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  3. Just got my first BSOD in Win Xp

Just got my first BSOD in Win Xp

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  • V Vikram A Punathambekar

    Thanks for the info, Daniel. :) Out of curiosity, could a memory shortage *ever* cause a BSOD? Cheers, Vikram.


    http://www.geocities.com/vpunathambekar

    Google talk: binarybandit

    After all is said and done, much is said and little is done.

    S Offline
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    S Senthil Kumar
    wrote on last edited by
    #12

    Shortage of RAM or virtual memory or address space? The first shouldn't cause problems, the OS will always find a memory page to resolve a page fault, although it would probably result in severe thrashing. As for the second, I'm not sure. The OS can run out of virtual memory when it tries to load some additional data, in which case it will probably crash. Out of address space is very rare, IMO. The OS has 2 GB of address space by default and I'm pretty sure the core OS code manages to run pretty well within that. Of course, malicious drivers can do that, so I guess yes, the OS can potentially crash. Regards Senthil _____________________________ My Blog | My Articles | WinMacro

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    • V Vikram A Punathambekar

      And I suspect the culprit is one of the half dozen Ff extensions I installed today. I even rebooted after installing them, so my suspicions are strengthened. The machine suddenly started acting weird, blocks on the screen went black, and when I tried closing some apps, meaning to reboot, bam! :| What a pity - the extensions I installed were quite nice and useful. :( Cheers, Vikram.


      "When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton.

      L Offline
      L Offline
      Lost User
      wrote on last edited by
      #13

      I've seen hundreds of XP BSODs, but then I develop device drivers and they are all mine! Nunc est bibendum

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      • P Paul Watson

        A FireFox extension caused a BSOD on your machine? Are you sure? Look, I have had FF itself crash many times because of misbehaving extensions but an extension has never interfered with the rest of my system. What hardcore extension do you have installed that can bring down XP? (BTW you can use ListZilla[^] to easily list all your FF extensions.) regards, Paul Watson Ireland Colib and ilikecameras. K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!

        P Offline
        P Offline
        p daddy
        wrote on last edited by
        #14

        Firefox does crash occasionally - I recommend session saver 0.2[^]. When you reload FF, everything is back exactly where you left it! Clever stuff..... -- modified at 9:08 Monday 14th November, 2005

        P 1 Reply Last reply
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        • P p daddy

          Firefox does crash occasionally - I recommend session saver 0.2[^]. When you reload FF, everything is back exactly where you left it! Clever stuff..... -- modified at 9:08 Monday 14th November, 2005

          P Offline
          P Offline
          Paul Watson
          wrote on last edited by
          #15

          Was that reply meant for me? regards, Paul Watson Ireland Colib and ilikecameras. K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!

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          • D Daniel Turini

            Vikram A Punathambekar wrote:

            Out of curiosity, could a memory shortage *ever* cause a BSOD?

            Low memory conditions can *theoretically* cause a BSOD, but, this is more a Win9x thing... What's more probable is that you're overheating your processor, or that increased memory use can be increasing the probability of using a bad memory section, but it's very hard to say without a minidump. As a suggestion, I'd run MemTest86[^]. Just burn the ISO into a CD and boot with it, it'll stress test your memory chips and list anything that is bad. My experience with it is that 50% of the BSODs are simply bad memory chips or mis-configured BIOSes. Sometimes, simply lowering the memory speed can make them work safely. I see dead pixels Yes, even I am blogging now!

            V Offline
            V Offline
            Vikram A Punathambekar
            wrote on last edited by
            #16

            Daniel Turini wrote: MemTest86 Can't. :( The PC in question is my office PC and it doesn't even have a CD Drive. Cheers, Vikram.


            http://www.geocities.com/vpunathambekar

            Google talk: binarybandit

            After all is said and done, much is said and little is done.

            D 1 Reply Last reply
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            • D Daniel Turini

              Vikram A Punathambekar wrote:

              Out of curiosity, could a memory shortage *ever* cause a BSOD?

              Low memory conditions can *theoretically* cause a BSOD, but, this is more a Win9x thing... What's more probable is that you're overheating your processor, or that increased memory use can be increasing the probability of using a bad memory section, but it's very hard to say without a minidump. As a suggestion, I'd run MemTest86[^]. Just burn the ISO into a CD and boot with it, it'll stress test your memory chips and list anything that is bad. My experience with it is that 50% of the BSODs are simply bad memory chips or mis-configured BIOSes. Sometimes, simply lowering the memory speed can make them work safely. I see dead pixels Yes, even I am blogging now!

              V Offline
              V Offline
              Vikram A Punathambekar
              wrote on last edited by
              #17

              Daniel Turini wrote: MemTest86 Can't. :( The PC in question is my office PC and it doesn't even have a CD Drive. Cheers, Vikram.


              "When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton.

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              • V Vikram A Punathambekar

                Daniel Turini wrote: MemTest86 Can't. :( The PC in question is my office PC and it doesn't even have a CD Drive. Cheers, Vikram.


                http://www.geocities.com/vpunathambekar

                Google talk: binarybandit

                After all is said and done, much is said and little is done.

                D Offline
                D Offline
                Dan Neely
                wrote on last edited by
                #18

                THere's a version that'll run in windows. Don't know if it's capable of forcetesting every bit of ram though.

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                • D Daniel Turini

                  Sorry, but a Firefox extension could *NEVER* cause a BSOD by itself. It's just user-mode code, and can't corrupt kernel memory or do something else that could cause a BSOD...

                  M Offline
                  M Offline
                  Member 96
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #19

                  *never* is a pretty strong word, I would venture to say it is possible to write software that as a side effect causes a BSOD.


