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Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Blue screen of death
I had some problems during the weekend with running a video-editing software on my main computer, getting lots of different error messages indicating some problem with drivers. This morning while patching the Burning Crusade beta things got worse, and I repeatedly had blue screens of death saying "Driver_irql_not_less_or_equal" in ndis.sys. I think it is safe to assume that my Windows installation is screwed. Which doesn't really surprise me, I'm using the computer a lot, and the same installation of Windows is running on it since over a year. Time for some kind of reinstall, to fix all the driver problems. Damn, that is going to take me a while.
Fortunately I found a very helpful Windows Reinstall website. I think I'll try the Microsoft's Windows XP Professional (Pro) Repair Install step by step guide. I used to do these reinstalls from scratch, formating the hard drive and everything, but I hope that won't be necessary.
A repair reinstall of Windows has the advantage of leaving all the data on my hard drive. The only problem is that it clears my registry, including all the information that programs might have written into the registry when I installed them. Thus lots of software doesn't run any more afterwards, and needs to be reinstalled as well. I heard that World of Warcraft doesn't need registry entries to run, so I would be able to play directly, without reinstalling WoW. I hope that is true, because installing WoW isn't really a short process. Can anyone confirm this?
- posted by Tobold @ 8:21 AM Permanent Link
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The only installs I've ever had of WOW were cut and pasted from a friend's computer to avoid the long download-thousands-of-updates problem. Never had a problem running it at all. (between my BF and myself we've got four WoW copies; three of these have never been used.)
WoW runs without reinstalling, since it recreates the registry settings at startup (if they don't exist).
# posted by 
: 31/10/06 10:22
: 31/10/06 10:22
I can understand you frustration Tobold but before you go re-installing Windows it would be worth double checking that this is not a hardware problem. Unlike previous versions of windows XP is pretty stable and doesn't accumulate tonnes of crap over the years.
Run Memtest386 to really test your memory.
Check inside your box and make sure all cables and cards are seated properly
Make sure your coooling fans are working properly
If you have any add in cards try removing them one by one to see if this resolves the problem.
Thread here discusses the error message
http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=308429
Its a bit disjointed but in the case of most of the people who got that error message it turned out to need a hardware fix.
Run Memtest386 to really test your memory.
Check inside your box and make sure all cables and cards are seated properly
Make sure your coooling fans are working properly
If you have any add in cards try removing them one by one to see if this resolves the problem.
Thread here discusses the error message
http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=308429
Its a bit disjointed but in the case of most of the people who got that error message it turned out to need a hardware fix.
# posted by : 31/10/06 10:30
: 31/10/06 10:30
I ran Memtest386 when I got the computer, and didn't find any problems. While theoretically a hardware problem could have developed with time, I sure hope that isn't the case, because I wouldn't know how to fix it. I have never changed the hardware of this machine. It is not a self-built machine, but a Dell, and I'm not very good at fiddling with hardware.
I find software problems more likely, and even more importantly, easier to fix. Recently I uninstalled some graphics demo, and ended up destroying the Arial.ttf font. Installing and uninstalling software has a tendency to mess up drivers and similar stuff, even if I agree that Windows XP is more stable than previous versions of Windows.
I find software problems more likely, and even more importantly, easier to fix. Recently I uninstalled some graphics demo, and ended up destroying the Arial.ttf font. Installing and uninstalling software has a tendency to mess up drivers and similar stuff, even if I agree that Windows XP is more stable than previous versions of Windows.
Another topic: 41? Welcome to the club. Luckily I am not the oldest one in my guild ;)
# posted by : 31/10/06 12:43
: 31/10/06 12:43
On my old comp (about 5 years old now I think) I've never reinstalled Windows, though I contribute that to it having Windows XP. With the 9X series you more or less had to reinstall every few months or it would be much to unstable. Since WinXP everything is much more stable. It's just recently that my girlfriend (who takes over my old comps when I'm done with them. :) ) has begun complaining that it feels slow. I haven't check out what's wrong, but I'm guessing it just needs some tuning like defragging and such.
I've got a few friends with some very bad experiences though with brand computers where the install files for Windows and such are placed on a separate partition and without sending the Windows install CD with the comp. It seems like that partition can easily crash, dragging all information on the HD with it. I'm sure that there are lots of people out there with no problems like that, but personally I've seen it a few times now in a relatively short time so I would avoid that kind of setup myself.
I've got a few friends with some very bad experiences though with brand computers where the install files for Windows and such are placed on a separate partition and without sending the Windows install CD with the comp. It seems like that partition can easily crash, dragging all information on the HD with it. I'm sure that there are lots of people out there with no problems like that, but personally I've seen it a few times now in a relatively short time so I would avoid that kind of setup myself.
# posted by : 31/10/06 13:00
: 31/10/06 13:00
I'd definitely check your memory again. Random crashes are often the result of a corrupt memory stick. And it's a lot easier to plug in a new stick (and upgrade while you're at it), then reinstall your OS all of your software.
# posted by : 2/11/06 00:42
: 2/11/06 00:42
44 here. My sons introduced me to WOW a few months ago. I play with them at home, but also on the road. I'm the oldest player I know, and this used to make me feel, just that, old. However, this has passed. Even though I meet a lot of teens and twenties, I've come to understand, that in the game, age has no meaning, and we treat eachother as equals.... until proven otherwise.
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# posted by : 23/11/06 17:13
: 23/11/06 17:13<< Home
