Fatal Errors everywhere - please help!

[jamiso12]

Finally decided to buckle down and record some of the errors I've been getting. note: these are not all of the errors I've been getting, only the ones that I've gotten within the last 2 hours of fiddling around.

My System specs, first off, are:
Processor:         AMD Athlon 64 3500+ san diego version
Motherboard:     A8N32 SLI Deluxe (Wired network version)
R.A.M:              Crucial Ballistix DDR2 1024 mb (dual channel 512's). Not quite sure on the timing.
Video Cards:      Nvidia e-GeForce 6800GS 256mb GDDR3 Evega (X2)
Harddrive:         250gb ATA 150 (Sata 2 I believe)
Soundcard:       Soundblaster Audigy 4
Power supply:    550 watt Antec dual fan, very nice
Other:              Junky 40 gig HD, two fairly junky DVD burners, floppy drive etc. Using the onboard network card from the a8n32 for it's quality (one of the two onboard network ports). All other onboard devices are disabled.

The problem all started while playing Everquest. At first it was a Fatal Error from Vol_snap.sys (disabling Sound drivers didn't help) and only when I was in a loading point in the game. Also, not very frequent. As I continued to ignore it, as it wasn't all that bad, I started to get different errors from random drivers, some not even in use at the moment. All while not in load screens. Now I can boot up about one in 3 times if I'm lucky, and any game activity or downloading is out of the question without a fatal error reboot each time it's tried.
I tried it out with a few other games, like Dark messiah, Halflife 2, and did some tests on music (which has stopped working).

Starting from about 2 hours ago:

1. While at standstill on desktop (tray loading: Steam, Google updater, AIM, AVG, Windows Firewall, and sound drivers)
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
***STOP: 0x00000000A (0x000000000, 0x000000002, 0x000000001, 0x8051e106
Memory dump starts

2. Loading up Dark Messiah (processes for it had taken place, but no window yet)
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
***STOP: 0x000000050 (0xf10c6c80, 0x000000000, 0x805437b2, 0x000000000)

3. Blinked an error while booting, right when windows would take over.
Got past it after that and was able to move some files around on sata drive. (operating system is on the junky harddrive).
Dark Messiah Multiplayer was unresponsive and didn't even bring up a process.
Device manager is clear of driver/device errors
Music Unresponsive, no sound output.

4. 5th try getting a song to play with windows media player 10 I got:
(unerror-marked)
***STOP: 0x00000008e (0xc-------5, 0x80620302, 0xb938dc40, 0x000000000

5. System Restore did nothing except disable my sound permanently it seems

6. Clicked on Internet explorer and after loading proxy settings it immediately flashed a fatal blue error by with no memory dump so I couldn't possibly read it.

7. Went to play another music file and got:
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
***STOP: 0x00000008e (0x0c0000005, 0xbf82d787, 0xb915b7f0, 0x000000000
win32k.sys address bf82d787 base at bf800000, datestamp 41107f7a

8. Computer ran a Video Stress Test from halflife 2: the lost coast perfectly until freezing about 10 seconds through. Computer itself wasn't frozen but couldn't get out of halflife's full screen so was forced to restart again.

9. (last one) I think I was getting online
AN_ATEMPT_WAS_MADE_TO_WRITE_TO_READ-ONLY_MEMORY
STOP: 0x00000000be (0xf1eece0c, 0x1722b121, 0xb91e0c70, 0x000000a1)
ctac32k.sys address fleec0c base at flec8000, datestamp 42b34640

Alright guys, hope that's enough info to give a narrowed search on the problem. So far I've got my finger pointed at the harddrive, RAM, powersupply, motherboard, software, and windows... anything would help, never dealed with anything with fatal errors except for a RAM issue with my last computer. (hoping to not reformat my harddrive unless I have to, since windows is a bugger to convince that you had to reformat so you don't loose your copy's 'legalness').

If you need anything else feel free to post here / E-mail me at [email protected].

[pcdoc4christ]

Here is what MS says about stop 0xA errors:

"Stop error 0x0000000A (Stop 0x0A) indicates that there was an attempt in kernel mode to touch pageable memory at too high a process internal request level (IRQL). Typically, this error occurs when a driver uses an incorrect memory address. Other possible causes of this error are an incompatible device driver, a general hardware problem, and incompatible software."

In other words: If you added a new hardware device, a hardware item inside the computer case is failing, or you have installed an incompatible program, that might be the cause.  

You can read more about this stop error when you click on one of the links at this Web site:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=0x0000000A+site%3Amicrosoft.com&btnG=Search

The place i would start is the Everest program.  Boot your computer to Safe Mode (pressing F8 during startup) and use the Add/Remove Programs applet of the Control Panel to remove it.  

If you cannot get to your desktop in Safe Mode, choose the Last Known Good Configuration on the boot menu instead.  If you can get to the desktop then, uninstall the Everest program. If this does not work, it might be that your hard drive, video card, motherboard, or something else is going bad and needs to be replaced.

