Win2000 Pro error message... WTF? OS or hardware?

[AnitaPeterson]

Hi there, everyone,

I have a problem with my Win2k machine.


My computer started acting up lately - it's crashing with a BSOD, if it's used more than, say 30 minutes.

Here's the complete message on the screen:



*** STOP: 0x0000001E (0xC0000005, 0xEB4432D1, 0x00000000, 0x00000028)
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

*** Address EB4432D1 base at EB440000, DateStamp 39a9fb06 - CLASSPNP.SYS


then, after 10 seconds or so, the following lines are added on the screen, before the computer freezes for good:

Beginning dump of physical memory.
Physical memory dump complete. Contact your system administrator or
technical support group.


Now, this error occured first in mid-October. I made a thread about it then:

http://forums.anandtech.com/arcmessageview.cfm?catid=34&threadid=893120

Smilin gave me the suggestion to call Microsoft - it turned, out, unfortunately, that the hotfix he mentioned was not what I needed. After spending several hours with Microsoft Tech support on the line, during which I unloaded and then reinstalled the video drivers, the tech support suggested that it might be a problem related to hard drive space. He said I should keed at least 1 GB of free HD space available on both my drives. There was no need for a Service Pack (and I'm glad, since SP3 messed up all my divx files, and rendered them unplayable).

And the problem seemed to have been resolved, right before Halloween. Until now.

The computer is crashing again, although I maintained the 1 GB free on each drive. And I can't call Microsoft again - I've used my two instances of free help.

I'm wondering if it's an OS related problem... would migrating to XP make the trouble go away? But then again, what else could be causing the trouble?

I'm really upset about all this, and I'm trying to leave reformatting as a last resort - I have too much data on my two hard drives, and since the crashes occur like this, I can't even burn my stuff on CDs.

Another strange phenomenon that I've noticed is that a few days ago, upon booting, the Promise card couldn't find the HD ("Non-system disk or disk error")... after restarting, it all went through OK... It also made a faint noise - which I've heard before, occasionally, when I turn my computer on! - sounding like a cricket (???).

I opened the case, but nothing seems amiss. I don't even have dust.

A loose cable? Incorrectly seated controller card? bad contacts? The more I think about it, the more upset I get. Is it too much to ask - to have a working machine?

 

[lowtech1]

What did you do to get the CLASSPNP.SYS error?
Did you install a new device or SP3 to get this error?

Can you roll back to the previous registry prior to the upgrade or hardware device.

Have you check MS HAL to make sure the new device is supported by MS?

Try reinstall Windows to see if it helps. If reinstall do it, then a clean install maybe warrant.

For future referent you may want to keep a backup image of your computer and/or a fresh recovery disks prior to a service pack or new hardware upgrade.

Good luck!

 

[Somebody91]

 

[ghostman]

Try testing the memory: http://www.memtest86.com/

I had similar blue screens....it was the memory for me. Of course, my system exhibited the problems from the very beginning, not a few months later.