Blue screen of death error on rarely used system

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Stevolution

I'm using a computer I haven't used for quite some time (over a year) and
when it was used, it was only used for about 2 weeks. Now, my computer
crashes after varying periods of time after starting up. I get a blue screen
with the key message at the bottom being:

*** Stop: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xF55EEA7E, 0xB9DC6994, 0x00000000)
Dumping physical memory to disk.

It then counts to 100 before restarting. I've just noticed that there's a
problem with my sound card. The drivers were installed but sound cut out half
way through. It said I had no drivers installed, so I installed them from the
disk and the sound worked fine. That was yesterday. Today, I have no sound
again. On device manager, it shows I have a C-media AC97 Audio Device. It
says that the drivers are installed and it is working. If I look on control
panel and go to sounds and audio devices, it says I have no audio device?!.
Any help appreciated
 
Stevolution said:
I'm using a computer I haven't used for quite some time (over a year) and
when it was used, it was only used for about 2 weeks. Now, my computer
crashes after varying periods of time after starting up. I get a blue
screen
with the key message at the bottom being:

*** Stop: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xF55EEA7E, 0xB9DC6994, 0x00000000)
Dumping physical memory to disk.

It then counts to 100 before restarting. I've just noticed that there's a
problem with my sound card. The drivers were installed but sound cut out
half
way through. It said I had no drivers installed, so I installed them from
the
disk and the sound worked fine. That was yesterday. Today, I have no sound
again. On device manager, it shows I have a C-media AC97 Audio Device. It
says that the drivers are installed and it is working. If I look on
control
panel and go to sounds and audio devices, it says I have no audio
device?!.
Any help appreciated
Click to expand...


run a ram test

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
 
Stevolution said:
I'm using a computer I haven't used for quite some time (over a year) and
when it was used, it was only used for about 2 weeks. Now, my computer
crashes after varying periods of time after starting up. I get a blue screen
with the key message at the bottom being:

*** Stop: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xF55EEA7E, 0xB9DC6994, 0x00000000)
Dumping physical memory to disk.

It then counts to 100 before restarting. I've just noticed that there's a
problem with my sound card. The drivers were installed but sound cut out half
way through. It said I had no drivers installed, so I installed them from the
disk and the sound worked fine. That was yesterday. Today, I have no sound
again. On device manager, it shows I have a C-media AC97 Audio Device. It
says that the drivers are installed and it is working. If I look on control
panel and go to sounds and audio devices, it says I have no audio device?!.
Any help appreciated
Click to expand...

You can look up stop codes here. This is why "Philo" suggested the RAM test.

http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm

Depending on how handy you are, you might consider shutting off the power
and unplugging the computer. Then, reseat the sticks of RAM, in case they
are not making good contact. Make sure the clips on the side, are fully
into position when you are finished. That helps prove the module is
seated properly in the socket. At the same time, you can visually inspect
the condition of the rest of the computer.

It helps to describe what kind of computer it is, because that may help
someone recollect issues with a particular kind of computer.

Paul
 
If you are handy with a screwdriver, try removing the sound card from the
machine and see if the problem goes away.
Have you tried safe mode?
 
OK, I've checked all the fans and no problems there. The RAM seemed to be in
place ok, but I took them out and put them back in and repositioned the clips
to be sure. Couldn't take the sound card off. I currently cannot keep the
system running for long enough to run the RAM test u suggested!

Thanks

Steve
 
Stevolution said:
OK, I've checked all the fans and no problems there. The RAM seemed to be in
place ok, but I took them out and put them back in and repositioned the clips
to be sure. Couldn't take the sound card off. I currently cannot keep the
system running for long enough to run the RAM test u suggested!

Thanks

Steve
Click to expand...

You have to do some swapping at some point. For work on home computers, it
helps to have more than one computer.

For example, I would move the (suspect) RAM to another computer, and test it
there.

If the RAM tested good, another frequent point of failure is power supplies.
I would measure the rail voltages with the (suspect) system intact and running,
using a multimeter. You can probe the back of the main connector, to get a
sample of each rail. 3.3V, 5V, 12V, +5VSB, should all be within 5% of their
nominal value. (-12V is there too, but may not affect stability. It gets used
for things like an RS-232 port.)

If that was too complicated, I would just swap in a known good supply. If
still no good, you might suspect a motherboard problem.

Processors are generally pretty reliable, and would not be high up on my
list of suspects. Modern processors are protected against extreme overheat
(THERMTRIP), so aren't likely to get damaged by having the heat sink fall off.

If possible, I like to encourage testing first, to try to eliminate any
unnecessary swaps. If you are totally blinded, and cannot collect any
test results at all, it just means more swaps until it works. On one
of my earlier computers, I replaced almost everything, so I know what
that is like. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes not so lucky.

Paul
 
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