identify and fix the
problems instead.
Here is how to troubleshoot your system effectively and resolve your
issue with certainty:
We need more general information and then some of the crash
information. Lock ups I will deal with later if it is still a problem
after the crashing problem is resolved.
Have any hardware oriented changes been made to the system since it
worked? RAM, video card, storage (hard disks, USB devices), printers,
network hardware drivers, device drivers?
Click Start, Run and in the box enter:
msinfo32
Click OK, and when the System Summary info appears, click Edit, Select
All, Copy and then paste back here.
There would be some personal information (like System Name and User
Name) or whatever appears to be only your business that you can delete
from the paste.
Disable Automatic restart on system error to stop the error on your
screen so you can see it:
Right click My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Startup and Recovery
Settings.
In the System failure section, untick the Automatically restart box,
OK, OK.
If you can only boot in Safe Mode and are seeing a BSOD, choose the
option:
Disable automatic restart on system failure
Then you can see the BSOD when it happens again and will have some
crash dump files with the information you need to fix your problem.
If your system is so afflicted that o crash dump files are generated,
do this:
Here are some BSOD blue screen of death examples showing information
you need to provide:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/images/Windows_XP_BSOD.png
http://techrepublic.com.com/i/tr/downloads/images/bsod_a.jpg
Send the information pointed to with the red arrows (3-4 lines
total). Skip the boring text unless it looks important to you. We
know what a BSOD looks like, we need to know the other information
that is specific to your BSOD.
Download BlueScreenView from here and let's see your last few crash
dumps:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html
Unzip and run it and let it finish scanning all your dump files (BSV
does not install anything). Select the most recent dump files by
clicking them and holding down the Ctrl key to select multiples files.
Try to select just the most recent ones that relate to your issue.
Click File, Save Selected Items and save the information from the
dumps to a text file on your desktop called BSOD.txt. Open BSOD.txt
with a text editor, copy all the text and paste it into your next
reply.
It is nice that you have Norton and it is up to date, but Norton does
not know everything, so I suggest you do this while we look at your
other information:
Reduce the chances of malicious software by running some scans.
Download, install, update and do a full scan with these free malware
detection programs:
Malwarebytes (MBAM):
http://malwarebytes.org/
SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS):
http://www.superantispyware.com/
These can be uninstalled later if desired.
I suggest that only after your system is stable and clean should you
address your performance issues - then we'll fix that too and do the
best we can (Norton generally has a negative impact of performance,
but we'll see later).