Blue Screen of Death Crash?

[Cycloptersaurus]

Okay, so I’ve been having this issue on and off for months now. Every once in a while, I will do something, be it open a program, enter an address in a browser, and whenever I click “enter” and the process begins, my computer locks up for several seconds, and I get this blue screen of death:

http://www.devastationstudios.com/images/bsod.jpg

A while ago, I had hard drive and memory problems, and they have both since been replaced – this problem has started since then. I did run memtest and it failed to find any errors. It seems to me that this is likely a memory thing, but I don’t know. Everything seems fine when I restart the computer. When I reboot, Windows can’t narrow down the problem apparently, but I am redirected to a web page where I am told it’s probably Memory, HD, Mobo, or something else (I don’t recall what it was now), but I think it’s just a catch-all error response thing.

For a long time, it would only happen very rarely, but lately it seems to happen at least once a day. I’m thinking this is gonna be a serious problem – anybody have any thoughts as to what this could be, or any suggestions as to how I could solve or at least narrow down the issue? I'm posting this here because I'm guessing it's a memory problem, but if you think another section would be a better fit, let me know.

I am running XP x64 SP2, an Athlon 64 4400+, 2 gigs of ram.

 

[hstuehmeyer2000]

Is your computer overclocked?

 

[srbarcena]

0x0000009C: MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION
Good MSDN Article -> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ms795775.aspx

This is a hardware issue: an unrecoverable hardware error has occurred. The parameters have different meanings depending on what type of CPU you have but, while diagnostic, rarely lead to a clear solution. Most commonly it results from overheating, from failed hardware (RAM, CPU, hardware bus, power supply, etc.), or from pushing hardware beyond its capabilities (e.g., overclocking a CPU).

* Error Message: STOP: 0x0000009C... {KB 329284} Win XP http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329284&sd=RMVP
* Understanding and Troubleshooting the Stop 0x0000009C Screen {KB 162363} Win NT4, Win 2000 http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=162363&sd=RMVP


Could be a CPU heat issue. What are your temps at idle? I would try re-seating your heatsink. Overclocking would also be a culprit. as stated


I keep this as a bookmark for a handy reference. hope it helps! http://www.aumha.org/a/stop.php

 

[d3m0n5]

A list of things it could be...
CPU temperature
Power delivery (check your power supply), swap it out.
North/Southbridge defect (hard to diagnose)
Sata cable (replace and don't bend too tight!)

If you have overclocked, default back to default clock speeds first.

Also try doing some BIOS/chipset driver updates. Manufacturers don't disclose the full list of bugfixes for a reason. If you were a big company with 2000 ASUS motherboards to deliver in working systems, would you buy those 2000 motherboards knowing there is a issue that needs to be fixed with a BIOS update first (2000x xxx manhours to update each board BIOS)?