blue screens in XP Pro SP2 via Bootcamp 2.1

I have XP Pro SP2 running on my Mac via Bootcamp 2.1, and it just seems to love giving me blue screens. I received 5 of them yesterday, it restarted itself with each. It seems to give me them randomly when i access any of my hard drives, even the C drive, which blows my mind. Yesterday i was installing an ISO off of my external Lacie, and halfway through, blue screen. Another day, i was in program files on the C drive, blue screen. And another day, i was telling itunes where to look for my music on the Mac partition, blue screen. It all seems to happen when i try to access any hard drive through Windows Explorer. What could be the problem? Please don't tell me i need service, because my 1 year warranty is out.

Are you running straight XP on ur mac, or do you have OS x still installed?

Well, if it's only a year old, I'd say something is wrong with the XP install. How long ago did you put XP on it? And, as Logic already asked, are you dual-booting or single-booting>

I am dual booting, and this XP install is about 2 months old.

Are you having Any trouble with OS X, cause that would lead me to believe it could be a harddrive problem, if its something with Windows, more than likly a software problem or driver problem, Make sure your machine is fully up to date, You might even want to reload XP back on it, and make sure its fully up to date and all your hardware is configured correctly. One important lesson I have learned in my years of PC tech is that Windows really does need its updates.

If you arent having any problems with ur OS X partition then I would say that it is not a harddrive problem. Make sure all your hardware drivers for XP are the correct ones and make sure your XP system is up to date, that would be my first step. Over the years of doing PC Tech I know that windows needs its updates.

Yea i never update Windows, i have had problems in the past with my PCs and updating. I do have some issues within OSX regarding speed. Like the computer bogs down when i have Stuffit running or even when i am transferring files onto my Lacie. Overall, 10.5.7 is running slow for 4Gbs of RAM.

Could this speed issue be considered a problem with OSX?

mknabster said:

Yea i never update Windows, i have had problems in the past with my PCs and updating. I do have some issues within OSX regarding speed. Like the computer bogs down when i have Stuffit running or even when i am transferring files onto my Lacie. Overall, 10.5.7 is running slow for 4Gbs of RAM.

Could this speed issue be considered a problem with OSX?

Click to expand...

4 GBs of RAM won't make a computer fast.
No amount of RAM will make a computer fast.
The only "speed" benefit of more RAM does is that it will allow more applications to be running simultaneously in a smooth manner.
It does not physically, nor can it increase your computer's speed.
RAM does not equate to speed.
Period.

As to why your computer "bogs down" when you're running an archiving and compression app like Stuffit or trying to transfer files to an external drive... well that is the explanation right there.
File compression takes CPU power. So does file transferring.
Do either of them at the same time background tasks (iTunes, browser, etc) are running and you're bound to hit a hiccup in performance here and there.
RAM won't necessarily help or prevent that from happening.

Yes you are right D3v1L80Y about the technical aspects, but before i upgraded to 10.5.7, the computer acted like it had 4 GBs of RAM, unlike now. Before this version, it ran very well, even while doing such tasks. But i feel we're kind of getting away form my main question about these frequent blue screens.

Well its not really getting away from the main focus of the question, it is possible your hard drive could be going out, unlikely ya but there is that chance it could be. Now if it was my rig, I would prolly wipe XP out and reinstall, with a XP SP3 disc.

I heard a lot of bad things about XP SP3, that's why i never upgraded. Is there anyway that i can test the hard drive? I have the latest Techtools Pro, could i do it through that? I do remember about 1 month into me having this computer, something happened with my hard drive where OSX wouldn't boot at all, i could only go into Windows.

There is nothing wrong with SP3..

Oh well, i think i figure out my problem. I have this little program called Driver Checker, and surprisingly, a lot of my hardware was out of date, so i updated them, and haven't had any blue screens yet! So i'm guessing it was a driver problem