Ok.. First let me say that I’m not made of money. So I really need to fix the problem the first time cause I can't afford to do multiple things.
Sometimes when I play ffxi, a blue screen flashes and my computer reboots. sometimes it goes days without happening, but sometimes it happes like every 10minutes. like today, I couldn't stay on at all.
this is not virus or spyware caused. i have reformat a ton because of this, and its still not fixed.
it may be overheating.. but all my fans are spinning, and my case is open. my cpu just got a new fan about 3months ago.
it may also be my video card, its a geforce 5200. also windows xp hates me.
simple things like installing new hardware I can do.. like a new vcard or another fan.
but things like overheating and sinks and complicated errors or whatever... I am clueless on.

so I am wondering if the majority of you computer nerds think I could fix this with a new video card/ another fan... or if I should just take it to a shop and have them look at it. I really can't afford to buy new parts and have them not work, nor can I afford to take it to a shop only to have them try the same thing and charge me triple for it...

if anyone has any ideas, I'd really appreciate it.. cause I really want to be on ffxi right now... I know enough about computers to be able to follow directions, so if you have any suggestions please message me on AIM: Radtoast.

*edit* oh here it the blue screen that I got a few months ago, when I was having this same problem. I'm not sure if its the same as I'm getting now, because its just a flash and now a death screen.

someone was saying something about checking error logs, but I got rebooted before I could ask how to do that....

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The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

i actually had the same problem when i first started playing, i actually called a GM about it because it only happened when i was playing FFXI, he said that it could be multiple things. my problem turned out to be my graphics card was bad. i dont remember what modle it was or how old it was, but after replacing it, i never had the problem again. might wana wait to see what others have to say first thought before you go out and blow 200 bucks

That error message implies that it is having trouble reading the CD-Rom drive. Can you give me a better shot of the actual screen so I can get the entire message?

hmm well that is one from a few months ago... when my cpu fan was dieing, but it been fixed since then.
how do you go into the error log?

mmm but cd rom might make since, when the case heats up, most of the heat is located near the cd drives... but i really don't know anything...

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The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

I just need a clearer picture of that bluescreen, or you can email me the dump file. If you're using Windows XP it should be enabled to dump it to a file, check your c:\windows\minidump directory.

I don't have the utilities at home to examine it though, so just send it to my work address: seand@mitre.org

AHAHHAHAHAHHA BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!!!!!!

/mac-user

Also, two questions. Which operating system (2000 or XP?) are you using, and which CD Burning software are you using (if any)?

Thats a IRQ conflict. 2 hardware are trying to use the same IRQ (interrupt request line).
Try to look for it, that is a really rare problem and therefore it would
be hard for me to pin it down without being physically there to look at it.

Either try to look for what hardware is using the same IRQ or just unplug
any device that you arent using.

Could be because of a HD swap or something like that too. Any change
in hardware that previously was done but wasnt completed or was not
successfully completed.

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its just a flash of blue and the reboot. i'm emailing the dump files nows.
i use xp, and for cd burning, i use windows media.

er ok i emailed the dump files, that was from my main email, which i never use or check.. could you respond either here or to illithids@gmail.com

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The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

I highly doubt it's an IRQ conflict. That error message generally denotes a problem with the drivers of a specific device. The first course of action I would suggest to you is updating your system to SP2 (or reinstalling it if you've already installed it). The second course of action if this does not resolve the problem is to find the latest drivers from the manufacturer for that specific CD-RW.

If you actually want to get a clean shot of the Blue screen (with a camera), simply hit F8 when the system is starting up and select the option to not reboot on error. When the blue screen happens it will simply stay there and will require a hard reset to restart the system. I believe I saw enough of it to be sure of the error message though, but it was difficult to see if it was 0x000000D1 or 0x00000001. Regardless, taking the above steps will do the system no harm and should probably resolve the issue.

what i usually do, is hit it it will work when it wants me to stop hitting it.

ok maybe i shouldnt of posted that blue screen >.>
it was from months ago. the lastest one happens so fast that i can not even see it.
i have SP2, and i've tried reinstalling. i'll try updating the drivers.

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The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

Mintsy, just reboot your system and then hit F8 as it's booting up. It will open a menu and one of those options will be to not reboot on error. Select that option and boot as normal. The error will remain if it blue screens.

ok did that. but now its just crashing to windows -.-

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The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

Look in the event log (Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Event Viewer), and tell me if you see any timeout errors relating to Atapi.sys.

Also, locate your atapi.sys file in C:\windows\system32\drivers, right click on it and select properties. Click on the version tab and post the version listed for the file.

On a side note, do you use Alcohol 120% or Daemon-Tools?

no errors saying that, all of them are application(ffxi?) errors. most of the notices are "wuaueng.dll (3520) SUS20ClientDataStore: The database engine stopped the instance (0)." whatever that means..


my atapi verison number is: 5.1.2600.2180

don't even know what those are, so nope...

thank you so much for helping me figure this out, i really appreciate it.

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The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

Any idea when these problems started occuring? Feel free to give up extra info here.

Stuff like, When did it start, what did you do before it started, Is it only happening in a single application, Does a specific action cause it...

Also, in the device manager (right click My Computer, select properties, Hardware Tab, Device manager), scroll down to the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, find your IDE Controller, right click, select properties, driver tab, tell me who is the Driver Provider and what version.

I started having problems before christmas, but I think that was do to my CPU fan (because it wasn’t spinning fast enough and my computer crashed like every 5minutes) . I had it replaced. and everything was ok for awhile, I still had the occasional blue screen/reboot when playing ffxi. it has been getting worse though. now it is doing it more and more, I can hardly stay in for longer than 30minutes now.
for the most part, I only get bluescreened and errored when in ffxi, which makes me think that its a graphic card problem. also had bluescreen and restart problems when playing other games with intense graphics.
it also crashes whenever I run scans with spybot S&D and AntiVir XP. but running ad aware is ok. I've ran ramm checks, and there were no problems.
occasionally I get crash/restart when not on ffxi, but thats only after my computer has been on for a long time or when my dsl is having problems.

I think maybe its overheating from the graphic card?

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The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

Primary IDE Controller

Provider:VIA Technologies, Inc.

Version: 5.1.2600.120

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The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

pet it and read it stories, preferably ones with happy endings, it should work after that.

Did you by chance install SP2 at around the same time?

BTW, the best way to "test" if the system is overheating, is to simply get a normal room fan and aim it at the open chassis. Then play the hell out of it. If it's an overheating issue, the room fan will circulate the air 10x better than any mounted case fan can accomplish.

If you don't have a fan, find the AC vent in your room, crank the AC down to 50 and put it on cool and place the open chassis PC in front of the vent.

ok this is what the last blue screen said:

problem caused by file ntfs.sys
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

tech info: STOP: 0x00000050 (0x84061E70,0x00000000, 0xF83EAC1VC,0x00000000)

Ntfs.sys- address F83EAC1C base at F83CA000, date stamp 41107eea

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The lovers, the dreamers, and me.