Help! WinXP Pro - Event Viewer... Crash! Crash! Crash!
 

Hi,

I am hoping someone can shed some light on this issue for me. Since I received my new system I have received periodic crashes. Innitially I thought my RAM was to blame so ran memtest but as far as that program is concerned everything is fine. I then thought I perhaps had a dodgy processor, but that doesn't seem to be the case either after testing with IIRC Sandra. Then I found I had a problem with my dialup modem not being detected, so updated the driver for that and now it is. However, I still receive crashes.

These crashes take the form of the system just freezing for no apparant reason. It can be due to not being used for a couple of hours, or as it is undertaking some task ie: downloading, or listening to an online broadcast thorough WinAmp (shoutcast) or Real Player. There doesn't seem to be a reason for the freeze\crash.

I have checked the Event Viewer here and have noticed a lot of "DCOM" errors and so undertook a Windows Update in a bid to solve the problem. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have solved anything.

When I switch the view to EventViewer\Application. I see this error here Which is something that occurs all too randomly. If I click on the url inside of the box, it gives me the usual Microsoft "wisdom" of, "they don't know".

Googling the content of the error dialogue "d:\qxp_slp\com\com1x\src\events\tier1\eventsystem obj.cpp." turns up a whole host of problems, some specific to software I don't use. Others to SP2 changes not to mention problems with NIC drivers. If the search results are to be believed, it's an error call that Microsoft have applied to anything that goes wrong with their OS.

Though I am hoping someone here may have a better idea?

My system setup is like this:

Field Value
Computer
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)

Motherboard
CPU Type DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2200 MHz (11 x 200) 4400+
Motherboard Name Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe (3 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce4 SLI, AMD Hammer
System Memory 1024 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (06/02/05)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX (256 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX
Monitor Dell 2405FPW (Digital) [24" LCD] (M67545850F0S)

Multimedia
Audio Adapter Creative SB0350 Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card

Storage
IDE Controller Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
IDE Controller Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
IDE Controller Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive USB 2.0 Storage Device USB Device (74 GB, USB)
Disk Drive Maxtor 6L300S0 (300 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)
Disk Drive ST3120827AS (120 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)
Optical Drive SONY DVD RW DW-Q28A
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions
C: (NTFS) 281678 MB (239076 MB free)
E: (NTFS) 114463 MB (9871 MB free)
F: (NTFS) 76316 MB (34533 MB free)
Total Size 461.4 GB (276.8 GB free)

Input
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse

Network
Network Adapter Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (192.168.1.100)
Network Adapter NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Modem PCI SoftV92 Speakerphone Modem

Peripherals
Printer Canon PIXMA iP5000
Printer Fax
Printer Microsoft Office Document Image Writer
USB1 Controller nVIDIA MCP04 - OHCI USB Controller
USB2 Controller nVIDIA MCP04 - EHCI USB 2.0 Controller
USB Device USB Mass Storage Device

Can anyone offer any advice on where the problem may lie?

Thank you.

Re: Help! WinXP Pro - Event Viewer... Crash! Crash! Crash!
 

Goblin,

Problems with WinXP crashing/locking up are most often down to dodgy drivers and notoriously difficult to track down :(

A quick google suggested it maybe DirectX related - do you get any errors from dxdiag?

I would suggest getting the latest stable drivers for:
Video card
Sound card
Nic
Motherboard

Update only one driver at a time if poss.

HTH

Re: Help! WinXP Pro - Event Viewer... Crash! Crash! Crash!
 

No, none at all.

Ok, I started by updating the video card. As far as windows was concerned, I was using the most upto date ones. However, Steam kept giving me a warning about my current drivers being out of date. So heeded the warning this time and have moved too:

"Installed Drivers nv4_disp (6.14.10.7801 - nVIDIA ForceWare 78.01)" or filename: "78.01_winxp2k_international_whql.exe"

At which point I thought I would check the EventViewer, then received this:
http://img357.imageshack.us/my.php?image=awtf013wy.jpg
and this:
http://img82.imageshack.us/my.php?image=awtf022je.jpg

More DCOM errors than I have ever had before.

Can I assume from this that it is the video card driver?

FWIW I ran dxdiag again after installing these drivers and nothing is wrong as far as that application is concerned. It passed everything. What I have noticed however, is that it takes about 20 seconds longer when rebooting for anything to actually appear on screen ie: the icons and start tray contents.

Incidentally, as far as windows is concerned. All my drivers are upto date.

Can you offer any further advice?

Re: Help! WinXP Pro - Event Viewer... Crash! Crash! Crash!
 

Ok,

The delay in startup maybe related to the service thats failing - which service is failing (ie open the event 7000's and it will tell you which service failed to start).

One of the DCOM errors appears to be related to DCOM permissions! Might be worth running the 'Set Program Access & Defaults' wizard in case something has messed up the permissions in the Windows directory.

If all that doesn't do any good, you could try uninstalling that new driver and trying the earliest driver that supports the 7800 GTX (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_77.72.html).

HTH