Greetings.
I have been getting bug-checks lately on my xp laptop, here is the data from the last one:
0x40000080 (0x8a43d130, 0x858ffd20, 0xba4f3e5c, 0x00000001)
I had only mini-dumps enabled (I've changed it since, but have not seen a BSOD yet) and looking at my "C:\windows\Minidump" directory I see 11 mini-dumps from the last 6 months, about two bug-checks a month
Running windbg and friends from the "Debugging tools for Windows" results in error "0n1392" which I read in short as "corrupted". Looking into the file with a hex editor, I tend to agree with the diagnosis as the top part of the file is sprayed with the ASCII string "PAGEPAGE".
I have two questions really:
1) what can cause all my mini-dump files to be corrupted?
2) is there a way to extract any data to point at what is likely to cause this bug check?
Thanks your help is appreciated!
Appendix I - dumpchk response to the mini-dump file
C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)>dumpchk.exe c:\WINDOWS\Minidump\mcradle.dm
Loading dump file c:\WINDOWS\Minidump\mcradle.dmp
Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.12.0002.633 X86
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Loading Dump File [c:\WINDOWS\Minidump\mcradle.dmp]
Could not open dump file [c:\WINDOWS\Minidump\mcradle.dmp], Win32 error 0n1392
"The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable."
**** DebugClient cannot open DumpFile - error 80070570
DumpFile is corrupt
Appendix II - hex display of the corrupted mini-dump file:
00000000 5041 4745 4455 4D50 0F00 0000 280A 0000 PAGEDUMP....(...
00000010 2000 580B 0060 8081 20C7 5580 B828 5680 .X..`.. .U..(V.
00000020 4C01 0000 0200 0000 7E00 0010 0500 00C0 L.......~.......
00000030 E38D 22BA 847C 52BA 8079 52BA 0041 4745 .."..|R..yR..AGE
00000040 5041 4745 5041 4745 5041 4745 5041 4745 PAGEPAGEPAGEPAGE
00000050 5041 4745 5041 4745 5041 4745 0141 4745 PAGEPAGEPAGE.AGE
00000060 E0C2 5480 0300 0000 40EE 0B00 0100 0000 ..T.....@.......
00000070 9100 0000 0001 0000 FF0E 0000 0010 0000 ................
00000080 B0DE 0B00 5041 4745 5041 4745 5041 4745 ....PAGEPAGEPAGE
00000090 5041 4745 5041 4745 5041 4745 5041 4745 PAGEPAGEPAGEPAGE
000000A0 5041 4745 5041 4745 5041 4745 5041 4745 PAGEPAGEPAGEPAGE
000000B0 5041 4745 5041 4745 5041 4745 5041 4745 PAGEPAGEPAGEPAGE
Looks like you're having some sort of hardware failure. This would account for the BSODs and for the mini-dumps not being saved properly. It might be a good idea to find a Linux live CD and boot it. Preferably one with diagnostics/testing programs on it. It might help you pin down what's going wrong.