This just started popping up on me. (see picture) It seems like the only time I get this error or the DR. WATSON crap is whenever I access my ide HD. (used only for storage)

My mobo is an ASUS K8V, with a 3400+ chip. I have 1.5GB of generic ram. Windows is installed on a SATA HD, only other drives in the system are a dvd burner, and my ide storage drive (one that seems to cause the problem).

Is this a problem with my ram? or could it be the drive? I"m confused because I've used this setup for a long time and this just started happening.

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have you run programs like memtest86?

www.memtest86.com

I get that same type of error when closing out of Counter-Strike source, I think it's just something messed up with my windows install. I can run memtest all the way through without errors. :-/

I ran Memtest and everything seems ok. I really don't want to reinstall windows because I have everything the way I like it.... But I can't handle this error thing much longer.

i would run a diagnotisic on the hdd just to be safe...

and next time that error orrcurs... look in the appilcation and system event logs...

if you see the error in the system logs... its hardware related

if you see it in the appilication logs its software realated

Quote: Originally Posted by THRiLL KiLL i would run a diagnotisic on the hdd just to be safe... and next time that error orrcurs... look in the appilcation and system event logs... if you see the error in the system logs... its hardware related if you see it in the appilication logs its software realated

Where do I check the logs at? I never did that before.....

Quote: Originally Posted by Bouve124 Where do I check the logs at? I never did that before.....

go to your desktop... you should see an icon that says my computer...

righ click it and choose manage....

it should be called eventlogs....


(or look for administrative tools)

Quote: Originally Posted by THRiLL KiLL go to your desktop... you should see an icon that says my computer... righ click it and choose manage.... it should be called eventlogs.... (or look for administrative tools)

OK thanks.... I kinda thought it was in there but wasn't sure.... The only thing I ever use in the administrative tools is the disk manager. I'm gonna see if I can cause the error again and check it out now.

Quote: Originally Posted by THRiLL KiLL i would run a diagnotisic on the hdd just to be safe... and next time that error orrcurs... look in the appilcation and system event logs... if you see the error in the system logs... its hardware related if you see it in the appilication logs its software realated

ok I'm confused.... I got the error in both logs?

Here is the log from the application event logs:
The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.



Here is the log from the system event logs:
Application popup: Explorer.EXE - Application Error : The instruction at "0x034e3206" referenced memory at "0x034e3206". The memory could not be "written".

So what would you say.... Hardware? And would that be the HD or the RAM then?

Sorry about the double post.... I didn't realize what I was doing....

OK I have to bring this issue back up. I just kind of delt with if for a while, but it got to bothersome. So I thought I would give a fresh install of windows a shot. Well guess what..... no such luck. the problem seems to be worse than ever. Before It seemed to only give me the errors when I would access my storage drive.... IDE 300GB Maxtor. Now it does it if I access that drive or even a folder on my desktop (running on my SATA 120GB Maxtor). Now I have noticed it only seems to get the error if I access a folder with media files in it... video files at least. Now I'm running windows on the SATA drive, and the IDE drive is hooked up to my primary IDE port. Could this be causing a problem? I really need help, its driving me crazy cause the error will pop up before I can even open a media file somtimes. And as far as I know, my memory and HD's are working properly. But maybe I'm wrong.

I just backed up my 40 gigs of rap (well, some R&B liek De La Soul, James Brown, and a Johnny Cash CD -cuz he's a playa -the rest is rap!!) It came down to packing 10 DVD-r's very near the seams and the drive has since "fixed itself" so I never lost anything..
(I'm highly considering a 400GB replacement). As far as mem/HDD -this has not suprisingly been my most frequented issue causing reinstallations of windows. The big problem seems to lie in the fact that certain errors seem to bypass all the detections (ive ran prime+sandra burnin+oblivion all night aswell as memtest without any errors even w/ the Memory Acceleration Technology that does cause problems w/ 4 dimms enabled ) - only days ago my system had a complete meltdown that was soooo bad with its auto-detected (over-SPD) memory tmings that I was getting a hard lock in the video driver initialization -causing a blackSOD right before the welcome screen.
I immediately fixed that by setting the memory manually to run at 3-4-4-8 8clock burst (rather than 4) and as I believe this shouldv'e changed the CMD rate -all the bench apps (Sandra, Everest, etc) are reporting that i'm still running 1t! -I assume this motherboard just doesnt allow 2t at all or something funny.
I also just talked w/ a friend from around town on xfire who has a pretty decent SLI setup (2x 7600GTs) on a X2 3800 w/ an xms 2gb kit and even in his case, though his memory and motherboard are rated up to PC4000 - he apperently has trouble with stability at SPD, and thus also runs 3-4-4-8 1t DDR400. Maybe you should just try the 3-4-4-8 timings (I know from experience mis-matched ram just doesn't run any better than this) and consider trying a few adjustments w/ a PCI latency tool to see if its a minor IRQ issue?..

It's a RAM instability, I can almost 100% guarantee it.

I had the same issue with cs, turned out one of my RAM timings was off, and since my ram has to be set to exact timings, nothing can be off, must be perfect, or else I get that error.

After dealing with this BS problem for quite sometime now....but I finally fixed the problem last night. I noticed that if I opened a folder with videos in it, it would only give me an error once I put the mouse pointed over the file. If I just left the mouse away from the files nothing would happen. So I then realized it was when the file details popped up when you ran the mouse over it was maybe the problem. So I turned that off and WOO HOO no more error. Really strange, but whatever. LOL

Hmmmm... Something tells me you've only masked the issue - such stability issues will probably still reak havok when it gets to the rest of your data later. The remedy just seem kinda like turning on the popup blocker to 'cure' spyware..
But hey, if it works for you-

Quote: Originally Posted by Bouve124 So I then realized it was when the file details popped up when you ran the mouse over it was maybe the problem. So I turned that off and WOO HOO no more error. Really strange, but whatever. LOL

konai is right, you've got rid of the annoying symptom, but the problem still exists. I'd bet that there is some RAM instability here as Wafflesomd pointed out. Have you overclocked your PC, and if so have you changed the memory bus speed or voltage? Try downloading, installing, and running a torture test with Prime95 (Options -> Tortutre Test -> Blend -> Ok): http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm. This will give you an idea of your RAM stability under a load.

If Prime95 runs ok for say an hour, and you don't mind spending some more time trying to solve this, you can also uninstall and re-update your Windows XP SP-2 in case there is some software problem. Service pack 2 touches so many different Windows sub-systems that a simple reinstallation of it fixes a variety of Windows quirky kernel and dll problems.

Here's my two cents to this thread......

Although it may seem like a ram problem. There are other things that could be causing the problem as well. No one mentioned anything about these
1. viruses, hacks, etc. It wouldnt hurt to check that out.......Some could still hang around after a reinstall.
2. Bad ide cable.....since it's only happening when you have your ide drive connected.

On another note on this type of error.......
It could very well be a software (programming) related error. A certain program could be trying to use a memory address that it cannot have access to and give you an error. To figure it out........would mean a reinstall of windows and test it. Then install one program at a time till it the error pops up and wha-la!

I hope this sheds some extra light on this issue.