I've been getting the Blue Screen of Death more and more frequently. It's always the same message: 0x000009C (0x00000000, 0x8054D370, 0xC4254000, 0x00000136) MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION Then 'Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing'. When I started getting these I replaced/upgraded my RAM from 512MB to 1GB (which I needed to do anyway and hoped would sort out the problem). I haven't disabled the BIOS options because I'm not 100% certain how to do it and I'm not sure what the effects would be. Basically, I don't know how to eliminate the various possibilities that could be causing these BSODs. I'm not overclocking and my CPU temperature gauge has always been within comfortable levels. I've had a look here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329284 and at a few other forums but I'm still stuck. Any suggestions would be very welcome! Let me know if there's any additional information I should post.

What is the type and make of your motherboard. You can enter BIOS by pressing a key on your keyboard during post. It's usually something like -delete -F2 -Alt+ctrl+enter if you can find the make of your motherboard, than we can find the specific combination, but you can try the above first. Intel P4 3.2E Ghz@ 3.8Ghz Asus P4P800-E Deluxe Kingston 2GB PC3200 Asus AX800 Pro w/ZM80D-HP WD Raptor 37 GB Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300 GB Asus E616P1 Plextor PX-740A Reserator 1

Download memtest and run a memory test.

I've run memtest three times since installing the new memory and it ran fine (0 errors) for a full 24 hours. With the old memory it would occasionally set off a siren-like alarm (two tones, like an ambulance). My motherboard is: Leadtek WinFast nVidia CR18D/G BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG (updated via Leadtek website 04/22/06) Yesterday after posting I investigated the BIOS situation a bit further and disabled CPU caching, which made the computer stall on the Windows start-up page for 10 minutes before I restarted. I then re-enabled CPU caching and disabled external caching, and I haven't noticed any performance loss and the machine hasn't BSODed for about 18 hours. But I don't really know if it's healthy in the long run...

Okay, so the system remains much more stable with external caching disabled, but because I need to use my computer to do scanning/OCR/translation multitasking I don't think that this option will work in the long term. Since I've re-enabled external caching yesterday, the system has BSODed a couple of times. Does this mean I should just get a new motherboard? There's another computing.net thread here: http://www.computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/forum/165909.html Anyone have anything to add to it?