Stop Error Stopping Me in My Tracks. =(

[gabbysaurus]

Hi,

I'm not very computer literate at all, and I've ran into a problem that's seriously keeping me stumped.

I was playing World of Warcraft today, and was blue screen errored with the following:

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

*** STOP: 0x00000050 (0xBAE55014, 0x00000000, 0x8052B8e8, 0x00000000)

When I restart my computer, the Dell logo and text beneath it has off-colored lines running through it.

When it goes to the next screen (whether I try to let it start normally, or attempt safe mode), the entire background is covered in rows of "00", and it throws off any readable text, making it near unreadable.

When I can get it to start in safe mode, it looks decently normal, except all of the colored graphics have lines running through it.

When I try to let it start normally, it gives me the same blue screen just after the WindowsXP progress bar (also with lines through it all) passes to begin startup. The blue screen also has red lines running vertically through it.

I've swapped around my RAM to different ports, and made sure all of my hardware is is secure in the slots, but I have no idea what else to try. Being as ignorant as I am to technical talk on computers, I'm completely stumped when visiting places like Microsoft to hope for an understandable solution.

[gabbysaurus]

I'm not getting an error when attempting to start in safe mode. However, I can't read this error due to the distortion the 00 in the background is causing. All I can gather is "Press ESC". Doing so does nothing but make the error message go away, and startup hangs infinitely without starting.

A friend of mine suggested that my graphics card is shot, but I'm hoping for more advice before I put down a decent amount of money for a new one.

[linc420]

yeah i used to get the infamous BSoD too...

this will not fix the problem with the video card... it sounds like you gotta reinstall the drivers (go to nvidia or ati's website) if that doesn't work replace that video card (you can get a good deal from newegg or tigerdirect.com )

This solution should keep your computer from giving you those page fault errors...

here is some info directly from Microsoft:

possibly written in ancient Greek or Hebrew:

Causes:

An unexpected event has occurred in Windows. An "invalid page fault" error message often indicates that a program improperly attempted to use random access memory (RAM). For example, this error message can occur if a program or a Windows component reads or writes to a memory location that is not allocated to it. When this behavior occurs, the program can potentially overwrite and corrupt other program code in that area of memory.
• A program has requested data that is not currently in virtual memory, and Windows attempts to retrieve the data from a storage device and load it into RAM. An "invalid page fault" error message can occur when Windows cannot locate the data. This behavior often occurs when the virtual memory area becomes corrupted.
• The virtual memory system has become unstable because of a shortage of physical memory (RAM).
• The virtual memory system has become unstable because of a shortage of free disk space.
• The virtual memory area is corrupted by a program.
• A program is attempting to access data that is being modified by another program that is running.

My solution:
(reinstall drivers and remove un-necessary programs)

check your harddrive to make sure you have more space on there than it would need for virtual memory

you will need administrator rights on your computer to access control panel.
go to

control panel *go to your start bar then click on control panel or go to my computer and click on it there)

you'll see something there called "system" double click it

go to the "advanced" tab

you'll see something that says "performance"
and underneath it will say "visual effects... blah blah... and virtual memory"

click the "settings" button

next click the advanced tab

look at the bottom of the window it should say something about
"a paging file is an area on the hard disk that windows uses as if it were RAM"
now look at the number underneath that and write it down (on that old thing we used to call paper)

now .. close all that ...

go to My Computer

right click on C:\

go to properties and look at the FREE SPACE you have left.

if there is not enough free space on the hard drive you can get an error

if there isnt enough space then delete something (with add/remove programs button on control panel) but be careful what you delete... some of that stuff is important...

RULE OF THUMB

IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS >>> LEAVE IT ALONE!!!!

OK...... take care and i hope that fixed your problem for you.
if it didn't well.. you might have some other problem (but my guess is that it will)

btw if you OC'ed your video card that would be bad as you can fry them pretty easily if thats the case then i suggest not doing it in the future...