[jamiso12]

Yes, I see. However, the problem with deleting the everquest program is that System restore already set back the update. I set it back to January 28. At that time I didn't have the problem at all and since I restored to the point I haven't bothered re-updating everquest files. Also, as far as I know, Everquest has no activity or say in the system start-up, or the way it runs unless it's running at the moment. Unless you still find reason I'd rather avoid the 3 hour download heh.

Hopefully it's not hardware. When I get access to another harddrive I'll try a clean operating system to decifer software vrs hardware. Until then more suggestions are always nice to have.

[pcdoc4christ]

...The problem all started while playing Everquest. At first it was a Fatal Error from Vol_snap.sys (disabling Sound drivers didn't help) and only when I was in a loading point in the game. ...

I did a google for vol_snap.sys and came up with nothing.  That tells me you either spelled it wrong, or no one has ever had the same problem you have had and lived to tell about it , or one of the many games you downloaded has a home-grown virus or Trojan horse that is using the vol_snap.sys file in its efforts to infect your system, or steal your personal information, or take over your computer.

You can try reinstalling Windows:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341

Make sure you read the info at these links carefully before you reinstall.

I'd recommend you use only games you purchase in a reputable store from now on.

[jamiso12]

None of my games are downloaded, however, Everquest is a MMORPG so I get updates from Sony.. but I would hope I can trust them to not infect me. Also official packs for Dark Messiah and Steam updates for Halflife 2, other then that I don't download anything non-legit from the internet. Ubisoft, Valve, Sony.. I severely doubt that's the problem.

Yah you're right, Spelled it wrong /sigh.. volsnap is correct spelling without the accursed space. It's in INF. seems like a cheesy driver looking in from notepad:

[Version]
Signature="$WINDOWS NT$"
Class=VolumeSnapshot
ClassGuid={533C5B84-EC70-11d2-9505-00C04F79DEAF}
Provider=%MSFT%
LayoutFile=layout.inf
DriverVer=07/01/2001,5.1.2600.0

[ClassInstall32.NT]
AddReg=volume_snapshot_class_addreg

[volume_snapshot_class_addreg]
HKR,,,,%VolumeSnapshotClassName%
HKR,,SilentInstall,,1
HKR,,NoInstallClass,,1
HKR,,Icon,,"-53"

[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir = 12 ; DIRID_DRIVERS

[Manufacturer]
%MSFT%=MSFT

[MSFT]
%STORAGE\VolumeSnapshot.DeviceDesc%=volume_snapshot_install,STORAGE\VolumeSnapshot

[volume_snapshot_install]
;
; Nothing to do (these devices are raw).  We just needed an INF
; match so these don't show up as "unknown" devices.
;

[volume_snapshot_install.Interfaces]
AddInterface={53F5630D-B6BF-11D0-94F2-00A0C91EFB8B}

[volume_snapshot_install.Services]
AddService = ,2, ; Run the device RAW

[GX1_Man]

None of my games are downloaded, however, Everquest is a MMORPG so [highlight]I get updates from Sony.. but I would hope I can trust them to not infect me[/highlight]. Also official packs for Dark Messiah and Steam updates for Halflife 2, other then that I don't download anything non-legit from the internet. Ubisoft, Valve, Sony.. I severely doubt that's the problem.

Sony - King of the Rootkits. I would never make that assumption.  

[ale52]

Sounds like a wipe and reinstall is in order here  

Alan <><  

[jamiso12]

It doesn't seem that sony is the problem since the 12,000 other people playing the game haven't had trouble as far as I know. However, yah I'll most definately need a wipe. At this point it's in a boot loop and I'm on my secondary computer, which, sadly can't play any game past quake 3 heh. I get my window's disc tomarrow, along with access to some blank harddrives so hopefully that fixes it. I'm quite certain that it will.

Well thanks for the input guys. Have a feeling this will be resolved by tomarrow.

[pcdoc4christ]

...Yah you're right, Spelled it wrong /sigh.. volsnap is correct spelling without the accursed space. It's in INF. seems like a cheesy driver looking in from notepad...

The driver might be cheesy, but it is still a legitimate Windows driver:

http://www.file.net/process/volsnap.sys.html

It might be the driver has become corrupted and doing a repair installation of Windows will replace it.  You would not have to reformat with a repair installation (see my link in the previous reply).  

[jamiso12]

Alright, finally resolved. Problem turned out to be the RAM. Strangely when I switched out the sticks before I still got a fatal error. Turns out that the error I had gotten at that point was a minor game (video) glitch that was fixed instantly upon reseting.. my luck that it happened at that point I guess. Figured it out with a mem test (to make sure). Sure enough 55% came round in the test and got an error on every sector after that. Took the second stick out again and everything ran well again... dispite it being slow from low amount of RAM now.

Best program in the world = Ultimate boot disc. It gives you not only a bootable windows disc that's not illegal, but also allows you to run numerous system checks right off the CD, including memtest, scandisk, disc defrag, and alot more.

Going to go activate the warranty. Thanks for the input guys