My friend has a computer that he said had been giving him errors and then crashing. Now im no expert by anu means but I do have a clue. I borrowed his comp and started playing with it. First thing I did was try a scan disk to make sure his hard drive was okay. The scan disk gave me an error and then went to the blue screen of death. There were many errors but here are a few.
An exception OD has occured at 0028:C0001FCE in VxD VMM (01)+00000FCE
This was caused from 0028:C02D991C in VXD VMOUSE(03) + 00009F0
Fatal exception OE has occured at 0028:C000A6F8 in VMM(01) + 0009BF8
Fatal exception 05 at 0028:C290074
Now my guess(blind stab more like it) is that his hard drive is shot. I figure he can fry it and try to re-install cause he's got nothing to lose but any advice would be appreciated.
Those VXD errors are virtual device drivers and are related to the OS and hardware. It does not necessarily mean that the hard drive is bad, although if ScanDisk is crashing, his HDD may indeed have some problems.
Here's what I would do:
1) Boot his computer with a Windows 9x boot disk. Run ScanDisk from the boot disk and repair any errors to the disk. Sit through the surface scan, too.
2) If that doesn't fix what's wrong with the drive, find out who the manufacturer of his hard drive is; you can do this by popping open the case and looking at the label on the drive. Go to that company's website and see if they have any diagnostic tools available for download. If they do, get those and see if they will fix the drive. If the drive is still not repairable, the diagnostics may give you a clue as to what's wrong with it.
3) If ScanDisk fixes all of the drive errors, and his computer is still crashing, you may consider reinstalling the OS. Your other options are to do a Fdisk/Format/Re-install and in the most drastic case, zero-out the drive and start the drive over completely. Note that if you do more than simply re-install Windows, he will lose everything on the disk, so you may want to back up any valuable data.
Other things to check:
Is the hard drive making any funny noises? If it is, there may be a physical problem with the platters, not just with the file allocation tables or data on the drive.
Is the computer still under warranty? If it is, call the manufacturer's tech support people and get them to replace the drive (it shouldn't cost him anything, in either parts, shipping or labour).
How old is the computer? Generally speaking, a good hard drive should last around five years before it begins to fail physically. However, with the prices on hardware dropping, so is quality. If it's more than three years old, he should consider replacing it.
Has he installed anything recently that may be causing device conflicts, resource conflicts or compatibility issues? A new game or program perhaps? Some programs (ie-Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor) can cause errors and crashes to appear seemingly at random. If he has installed something recently, you might try booting to Windows Safe Mode and un-installing whatever programs he installed just before the computer started to act up.
Those are my immediate suggestions; you might wait around for a day or so and see if Mr Sleep, tech guru Yshania, Mr Flibble or Ned Flanders have some other tips.
On the plus side, if his hard drive has gone bad, prices are dropping fast; you can get a good 40-60 GB 7200 RPM name brand HDD for about $100 (USD) or even less if you catch a retailer at a time when they're having a sale or offering rebates.
Jesus saves! And takes half damage!
If brute force doesn't work, you're not using enough.
Can you supply some details about the system hardware: CPU type and speed, RAM motherboard type and HDD type. Also, are you using a non-english version of Windows?
I have a few ideas, but need a bit more info first.
There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't. I think I think, therefore I might be.
ok here are the specs that I could find from the comp and my friend. Its a compaq amd 450 with 56 MB of RAM (NO ONE needs to say anything about RAM I already read him the riot act about RAM) Im still not sure what kind of motherboard or HD he has. He is looking for the documentation. As it turns out he said his house was struck by lightning and the network card was fried. (Sorry about not providing information. He didnt say anything cause he thought it wasnt important. I just wanted to smack him when he said that.) He said that he had the network card and modem replaced. I will relay more information as I find it out.
FYI The only reason I am going through all this trouble is cause he has no money to really upgrade anything. He could probably affored to replace the HD if need be but he would rather not. Thanks for all your help. You guys are the best.
Originally posted by slacker2 Its a compaq amd 450
I thought this might be the issue here. There is a compatability problem with some AMD processors over 350MHz. This is rather well known with Windows 95, but also to a lesser extent in Windows 98/98SE. To confirm this, can you set the CPU speed to 350MHz or less on the motherboards jumpers or BIOS?
If all works well after that, then you may need to contact microsoft technical support in your area to obtain the fix for it. I've had a look on their site, and the patch for this problem under Windows 98 is only available if you contact them directly.
The other possibility I can think of is that the Windows swap file win386.swp is either badly fragmented or corrupt. Try defragging the hard disk, and if you're brave enough, delete the swap file so windows has to recreate it on startup. Teh second one is a bit hazardous at times.
Hope this helps.
There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't. I think I think, therefore I might be.
The OS is windows 98 and from what my friend says this problem only started in the last couple of months. He has had the system for a while now. Can this problem spring up or would it be happening from the start?
Originally posted by slacker2 Can this problem spring up or would it be happening from the start?
For that particular error it usually occurs from the first installation. However, it might be worth trying that one out anyway, especially if no patches or service packs have been applied to that computer.
There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't. I think I think, therefore I might be.
Originally posted by slacker2 He said that he had the network card and modem replaced.
Perhaps there is a driver conflict between the new and old devices, it's possible he still has the old drivers on there causing confusion. It wouldnt' be the cause for the bogus scandisk, it might however be the cause for it crashing out?
I'd have to get drunk every night and talk about virility...And those Pink elephants I'd see.
If he doesn't mind losing any of the data on the drive, your friend might want to use the quickrestore CDs that Compaq sends with a new computer. It will essentially re-image the hard drive to its factory or off the shelf configuration (I think it will also reset the partition(s) and file allocation tables, too). He will have to reinstall all of his software and update the drivers on any hardware he's added since he bought it.
Have him check and see if the machine is still under warranty from Compaq (probably not if it's a K-6 450 MHz, but it's worth a shot). If it is, they may replace the hard drive for him at no charge. They may also send him updated drivers for his hardware and an updated Windows CD.
Jesus saves! And takes half damage!
If brute force doesn't work, you're not using enough.
Well i tried a defrag and I got the bluescreen of death. So i told him to to get the quickrestore cds. I started the process and everything was going fine and then it crashed. Now when I try to boot again it gives me a cdr101: not ready reading drive N. Im no expert but im guess his hard drive is done. Any opinions would be helpful. thanks in advance
Originally posted by slacker2 Now when I try to boot again it gives me a cdr101: not ready reading drive N.
That means the machine is trying to boot from the CD-ROM drive. Check the device boot order in the BIOS. If the hard drive is the first device to boot from, then yes the disk is stuffed.
There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't. I think I think, therefore I might be.
Ok so changed the bios order for boot. When I did that it said that no operating system could be found. So then I thought I would boot right a windows cd and do an install. But after it started the install it just freezes. So I am assuming that there is something drastically wrong with the HD. Now I have a hard drive in my old computer if I swap out the bad drive(assuming) and put in mine that I know is okay will the computer boot up normally or will I screw it up even more. What do you think??
Originally posted by slacker2 Now I have a hard drive in my old computer if I swap out the bad drive(assuming) and put in mine that I know is okay will the computer boot up normally or will I screw it up even more. What do you think??
That will certainly tell you if the original drive is stuffed or not. If the hard drive you want to put in the machine had windows 95 98 or ME on it, you shouldn't have any problems booting up. It will want to detect all the components in the system again, but should work properly.
There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't. I think I think, therefore I might be.
