Hi, this is a problem that has only just recently begun. My computer is about 1.5 years old (bought Jan 06). Ive been getting crashes to a blue screen and have managed to track down that the stop error shown: STOP: 0x0000008E (0x0000005, variations of numerics and letters follow but never the same combination) is that of a memory violation.

As such I have downloaded and run a number of RAM and HDD boot device checks which did single out one of my strips of RAM as being faulty (currently sent back for replacement).

This seemed to solve the issue for about an hour before the system crashed again.

The crashes are random but do become more frequent when using programmes such as Battlefield and watching videos.

Im running on XP Pro SP2, got an ATI Sapphire 512 G.card, 3.06Ghz Intel processor and 1.5gb of RAM (before removal of the faulty strip). Ive looked for and updated all drivers except my BIOS as i can't seem to find the company; its called Award Medallion.

I have also run virus checks chkdsk/f runs in the command prompt and registry scans and repairs.

Any help in sorting this out would be greatly appreciated as it is become so what of a nuisance when trying to use my comp an it keeps crashing.

Memory violations usually result when a process you have running tries to dive into protected memory where the kernel is working. Instant BSOD because the OS is programmed that way to protect its operations. You either have a poorly scripted pgm or a virus. Or something else. A driver not matching some hardware.eg your video.
Google the error code, all of it to begin with, and reducing the length by cutting off a hex group each time until you get useful hits.

does it happen when you play games that need data to be read from CD?

Get SP2,it should solved it

Games seem to be the main cause, but i already have SP2. Looking at the minidump event logs the majority are W32Time errors which Microsoft says are some sort of timing error and then proceed to tell you how to entr the registry to fix it, so as soon as ive found my XP CD (for reinstallation if needed) i'll be having a crack at that.

Yer, well you can back up the bits of registry that you intend to fiddle with [export the keys in question... then just a dclick of the exported files shoots em straight back in.. assuming, of course, that your machine restarts.. ]
Or get Alcohol 52% and create some images of those cd's, mount em and no time lost while the laser gathers bits.

I recntly had chance to snag a free copy of an internet security package that was better than what i currently had (Norton 2005) and since removing norton i haven't had a single crash, so me thinketh been something to do with the old Norton.