Win 2k3 Shutdown Problem - Application Error

NightFalcon

Senior member
May 22, 2004
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Hi guys, would really appreciate some help on this because I've spent hours on google and come up with nothing on this issue.

I've got a dual Xeon Windows 2003 Standard Server at home that I'm just finishing setting up. Everything has been running fine for the past couple days with one exception. When I shutdown the server windows goes through the regular shutdown sequence, but after the dialog box with the status disappears (leaves just the gray background) a few seconds later I get a critical error message box which reads the following:

'<random process> - Application Error'
'The instruction at "0x2634a53e" referenced memory at "0x2634a53e" Re required data was not placed into memory because of an I/O error status of "0xc0000185".'

This error did not always come up. Actually, a few days back I had to re-install the OS because the previous one wasn't working properly with my ACPI settings - it wasn't able to power down the hardware after the shutdown. Once this new OS was installed I made sure that the restart and shutdown sequences both worked, and they did. After a while, however, I noticed that instead of shutting down the server would restart. I figured this had to be either because of the software that I was putting onto the server, or maybe the device drives.

Surely enough, after a few minutes on google I found that this could be caused by Wake on LAN settings (which only came into play once the network card driver was installed) which I had set to OS Controlled by default. That error that you see above came up only when the Wake on LAN settings on my network card were set to anything but OS Controlled (and on that option the server would simply restart).

Having done some more testing I now realize that this is actually caused by the network card drivers - if the network card is disabled in the hardware manager the server shutdown without any problems. However, reinstalling of the network drivers and modification of different settings do not seem to solve the issue. Right now the best I can do is have the server restart when what I really need is shutdown.

Since this is an I/O error I guess it may also have something to do with my RAID controller (I have an 8-port SATA RAIDCore card), but I don't see how that would be related to network.

Would really appreciate some help with this issue as I'm just about all out of ideas. Right now I'm going over the BIOS settings and just trying out different things that may be related to this, but so fa no luck.

Thanks.
 

NightFalcon

Senior member
May 22, 2004
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Regular PCI is 32-bit 33MHz, but in my case the NIC is built-in to the motherboard, and the RAID card is on a PCI-X 64-bit 66MHz slot. This is not likely to be a hardware issue since on the old OS install the server shutdown without problems, just didn't power down the hardware (Showed the "Now safe to turn off computer" message). The only thing I can think of that is really different from that install is that I updated the BIOS, but I don't see how even that could be the cause since disabling the network card solves the problem.
 

NightFalcon

Senior member
May 22, 2004
218
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Well I'll be damned... I have no idea what's going on but it seems that setting the NIC's "Wake on Link Settings" from disabled (default) to OS Controlled along with Wake on LAN to OS Controlled solves the problem. Go figure... Oh well, at least waking up at 4am didn't go to waste, for once I actually got something useful done :)

Now I'm off to contact supermicro (my motherboard's manufacturer) and let them know about this in case they want to add it to their knowledge base.
 

NightFalcon

Senior member
May 22, 2004
218
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Nope... Guess I spoke too soon :( Two successful shutdowns and we're back to the old. I just don't get this...

[EDIT]
Correction... the shutdown seems to work as described above, but only when the command is issued from the console or by using the power button on the enclosure. When I try to shutdown through RDP the error comes back.