I am getting a Blue Screen saying Hardware Malfunction. I am running Windows XP.

I am having the exact same problem with my old Transcend TS-AKT4 motherboard running Windows XP. It has no problem at all running Win98SE. Locks up completely at random under Win XP. 800MHz AMD processor, 100 or 133MHz RAM (256 or 512MB at different times).

Interesting things I've found:
it doesn't lockup NEARLY as badly without any hotfixes or service packs for Win XP installed as it does after applying latest Win XP updates (but no SP1 nor SP2). I have narrowed down 2 hotfixes that greatly increase the frequency of lockups but they still happen without those hotfixes, just not nearly as often.

I also found that if I run Folding@home text-only client (not as a service, just from a command prompt window on the desktop) it NEVER EVER locks up while its running and I've been running it for months now all day every day with no lockups. I haven't tried any other distributed computing clients nor have I tried any other variations of how to run the Folding@home client nor ran it as a service. If I stop running Folding@home it will lockup as normal, which the frequency of varies from a few seconds of logging into XP to smooth running for a few days in a row (pesky little bugger).

I have used the hardware monitor app for Windows to see if the lockups had anything to do with overheating, but they certainly don't. However, I did notice that the voltages listed in hardware monitor app would change ever so slightly while not running Folding@Home client by about .01 Volt for core voltage & about +/- 0.1V for the other voltages (which is very little but still I wouldn't expect to see it fluctuating while no loads are changing unless some of the voltage regulation circuitry somewhere was cheezy), but while running Folding@Home client (which puts a noticeably higher electrical load on the system) the voltage stays perfectly stable as reported by hardware monitor utility & its logging capabilities. I have the settings set to refresh hardware monitor as quickly as possible BTW. Makes me wonder if there's something wrong with some caps or the voltage regulation circuitry on the mainboard or the power supply is of a very poor design (my guess would be for the powersupply).

I am currently experimenting with a BIOS setting that might be the cause of XP hanging randomly, which would certainly have nothing to do with the voltage issue, but it can take weeks of testing to see if the system will run properly after the setting has been altered.

All you guys gave great post's but I would have to agree with most of you on the fact that it sounds like a hardware fail or some kind.

I would suggest if your going to be using windows, use the right verision which is Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Service Pack Two.



Just My Thoughts.

Pretty certain its not a hardware failure as every single component works just fine when tested in other machines.

Pretty certain its something to do with software/driver issue with Win XP not being completely content w/ the motherboard and occasionally causes lockups - I have determined its explorer.exe that is causing the lockups, but there's not really anything anyone can do about that besides don't run XP at all.

BTW, I have not been able to find XP drivers for this Transcend motherboard, only can find drivers for Win98/95, if there were XP drivers for it that might help XP be more stable.

I also just recently realized that even though the motherboard is AGP 4X and so is the NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX400 and I have all the correct drivers for everything (except the above noted absence of mobo drivers) a video card overclocking utility (that has other purposes as well) called PowerStrip says my video card is only running at AGP 2X and I cannot set it to 4X for some reason - says something about mobo & video card both support it but maybe drivers need to be loaded and/or updated to set it to 4X.

:cry: SOMEONE PLZ HELP ME...
my computer does the same RANDOM LOCK UP thing...could it be because of bad RAM?? i ran the memtest thing once and it got nothing..anyways my computer :

XP PRO
AMD ATHLON 64 3500+ s939
ASUS A8V DELUXE
ATI 9600XT 256MB
OCZ DDR 400 Priemier Dual Channel 512 x 2
MAXTOR 200GB SATA, 80GB ATA

I have an Athlon 64, and I am having both lock up and shut down probs. It can happen on either a cold boot or after hours of service.