                  "Hello, hello, what's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here! This is a Local Shop for Local People, there's nothing for you here!" -Edward Tattsyrup

                  D 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • M Member 96

                    *never* is a pretty strong word, I would venture to say it is possible to write software that as a side effect causes a BSOD.


                    "Hello, hello, what's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here! This is a Local Shop for Local People, there's nothing for you here!" -Edward Tattsyrup

                    D Offline
                    D Offline
                    Daniel Turini
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #20

                    Could you please point me how to code something in userland that causes a BSOD? Besides bugs in privileged code or hardware problems, it's not possible for user code to induce a BSOD.

                    J L 2 Replies Last reply
                    0
                    • P Paul Watson

                      Was that reply meant for me? regards, Paul Watson Ireland Colib and ilikecameras. K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!

                      P Offline
                      P Offline
                      p daddy
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #21

                      It was, purely because you mentioned Firefox and crashing in the same sentence - that SessionSaver plugin has saved me a load of grief in the past from FF crashes, so I thought I'd mention it. Cheers, Paul

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                      • D Daniel Turini

                        Could you please point me how to code something in userland that causes a BSOD? Besides bugs in privileged code or hardware problems, it's not possible for user code to induce a BSOD.

                        J Offline
                        J Offline
                        James R Twine
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #22

                        I was going to mention the bug that was sent around a few years ago that involved the using printf with control characters (backspaces) that caused Windows to crash.  And this was a simple few-liner C/C++ application.    However, the "besides bugs" caveat is quite wide - it covers pretty much all possible scenarios...  One could easily argue that all crashes are due to bugs in privileged code. :)    Peace! -=- James


                        If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
                        Tip for new SUV drivers: Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
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                        • P p daddy

                          It was, purely because you mentioned Firefox and crashing in the same sentence - that SessionSaver plugin has saved me a load of grief in the past from FF crashes, so I thought I'd mention it. Cheers, Paul

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                          Paul Watson
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #23

                          Indeed, it is a brilliant extension :) regards, Paul Watson Ireland Colib and ilikecameras. K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!

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                          0
                          • J James R Twine

                            I was going to mention the bug that was sent around a few years ago that involved the using printf with control characters (backspaces) that caused Windows to crash.  And this was a simple few-liner C/C++ application.    However, the "besides bugs" caveat is quite wide - it covers pretty much all possible scenarios...  One could easily argue that all crashes are due to bugs in privileged code. :)    Peace! -=- James


                            If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
                            Tip for new SUV drivers: Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
                            DeleteFXPFiles & CheckFavorites (Please rate this post!)

                            V Offline
                            V Offline
                            Vikram A Punathambekar
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #24

                            James R. Twine wrote: I was going to mention the bug that was sent around a few years ago that involved the using printf with control characters (backspaces) that caused Windows to crash. And this was a simple few-liner C/C++ application. Any idea where I can get the code? :) Cheers, Vikram.


                            http://www.geocities.com/vpunathambekar

                            Google talk: binarybandit

                            After all is said and done, much is said and little is done.

                            J G 2 Replies Last reply
                            0
                            • V Vikram A Punathambekar

                              James R. Twine wrote: I was going to mention the bug that was sent around a few years ago that involved the using printf with control characters (backspaces) that caused Windows to crash. And this was a simple few-liner C/C++ application. Any idea where I can get the code? :) Cheers, Vikram.


                              http://www.geocities.com/vpunathambekar

                              Google talk: binarybandit

                              After all is said and done, much is said and little is done.

                              J Offline
                              J Offline
                              James R Twine
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #25

                              Google up "CSRSS Backspace bug" for more info.  An example that would crash NT4 and (some?) Win2K systems is/was:

                              #include <stdio.h>
                              int main(int iArgC, char *pArgV[] )
                              {
                              while( true )
                              {
                              for( int iLoop = 0; iLoop < 5; iLoop++ )
                              {
                              printf( "\t\t\b\b\b" );
                              }
                              }
                              return( 0 );
                              }

                              Peace! -=- James


                              If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong!
                              Tip for new SUV drivers: Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road!
                              DeleteFXPFiles & CheckFavorites (Please rate this post!)

                              1 Reply Last reply
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                              • D Daniel Turini

                                Sorry, but a Firefox extension could *NEVER* cause a BSOD by itself. It's just user-mode code, and can't corrupt kernel memory or do something else that could cause a BSOD...

                                G Offline
                                G Offline
                                Glenn Dawson
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #26

                                No, but this could BSOD on Windows 2000: printf("CrashMe\t\t\b\b\b\b\b\b");

                                1 Reply Last reply
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                                • V Vikram A Punathambekar

                                  James R. Twine wrote: I was going to mention the bug that was sent around a few years ago that involved the using printf with control characters (backspaces) that caused Windows to crash. And this was a simple few-liner C/C++ application. Any idea where I can get the code? :) Cheers, Vikram.


                                  http://www.geocities.com/vpunathambekar

                                  Google talk: binarybandit

                                  After all is said and done, much is said and little is done.

                                  G Offline
                                  G Offline
                                  Glenn Dawson
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #27

                                  printf("CrashMe\t\t\b\b\b\b\b\b");

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • D Daniel Turini

                                    Could you please point me how to code something in userland that causes a BSOD? Besides bugs in privileged code or hardware problems, it's not possible for user code to induce a BSOD.

                                    L Offline
                                    L Offline
                                    Lost User
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #28

                                    Correct, but there are holes in the IO manager and other kernel components. Nunc est bibendum

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