How To Deal With Stop Errors

Stop Errors: Causes

Stop errors can occur due to both software and hardware problems. These include: buggy software programs, faulty or incompatible audio and video drivers, damaged hard disks, a corrupt registry, malware infections, and malfunctioning hardware components, including a faulty motherboard, RAM, or bad power supply.

Stop Errors: Triggers

Stop errors can be triggered by very simple operations, such as plugging in a hardware device – like a printer or a pen drive – or due to any other random event. At times, stop errors may indicate the cause of the error, such as a faulty driver or a system file, and you may be able to fix the error by dealing with the indicated problems. However, sometimes the displayed stop error may mask the root cause and you may end up receiving more errors after you fix the first one. In this case, the real task is to find the root cause of the problem.

General Stop Errors: Troubleshooting

You may use the following steps to troubleshoot a stop error that does not display a specific error message.

1. Shutdown your PC and open the PC cover.
2. Ensure that all hardware components and devices are properly seated in their slots.
3. Start your PC and use a hardware diagnostics tool to run tests on the system and identify any faulty hardware. If you find any, replace it.
4. Ensure that all hardware components and devices installed on your computer are  in the Windows XP Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). If they are not, replace them with compatible hardware.
5. Remove/uninstall any new hardware or software.
6. Use the Fixing a Problem option in the Windows XP Help and Support to view and then perform the steps that may help you identify and resolve possible cause of the stop error.
7. Open the Event Viewer to see if any error code is recorded for the stop error. If it is, use this code to search for a possible resolution on the Microsoft Knowledge base Web site.
8. Update your antivirus and antispyware software and then perform a thorough full system scan to eliminate any virus or spyware infection that may be behind the error.
9. Use a reliable registry tool to scan, clean and repair your Windows registry.
10. Ensure that your Windows XP operating system and all software and device drivers are updated with the latest service packs and security releases. If they are not, search for, download and install these updates.
11. If the stop error is stopping from logging on to your computer, start the PC, press F8 and then select the Last Known Good Configuration option and then press Enter.

Specific Stop Errors: Troubleshooting

Some stop errors are displayed with a specific error message that makes it easy to determine the exact cause of the error. The following are some of the examples of such errors along with their descriptions:

• Stop 0x0000007B Error: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
• Stop 0x00000024 Error: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM
• Stop 0x000000ED Error: UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

You may use the following steps to troubleshoot a software and device driver-related stop error.

1. Use the Sigverif.exe utility to ensure that the driver identified in the stop error is a signed driver or not.
2. Use the Device Manager utility to uninstall and then reinstall the driver that caused the error, or to search for, download and install an update for the driver generating the stop error.
3. If you have recently installed a new driver or a driver update, uninstall or disable it and check to see if the error goes away. If it does, then this new driver or update must be removed or repaired to permanently get rid of the error.
4. In case your video driver is not shipped with Windows XP, try to switch to the standard VGA driver or another compatible Windows XP video driver.
5. Use the System Restore utility to revert your system back to the time when it was error-free.
6. Try to remove any recently added RAM. Delete the pagefile.sys file and then restart your PC. If you do not receive any error now, it might indicate that the new RAM chip is either faulty or incompatible with your system.

You may use the following steps to troubleshoot a file system stop error:

1. If your computer has a SCSI adaptor, do the following:
   • Install the SCSCI driver.
   • Disable sync negotiation for SCSI devices.
   • Ensure that SCSI chain is properly terminated.
2. If your computer has IDE devices, do the following:
   • Ensure that the onboard IDE port is defined as Primary only.
   • Ensure that the Master/Slave/Only settings of your IDE drives are correct.
3. Use hard disk tools, such as chkdsk and Disk Defragmenter to check your disk for errors.
4. Run antivirus and antispyware scans to remove any malware infections. Use a registry repair tool to clean your registry and repair any invalid entries within it.