System Instabiliy With Blue Screen Errors

[blackmetal84]

I hope someone can help me here.

A lot of times when I am working on my computer I get random blue screen errors. Most of the time I am on the Internet, and it will just randomly blue screen. I also cannot install any programs on the computer or it blue screens. I couldn't even update the computer with Microsoft Service Pack 3! God help me if I virus scan or use a spyware detection program.

I am running Windows XP on a HP 734n.

[blackmetal84]

The computer may be detecting some toxic file being downloaded from a website and decide to shut down your computer to protect it. What are you browsing when it happens? Some particular site or just totally random?

Completely random.

BTW it is a always a Page Fault in Non-Paged error blue screen.

[Delta 88]

Without the specific error message, it's kind of difficult to diagnose.

Absent that, here's what I'd do:
1. Buy another hard drive, and a hard drive cradle w/ USB connection. (Turns an internal hard drive into a portable external drive)
2. Remove your old hard drive and replace it with the new one.
3. Reinstall Windows.
4. Take your old drive, install it into the cradle, and plug it into a USB port.
5. Transfer your files from the old drive to the new one. You'll have to reinstall your programs, but at least you'll have a fresh Windows installation.

If you still get the error message after that, your motherboard and/or memory are wearing out.

Edit: "Page Fault in Non-Paged error", huh? My solution above will DEFINITELY fix that problem.

[Clorox]

How much RAM are you running? If you are in dual mode, take one out at a time and see what happens as you run your computer (make sure the remaining stick is in the single socket). If you're still experiencing problems then do a memtest (www.memtest86.org). If you're showing errors then all you may need to do is replace your memory. If it comes clean then you will probably have to replace your HD (try to an earlier restore. May not work, but I have seen some crazy things that do work with computers).

If you have any questions about running memtest, just holler.