The machine BSODs at random intervals ranging from hours to days. The stop messages are not consistent but include:
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLE
D
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_ARE
A
BAD_POOL_CALLER
Very occasionally the machine will simply spontaneously reboot.
Sometimes the crashes will occur when the machine is being used intensively and sometimes they will occur after a long period of inactivity with very few applications open - middle of the night for example.
There are no entries in the event log.
I checked the ram and carried out extensive virus scans without discovering any problems.
It seemed to me that the problem could be caused by a bad driver so I attempted to run verifier.exe. I set the options to "Preferred" and attempted to reboot the machine. At the point where the desktop background appears with the message "Windows is starting up" the machine BSODed with the stop message:
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
"Last known good" resulted in the same crash so I restarted in Safe Mode, (why does this takes so long?), turned verifier.exe off and then rebooted successfully.
Unsurprisingly there was no information in the verifier.
I suppose I could divide the drivers into two groups and run verifier on each of them. I could then take the group that caused the BSOD and divide that in half and so on until I narrowed it down to the driver that was causing the problem but this would take until well into the New Year...
I tried to run sfc_/scannow but when I inserted the Windows 2000 CD Rom it wouldn't recognise it. I dimly remember seeing something about this somewhere - change of drives since system installation? I also seem to remember that the information is also stored somewhere on the machine...
Anyway, as I understand it scannow only checks system drivers.
OK, the machine...
2.4 gig Intel processor
512 megs of Ram
2 IDE hard drives
2 CD Rom/DVD drives
Windows 2000 professional with SP 4
No firewalls or anti-virus software
I bet I have missed some vital bit of information so please ask.
David