# Recoverd from a serious error



## JrDave2324

In the last 10 minutes if gotten a message saying that the system has recovered from a serious error. I have no idea why, I wasnt even at the computer when the message occurred. I said a device driver installed on my system caused the error. I looked at the error report contents and these two files are in the report:

C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini08704-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\DAVIDB~1\Temp\WER2.tmp.dir00/sysdata.xml


any ideas as to what is happeneing??


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## Lorand

The minidump-ed file contains information about the crash for debugging purposes.
Most probably it’s a driver issue... If you know what driver caused the crash, try reinstalling it.


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## extraction

Assuming you're running XP if this is the first time you've seen this don't worry it won't be the last.  I noticed with mine when the Service Packs were added the frequency became less.  Also XP has issues with cable modems if USB rather than Ethernet cable is used and will cause random crashes like this...


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## JrDave2324

hmmm, and another thing that keeps happening is when i update through Windows Automatic Updates i keep getting a message about 

"Files that are required for windows do run properly have been replaced by unrecognized versions"

"The netowrk location from which the files should be copied, C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386/controls.man, is not available..."

what is this now?


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## Lorand

This is because you probably haven't been logged in as administrator during the update.


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## JrDave2324

but i am the only user on the computer, so therefore i am the administrator


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## Praetor

> "Files that are required for windows do run properly have been replaced by unrecognized versions"


What updates?


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## JrDave2324

oh i dunno, whatever the automatic updater installed....when i said "Files that are required for windows do run properly have been replaced by unrecognized versions" i meant "Files that are required for windows *to* run properly have been replaced by unrecognized versions"

and yet two more problems...
1. i have the monitor turning off power after like 5 minutes. l every so often it wont turn back on after i move the mouse or hit a key on the keyboard.
2. the system found new hardware, a floppy drive, and installed the drivers....but i have no floppy drive!!!!

what the heck is happening here???!!?!?


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## JrDave2324

ok so forget all those problems i stated before, i reformatted the hard drive and most went away. now im left with one problem....windows xp randomly freezes. sometimes ill be movin a file, using windows update, or whatever itll just freeze. keyboard doesnt do anything, mouse doesnt either. this happened before the reformat also, not it just doesnt happen quite as frequently. why is this happening?? any clues?


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## Lorand

Memory problem?


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## Praetor

Is there mass harddrive vacinity before/during these oddities? Overheating issues?


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## JrDave2324

what do you mean by "mass harddrive vacnities"?


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## tristan

I would check 
1: The memory, download memtest86 and run it (google it)
2: Check the hard drive, what brand hard drive do you have so I can link you?
3: CPU temp and voltages , download MBM5 (google it also)


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## Praetor

> "mass harddrive vacnities"?


That's me typing when (a) in bed (b) having not slept in 4 days. I meant "activities"


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## tristan

lol i thought you were trying to say "Vacancies" like holes where data used to be and got deleted. haha i almost was gunna say "maybe he means to defragment.." but didnt want to look stupid.


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## JrDave2324

no not really...

but i reformatted again today (why? i dont know) and updated the BIOS and it seems to be working fine now (knock on wood). so maybe all it needed was the BIOS update. i was using F1 and F4 had just been released so lets hope this does it. also i think it may have been something with the graphics card drivers, so i downloaded the most recent version of those too.

so lets hope its smooth sailin and i dont mess it up again somehow!


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## JrDave2324

ok so maybe that didnt work...still freezing.
last time it froze while i was running this program called Everest Home Edition, and the time before that it froze while i was talkin on AIM. I am completely out of ideas on what to do!! this is the most annoying thing in the world!


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## Lorand

Have you checked the memory?


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## Praetor

Was their mass harddrive activity before/during this?


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## JrDave2324

ok i do not understand how to use that memtest86, and that MBM5 seems to be just like the EasyTune program that came with my mobo. so if someone could explain how to use memtest86 thatd be good. and what readings do you need from mbm5?

and i do not believe there was mass harddrive activity before it, what would be an example of that?

and i just noticed in easytune4 it says my CPU B is running at 28C, weird because its never run that low before.


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## Praetor

> and I just noticed in easytune4 it says my CPU B is running at 28C, weird because its never run that low before.


Sounds like the mobo temp


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## JrDave2324

heres an example of it freezing. i had just minimized AIM to the tray, i had winamp playing, had a web page up, and then i closed the folder where the files i was playin in winamp were and then the computer froze..


