computer blue screening

rrrquel422 · 07-26-2003, 09:32 PM

Hello. I've been having this problem with my computer for the past few months, although it is getting worse day by day. My computer is blue screening and giving me the following errors.
BAD_POOL_CALLER
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

It tends to give me these errors when I use the eraser tool in my Adobe Photoshop 5.5 application, which is extremely annoying as I and my boyfriend are Photoshop artists. At first, it only happened only once in a while, but now it happens every time I use the eraser tool, and sometimes when I use the median tool, selection tool or crop tool.
Sometimes the blue screen says to uninstall any virus scanners, which I have, and to check for adequate disk space, which I have enough of. I'm thinking that something is wrong with the memory somehow, but I can't figure out how to check my computer or what to do! I'm not a computer person. >_<

Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Raquel

*Randall* · 07-26-2003, 11:21 PM

The "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA" error might indicate defective memory, either in the system or your video card. But these errors could also be created by software incompatibilities. A few questions:

Do any of the messages refer to a particular file or piece of hardware?

Is this Windows 2000 or XP, and has the system been upgraded from a prior version of windows?

Since it's been going on for a few months, the usual question -- did you recently install a new piece of hardware or software? -- is probably hard to answer.

Randall

rrrquel422 · 07-27-2003, 02:54 AM

I have Windows XP, but the computer originally started with it.
And it does specify some files, but only sometimes. They are:
fastfat.sys, win32k.sys and wdmaud.sys
There is no recently installed hardware or software on it... all of that was removed, thinking that was the problem, so nope, now there's nothing on it that wasn't on it when we first got it.
Anyway, I try to check these files out, and I can find them, they're drivers, but I don't know what to do about them. I probably shouldn't delete them, because my computer probably needs them.. and I don't know why they're having a problem.
We also don't have a video card.

*Randall* · 07-27-2003, 03:50 AM

You do have an onboard video controller of some kind, even if it doesn't have its own dedicated memory. The Advanced tab in Display properties will tell you what it is, which might have a bearing on this.

What kind of processor do you have (Pentium, Celeron, Athlon, etc)? Do you have Service Pack 1 installed?

I'm focusing on the win32k.sys error. It seems to come up a lot in connection with certain AMD processors, Nvidia geForce graphics chips and Service Pack 1, but not limited to those. There's a long thread at annoyances.org on the subject. Some people have had success upgrading the video drivers, replacing the RAM, cleaning the contacts on the RAM modules, reducing the memory speed (AMD mostly), or even putting an extra fan in to cool some chips that were overheating.

On the other hand, antivirus software might cause an error like this. You should also try booting in safe mode, which may help you distinguish between a driver problem and flaky hardware.

Randall

*Syneryder* · 07-27-2003, 06:47 AM

Without really knowing what I'm talking about, fastfat.sys suggests to me it's making use of virtual memory, and I'm pretty sure wdmaud.sys is something to do with the Windows Audio subsystem. Deleting these files would be a bad thing, because they're essential

The wdmaud.sys interests me... what soundcard do you have? Or is that built-in as well?

*Randall* · 07-27-2003, 07:17 AM

From what I can tell, fastfat.sys is the FAT file system driver -- so no, you wouldn't want to be deleting that one...

Randall

rrrquel422 · 07-27-2003, 02:39 PM

We don't have a video card at all. I'm sure of that.
However, I think we do have Nvidia geForce graphics, I think I saw that.. I'm going to uninstall that after I finish posting this. You mentioned Advanced tab in Display options, where exactly is that? (god, I'm such an idiot, sorry!)
The computer also told me to check for BIOS updates and disable BIOS memory options such as caching and shadowing.. how do I do that?

*Randall* · 07-27-2003, 03:53 PM

You don't really want to uninstall the graphics driver -- but you can update it. Go to www.nvidia.com and download the latest Detonator FX driver package.

As for the BIOS, that's different on every computer. For a brand-name PC you should find BIOS information and updates on the manufacturer's web site. Otherwise you'll need to determine who made your BIOS -- Award, Phoenix, etc -- and find their web site.

The BIOS name and version usually appears at the beginning of the computer startup. If all you see is a company logo (Intel does that a lot) hit Esc when it first comes up.

Randall