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General discussion

Sudden Shutdown of XP Pro

Feb 22, 2004 11:26AM PST

I am running XP Pro on my computer (2Gig Processor, 512k of ram) and my system will shutdown unexpectedly resulting in a system reboot or the dreaded blue screen with the error "minidump" (Not sure of the exact wording)

It happens alot but at no specific time (ie; when certain programs are running). I had this problem when I first got the system and ended up reformatting and re-installing XP. Everything worked fine for a while then the same thing happens...more and more frequently. I am of the opinion it is either a hardware or software problem(pretty funny eh)?

Could it be the system overheating or some other hardware problem or a software problem. The reason I suggest software is because the system works great until I start installing software but unfortunately I can't track or pinpoint which program it might be!

Anyone with any suggestions? Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Re:Sudden Shutdown of XP Pro
Feb 22, 2004 11:35AM PST
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Re:Sudden Shutdown of XP Pro
Feb 22, 2004 11:46AM PST

You said.."I had this problem when I first got the system and ended up reformatting and re-installing XP. Everything worked fine for a while then the same thing happens...more and more frequently"...

Since it started right from day one why did you not get it fixed under warranty?

BSOD could also be due to incompatible hardware or drivers.

You could try and remove some hardware and keep to the basic and see if the problem goes away.

Or do a RAM test to see if your RAM is defective.
http://www.memtest86.com/

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Re:Sudden Shutdown of XP Pro
Feb 22, 2004 3:49PM PST

If you have 2 memory chips in slot 1 and 2 then this may occur due to memory timing. put mem chips in slot 2 and 3 and the problem should go away. I had this prob, changed chips thought they were faulty 2 times but the above fixed the problem had no probs for 1 year.

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Re:Sudden Shutdown of XP Pro
Feb 22, 2004 4:45PM PST

If you have 2 memory chips in slot 1 and 2 then this may occur due to memory timing. put mem chips in slot 2 and 3 and the problem should go away. I had this prob, changed chips thought they were faulty 2 times but the above fixed the problem had no probs for 1 year.

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Re:Sudden Shutdown of XP Pro
Feb 22, 2004 10:23PM PST

1. It appears Error Reporting is not currently used (but not recommended) as outlined in, [Q310414] otherwise, the problem may have been more clear.

2. Perhaps this problem occurs when after a Minidump (or memory dump) file is written, the paging file may continue to have a flag set that indicates that a memory dump file needs to be written -- a bug that is patchable as explained in the article, [Q317277] -- worth a try anyway.

3. The article [Q308427] states that an "event" is any significant occurrence in the system or in a program that requires users to be notified or an entry be added to one of three logs. The Event Log Service records application, security, and system events in Event Viewer. With the event logs in Event Viewer, users can obtain information about hardware, software, and system components, and monitor security events on a local or remote computer. Event logs can help identify and diagnose the source of current system problems, or help predict potential system problems.

Bill Gaston

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Re:Sudden Shutdown of XP Pro
Feb 23, 2004 12:30AM PST

I had the same problem, and after reinstalling Wxp I sat "Diskspace" in "System restore" to max, whitch did solve the problem.
Lars