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## extraction

Since your computer is not x86 architecture, I'm assuming memtest86 cannot be used - am I wrong on this?? Nonetheless, Microsoft has a free download to check your RAM from a bootable floppy or CD.  I d/l this last night and had done a full RAM scan within 15 min from a floppy.  My RAM turned out to be OK, maybe this will lead you somewhere though...

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
WinXP Home
Gigabyte 7ADX
AMD Athlon XP 1800+
Kingston 512 MB PC 2100 DDR
Currently Hard Reseting for No Reason, Planning Voltage Checks Later


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## JrDave2324

hey extraction thanks for that test. its gotta be something with my RAM, cuz it passes the first test, fails the second and third, and then freezes during the fourth. so what does this mean? and what should i do?

thanks again for everyones help!


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## Lorand

So your memory is fried...
I had once a memory module that passed every tests except the last one. And it caused me big troubles...
So it's time to change your memory modules. Unless is something wrong with your mobo...


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## extraction

That program should let you isolate which stick is giving you the trouble (assuming you have 2 x 512 MB)...the link I gave you has the user's guide...or you could just test each stick individually in the #1 DIMM socket on your Motherboard...


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## JrDave2324

yeah but this memory is less than two months old so how can it be fried?

and the problem is, i cant even get to the end of the test for it to tell me which stick is causing the problems....so i guess ill test em seperately and go from there


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## JrDave2324

ok so i tested each stick in the first slot, and they both passed the test 8 times without a single error.

so ill test 'em together again and see what happens

EDIT: ok so i tested them together and the test froze again. i then switched the RAM that was in slot 2 to slot 3 and it still failed. so that means theres somethin wrong with the RAM slots on my mobo correct? or is it somethin else


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## Lorand

I had a similar problem with a Matsonic mobo (btw: don't you ever buy Matsonic) which caused memory read/write problems if the memory amount was more than 512 MB. After a mobo-upgrade everything runs fine.


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## Praetor

> yeah but this memory is less than two months old so how can it be fried?


Age doesnt mean anything.



> i cant even get to the end of the test for it to tell me which stick is causing the problems...


Sounds like a problem in and of itself ... try disabling the Dual Channel.


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## JrDave2324

can i do that in the bios or what?

with disabling that would i still be able to use the two sticks??


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## Praetor

Yeah you can probably disable dual channel in BIOS... wait... what am i smoking.... just pop the 2 sticks of RAM into different, non-DC slots and its automatically disabled.


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## JrDave2324

non-dual channel slots? i only have three slots to begin with, so how does that work?


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## JrDave2324

ok well, ill prolly buy a different kind of non-dual channel memory and see how that works out. can someone reccomend some good 184-pin DDR (non-dual channel) RAM, right around the same performance level as my current RAM 

or if theres a way i can make it work with my current memory thatd be good too!


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## Praetor

> non-dual channel slots? I only have three slots to begin with, so how does that work?


Depending on which slots you put ur memory into you can (dis)enable your Dual channel mode.



> can someone reccomend some good 184-pin DDR (non-dual channel) RAM,


"Dual channel" memory is the same as "normal" memory. "Dual channel" is just a marketing gimmick for "matched" pairs (actually sometimes they arent even matched). Pretty much any brandname memory should be good to go


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## JrDave2324

ok so i got an e-mail back from Gigabyte and they said because Geil isnt name brand they cant guarentee compatability.....so i think im gonna sell the two sticks of Geil. Now the e-mail said that Kingston and Crucial have the best compatability with my mobo. so would you go with 2 of these Crucial or this Kingston package


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## Praetor

Probably the Kingston's but realistically it doesnt matter much ... jkust go with the cheaper route


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## dcmcgrain

*Similar Issue*

I got the same error regarding "ServicePackFiles/i386/conrtols.man" being replaced by an unrecognized version... it occured when I was running Windows Update with the XP Update KB900725.

My comp was having major issues. I did a lot to try to fix it. No luck. I eventually uninstalled SP2, reinstalled Windows XP, and deleted a ton of old/unnecessary data and problems.

When I first ran Windows Update I got this error message. It seems to have had little affect on the computer - I think, it hasn't been long enough to tell, really.

I'm just confused as to what this could mean??? Could it be an issue???

And I'm guessing the work I was doing counts as "Major HD activity"

--
Dell Dimension 4600
Intel Pent4 2.8GHz
512 MB RAM
Windows XP Home, SP1
purchased in Summer 03.


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