I call it 'blue screen'

Why doncha tell the folks what kind of operating system you have and how much RAM and whatnot? They always seem to want to know that stuff.

In addition to letting us know your computer hardware/software design please can you state exactly the error message you see. Perhaps take a screenshot of it and post it here.

It all helps.

It's a Dell Latitude laptop with 512K RAM and a 40g hard drive (3 free).

I can't take a screen shot because it's a fatal error screen that totally disables the system and requires a hard shutdown.

From what I remember it says to check new hardware and software installations (none) and then to contact administrator to disable BIOS and caching.

Then at the bottom of the screen it says

"Starting phyiscal memory dump"

and a few more things (I'll write it down the next time it happens).

Since you only have 3mb free, you may want to free up some disk space.

It 3 gigabytes free, but yes, I need to offload some of the older projects. I don't think hard drive space is related to the memory dumps, but it is definitely associated with downloading large files.

No definite answer but a few more suggestions.

>>Downloading large files with too little disk space can cause problems. You definitely need to free up space or add more.

>>As part of your error message are you seeing something like this on screen.....

driver_IRQL_not_less_or_equal

Advice is to update all drivers for everything on your computer including the USB connections.

>>Your PSU may be failing. Maybe you should check it out.

>>Do you have an HP printer attached? For example, the Officejet d145?
Apparently there is/was a conflict between intel usb-chipset and the hp software which neither HP or Intel had a solution for. It was known to cause the dump you describe.

There were, at one time, many, many topics in the HP IT forum about this issue going back years. HP seemed to be in a state of denial about it while many of HP's customers were tearing their hair out. Maybe HP resolved this or maybe it's the cause of your trouble.

>>Try connecting only the usb keyboard as well as updating the usb drivers.

>>One user said he found the cause of his trouble ... (quote) .."Found out the wife had been plugging in USB memory sticks 'n' pulling them out without stopping them first. This could have been part of the problem. Reinstalled 2000 with SP4." After this he reports all was well.

>>External hard drives claim to be 'plug and play' but the installation instructions can be quite complex and do not allow you necessarily to connect via a USB power external hub. Sound like your setup?

>>Are you on the tempramental W2000 operating system? Moving up to XP may help resolve this.

Hope something here helps. Whether or not it does please post back to let us know how you are getting on.

Yes! I'll check into that, thanks!



HP Business inkjet 2300



It's mostly running through a docking station. I've seen the error while directly connected as well.



No external hard drives.



XP Professional


Thanks for all the input. I'll check out the drivers and the PSU as well as offload some of the old projects.

Thanks again!

I'm pretty fed up with this system....

One of the suggestions on the "blue screen" error is to disable BIOS caching and/or shadowing.

How do I do that and what is the downside?

Do you have an Nvidia card installed? Have a read here ....

http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t185253-how-do-i-turn-off-shadowing-in-bios.html

See if anything helps.

Let us know.

E.

Its likely BIOS Caching isn't gonna be a factor on your machine, JPB ... with contemporary motherboards/chipsets it just ain't there - its functionality is pretty much limited to Win9x or other DOS-based operating systems.

First thing I'd do is clean up your hard drive ... its best to have at least 33% free, more free space is better of course, but without at least a third of your drive free, you're going to find it difficult to defrag - as in takes a lot of time, defrag starts, stops, and restarts frequently, and many files will not defragment - if not actually impossible to defragment your drive.

External hard drives are cheap - get one and get busy. One tip: when you start moving files off your old drive, stop and think why each file is there - when is the last time you used that file, and why, and is it likely you'll use it again? You'll prolly be amazed to discover how many duplicate files you have, and how many totally useless files too.

Also, check to be certain you have the latest versions of ALL of your installed system component drivers (sound card, video card, network card, optical drive, magnetic drive, modem, USB, Firewire, keyboard, mouse, wireless (802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth, IrDA) etc) and peripheral drivers (printer, scanner, camera, game control input device, video capture device, whatever plugs into your machine), and of course be certain your operating system and other software all are fully patched and up to date.