[Dstudent]

Pardon me, but I seem to be having a problem with my computer. Every time I run my anti-virus program, which is AVG Free Edition, about half-way through the scan, I get a blue screen error message: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xBC666943, 0xF204C224, 0x00000000). If anybody can diagnose the problem and possibly provide a solution, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

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could you list the full stop code for us?

[dsenette]

could you list the full stop code for us?

[Dstudent]

could you list the full stop code for us?

Sorry for the delay. About half-way through the A/V scan, the blue screen comes up and says:

"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA"

It then proceeds to tell me to restart my computer and if the same screen returns, to uninstall any hardware or software previously installed. (But the screen doesn't return when I restart; only when I run the A/V program).

Then, the screen reads:

"Technical Information
***STOP: 0x00000050 (0xC475FBD8, 0x00000001, 0xBC66110E, 0x00000000)" --all of which is completely different from the code I previously posted.

Finally, the screen reads:

"Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete"

...and then to contact my administrator or technical support staff for additional assistance.

[dsenette]

go to www.memtest.org and follow the instructions for making a memtest disk...run that for a couple of hours..and report any errors..

you may also want to uninstall avg and reinstall it as that seems to be the trigger

[Dstudent]

go to www.memtest.org and follow the instructions for making a memtest disk...run that for a couple of hours..and report any errors..

you may also want to uninstall avg and reinstall it as that seems to be the trigger

Thanks, I'll run the memtest to see if there are any problems. I uninstalled and reinstalled AVG yesterday, but the problem still persists.

[Dstudent]

go to www.memtest.org and follow the instructions for making a memtest disk...run that for a couple of hours..and report any errors..

you may also want to uninstall avg and reinstall it as that seems to be the trigger

*sigh* Ok, I ran memtest twice. The first time I ran it, when it reached test 7, my computer shut down completely.....it turned off on its own and wouldn't restart--even with me pressing the on/off button--until about a minute later. Everything seemed fine so I decided to try memtest again. Lo and behold, when it reached test 7 again, the computer shut down....AGAIN! This time, however, when I restarted it, the fans in the cpu would come on, but not the monitor, and I would get long continuous beeps during POST. I turned the computer off for about 5 mins, tried to restart it again and voila!, it boots up regularly like nothing happened--heck, I'm using it right now to write this post.

I just don't understand what is wrong with this thing and why I only get the stop error message when I run AVG. Could it be my power supply? Could it be bad memory? Could it be AVG? I've been using it for months with no prior issues.

Thanks for the help anyway.

[dsenette]

one long post beep is a memory error...you may have some ram going south....turn the computer off and remove all but one stick of ram...start it up and see if it has a problem...if not...turn it off...switch out that stick for another...turn it on...any problems? when y ou end up with one stick in the machine and having problems...that's the bad stick...replace it..

[Dstudent]

one long post beep is a memory error...you may have some ram going south....turn the computer off and remove all but one stick of ram...start it up and see if it has a problem...if not...turn it off...switch out that stick for another...turn it on...any problems? when y ou end up with one stick in the machine and having problems...that's the bad stick...replace it..

Well, considering the fact that I have only one stick of RAM, process of elimination tells me....

But my question is, if the RAM is defective, how come my computer operates normally when I don't run a scan? (Or even boots up to begin with.)

[dsenette]

it could be an intermittant ram problem...something that comes and goes...or is only triggered by certain events...do you have access to another stick of ram of the same type as the one that's in there?

[Dstudent]

it could be an intermittant ram problem...something that comes and goes...or is only triggered by certain events...do you have access to another stick of ram of the same type as the one that's in there?

Yes I do (256 MB), but I fear something might be wrong with that one as well because I swapped them this past weekend to see if I can isolate the problem to the one I had in there (512). Yet, when I ran memtest on the 256 stick, it got to test seven--albeit, further into test 7 than the 512 got--and the computer shut down on me again.

[dsenette]

hmmmm....not a good sign (not definitive at all...but)...memtest runs outside of your os so that means that this can't be an OS problem...it runs from a bootable disk so it has nothing to do with your hard drive....the only causes that i could think of would be bad ram (which it is possible to have 2 bad sticks)...a band motherboard....a bad PSU....or a bad PROC...you'd be noticing more issues if it were a bad processor...so...i'm gonna say that i hope that's not it (not easy to test)....IF you had another psu of the same type (at least the same wattage but could be more) you could test that angle...

if you have access to another computer that your ram is compatable with..you could see if the ram tests the same in the other machine

[dsenette]

hmmmm....not a good sign (not definitive at all...but)...memtest runs outside of your os so that means that this can't be an OS problem...it runs from a bootable disk so it has nothing to do with your hard drive....the only causes that i could think of would be bad ram (which it is possible to have 2 bad sticks)...a band motherboard....a bad PSU....or a bad PROC...you'd be noticing more issues if it were a bad processor...so...i'm gonna say that i hope that's not it (not easy to test)....IF you had another psu of the same type (at least the same wattage but could be more) you could test that angle...

if you have access to another computer that your ram is compatable with..you could see if the ram tests the same in the other machine

[Dstudent]

hmmmm....not a good sign (not definitive at all...but)...memtest runs outside of your os so that means that this can't be an OS problem...it runs from a bootable disk so it has nothing to do with your hard drive....the only causes that i could think of would be bad ram (which it is possible to have 2 bad sticks)...a band motherboard....a bad PSU....or a bad PROC...you'd be noticing more issues if it were a bad processor...so...i'm gonna say that i hope that's not it (not easy to test)....IF you had another psu of the same type (at least the same wattage but could be more) you could test that angle...

if you have access to another computer that your ram is compatable with..you could see if the ram tests the same in the other machine

Yeah, it would make sense to test it out on a similar computer that takes the same type of RAM. But what has me stumped is that the computer runs fine otherwise. I can use it to do anything else, but as soon as I run memtest or a virus scan, it acts up. Oh, how I hate to love computers!

Thanks for your help.

[dsenette]

also...on the problem computer start up in safe mode with command prompt (press f8 during boot, you will get a lilst of startup options, choose safe mode with comand prompt from the list) and type chkdsk /r /f and let that run to completion (it may ask you to schedule on next boot...press Y and reboot...let it run undisturbed..it should take about 45 minutes or so) and report any errors

[Dstudent]

also...on the problem computer start up in safe mode with command prompt (press f8 during boot, you will get a lilst of startup options, choose safe mode with comand prompt from the list) and type chkdsk /r /f and let that run to completion (it may ask you to schedule on next boot...press Y and reboot...let it run undisturbed..it should take about 45 minutes or so) and report any errors

As far as I can tell, there weren't any errors.