Blue Screen of Death Error

[SammyG]

My son's Laptop has started BSODing with the error Stop: 0x000000F4 (0x00000003, 0x874EF7D0,0x874EF944,0x805C773E)

I've had a look on the Microsoft help forums and found loads of questions, about this error, but can't find any answers. 

The Laptop is an ACER Aspire 3614WLMi with the following spec:
1.6 GHz Intel Celeron M
1Gb DDR2 RAM
80 Gb HDD
WIndows XP SP2

Anybody any ideas?

[lynchbhoy]

has he been installing software recently?
That could be a cause, and even if not...
did the laptop come with the factory build operating system? These are usually flakey and yer better off re-installing with XP - even though you might lose some of the 'snazzy' inbuilt software pre-installed on the thing. It will be more stable.

yer better off storing all data to external hard disk, installing all software and then taking a ghost image of the laptop with its finished configuration.
then if it fecks up - you simply have to wipe it and re-install the ghost image.

In the long run, this takes less time , less hassle than trying to diagnose the cause for the critical system error (blue screen) - which even if you figure out, is still unstable and will most likely crash shortly after.

[Main Street]

 The blue screen of death,
Does it come before or after start up?

[Declan]

Sammy - My IT guys said the following

Seems MS are researching this one still!. I found this info which will hopefully help. It's not that great a solution though as it means possibly replacing the Hard disk and cable connecting it!. Is laptop still under warranty?. If so I would ring Acer and tell them the situation and ask for the new disk and cable.

Here's the piece I found ..

SYMPTOMS
A computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP or a later operating system stops responding during resume from standby, and you receive the following KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR stop error message:
0x0000007a (e163a3e4,c000000e,bf8e9313,0697f860)
or
0x000000F4 (0x00000003, Parameter2, Parameter3, Parameter4)
Note Parameter2, Parameter3, and Parameter4 in the stop error may vary.

This problem occurs on a computer in which Windows XP or a later operating system is installed on a hard disk that is configured as a subordinate and no other device is connected to the same IDE controller channel (primary or secondary).
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CAUSE
This behavior may occur when you use Windows XP or a later operating system with some motherboards. Microsoft is researching this problem and will post more information in this article when the information becomes available.
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RESOLUTION
To resolve this behavior, use one of the following methods:• For Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA) hard disks, configure your disk drive as master only. For Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) hard disks, connect the hard disk cable to a master channel SATA connector on the motherboard.
• Connect another device as a master, such as another disk drive or a CD drive or DVD drive.
• Change your PATA and SATA IDE cable even if the cable does not appear worn.
• Install Windows on a new hard disk because it is possible that your hard disk or your Windows installation may be corrupted.

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MORE INFORMATION
Steps to reproduce the behavior
1. For PATA hard disks, set the hard disk jumper to slave mode. For SATA hard disks, connect the hard disk cable to a slave channel SATA connector on the motherboard.
2. In BIOS power management, set BIOS to S1 or S3 (STR).
3. Install Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2.
4. Restart the computer.
5. Set the computer to Standby.
6. Try to resume the system. The system stops responding.

maybe this will help
Here's the link .. there's actually another two recommendations on it further down that you could give a go too.

http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-65491-STOP-0x000000F4-Error.html

[SammyG]

The blue screen of death,
Does it come before or after start up?

Machine starts up ok, and then BSODs after a few minutes of use.

[SammyG]

Cheers Declan, I saw that error and have checked the Hard Disk connections and they seem to be OK, but still getting the error.

[Main Street]

A computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP or a later operating system stops responding during resume from standby, and you receive the following KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR stop error message etc etc

Looks to me that fix is to do with waking up after sleep
Assuming the Acer is started up and after after a few minutes of use gets the BSOD, then does that information still apply?.

Why would the Acer be acting normally for a long time then suddenly behave like that?

Has anything been downloaded or installed in the immediate foremath?

I had something similar with one of our windows laptops. I stop all the programs that cut in automatically, I observed what was kicking in before the crash but couldn´t get at the source.
I could save anything relevant and did as Lynchboy suggested earlier
installed XP pro and downloaded the drivers seperately for the notebook from the manufacturer website.

[Lar Naparka]

I had more or less the same problem. BSOD and the error at XXXX
The strings of code don't match up but I know they refer to memory locations in the BIOS. The BIOS is unable to do its work and load Windows.

Now, I tried everything I could think of. I could get as far as trying to launch it in Safe Mode but it hung there.
I went to a computer shop and was told it was a Hard Disk controller error okay. But it was caused by a virus. I'm a bit dubious about getting a virus that can get down to the boot up stage but the repair crowd did manage to fix the error –and charged me €150 to do so.
I was told it was Azureus or one of the other bit torrent programs that downloaded it- the young fella is a devil for hanging around P2P sites.

[Gnevin]

How hot its it getting , check the bios after it BSOD and see what the cpu temp is like

[SammyG]

One of the techies in here has told me he has encountered the error a couple of times - on these occasions a full restore was necessary (suspected malware/virus) - have you your stuff backed up? On speaking to Microsoft they got him to check primary/master connections but none worked, in this case I would just wipe it and go again - as lynchboy has said above, a program such as ImageX is fantastic, once you have setup your machine and all software working on it, then ghost the machine to an external hd - if anything fecks up just restore the image.

That's what I thought the answer would be (unfortunately). My lad's 16 so God only knows what shite he's installed/downloaded  , although the virus and spybot checks are coming up clean. It's got a DVD re-writer so I'll do a data backup and then try doing a clean rebuild and see if that fixes it.

Cheers all.

[lynchbhoy]

One of the techies in here has told me he has encountered the error a couple of times - on these occasions a full restore was necessary (suspected malware/virus) - have you your stuff backed up? On speaking to Microsoft they got him to check primary/master connections but none worked, in this case I would just wipe it and go again - as lynchboy has said above, a program such as ImageX is fantastic, once you have setup your machine and all software working on it, then ghost the machine to an external hd - if anything fecks up just restore the image.

That's what I thought the answer would be (unfortunately). My lad's 16 so God only knows what shite he's installed/downloaded  , although the virus and spybot checks are coming up clean. It's got a DVD re-writer so I'll do a data backup and then try doing a clean rebuild and see if that fixes it.

Cheers all.

before running av , malware or spyware apps
ensure you have the
'turn off system restore on all drives' is NOT checked
this setting is found in
'my computer' properties
'system restore' tab

this can make a diff when running the aforementioned apps

[TBT]

I had the same problem with it crashing numberous times per day and it turned out to be faulty ram. You can download a free memtest programme, burn it on a disk and boot up using said cd. This will tell you if its ram related or not.

[TBT]

TBT - surely the 0x000000F4 wouldnt indicate a memory problem

I was getting a different error code for every crash. There are a no. of usual suspects for BSOD, ram being one. OP, check out computer and tech on boards.ie

[deiseach]

My lad's 16 so God only knows what shite he's installed/downloaded 

Yeah yeah, blame the teenage boy for all that 'shite'!

[illdecide]

A 2 pound lump hammer should fix it no problem