Hi, I get random blue screens of error. They say: An exception OE has occured at 0028 : C004A481 in VxD VFAT (01) + 000AA21. This was called from 0028:C004AC9F in VxD VFAT (01) + 0000B23F. or File Name VFAT(01) + 00002328 Error: OE : 0028: C0041D88 or File Name VCACHE(01) + 00000E4D Error: OE : 0028:C004E459 They are followed by the usual crap: press any key to continue.... and so on I also sometimes get random reboot while installing programs. Here is what I tried: -Internet and MS knowledgebase, I haven't gotten much results, microsoft say that the vcache may come from defective memory but say nothing about VFAT errors. On the internet: I'm not the only one with these errors. At least another old post on this board relate similar issues. -Verify hard disk: -Using thorough scandisk -Using Disk Doctor (Norton utilities) -And All the test from the maxtor diagnosis boot disk except low level format. I think the hard disk is out of way, it doesn't seems to cause the problem. -checking what I was doing while the crashes happens: pretty random things, however it seems that its often when moving big files/amount of files/or installing a complete program(i.e. Spiderman the game). -Reinstalling windows, as I was afraid, the crashes came back even after the reinstallation from scratch. -Norton windoctor (norton utilities) -checking hardware conflicts,hardware manager, system information, and using msconfig to remove program that started at startup: nothing found Do you have any suggestions?? Here is my hardware: Motherboard: Asus K7M CPU: Athlon 500 Mhz (first generation) RAM: 2X256M PC133 (running at 100Mhz, Mobo limitation without overclocking), brand new (it replaced the same thing that seemed defective(read errors)) Video Card: Asus V7100 (Geforce2MX) CDRW: HP 9100i (8/4/32) CD: Asus 40X DVD: I/O Magic 16X (Detected in the bios as Liteon, Repackaged I guess) Sound Card: Soundblaster Live! value Thanks in advance Math

If by reinstall you mean that your formatted and started fresh (not installing windows over itself).. without any software installed...You still received the errors.. My uneducated guess is that MS may be on to something in the Hardware department. I personally hate recovery disks! I dont know if this is what you have and i have never had as many errors as you list with them but from experience i wouldnt rule them out especially if your having these problems right after installation. Stick around for someone with more experience.

Can't guarantee anything,but have a look here; http://freepctech.com/articles/articles.php?ArticleId=49 don't know much about BSOD's....never had one.

Yes I reinstalled the windows from scratch (formatting) using an original CD that worked before. I hope it's not hardware failure, I don't really have money for it right now!! And thanks for the info thekid, I tried to run the Vxdfix just in case, but it didn't work (say cannot find files) Any other suggestions?? How to test which hardware has trouble, especially. Note: Try changing video card and things like that are just too costly for me, please be realist!!

I have heard of a number of problems, very much like yours, along with random rebooting being more common. Also done a lot of web searching trying to help several people. While a lot of the problems I have read about have no cause/solution in common, there is one group of problem machines that do. The common elements are "Athlon processor" and "Nvidia GForce2" chipset that Windows reinstall does not fix. For a subset of these there have been solutions found. In addition, a USB attached mouse, combined with this hardware, seems to be related to some problems. Based on what I have read and experiments done by friends, I have developed my own theory(s) as to what might be happening, at least in the cases were the system just reboots at random. A common element of this group of problem machines, is that they worked well for some period of time and then suddenly started failing. Based on all this, I assume that some critical hardware timing relationship has been altered by chips that overheated at some point and this minor damage is causing a failure. Most likely the Nvida chip set, but it could also be the system board chip set or the processor itself, or even some combination. Replacing boards has seldom fixed the problem. Based on this, try the following solutions that have worked for different systems. 1) If your system has a USB attached mouse, unplug it (rectangler plug). Try to use a PS/2 style mouse (small round plug). This has fixed two systems that I am aware of. They were both having errors or resets while moving the mouse and clicking on an icon. Both mice came with an adapter for use with the older PS/2 port which is more reliable and works in real DOS mode. 2)Update to the latest Nvidia referance drivers from Nvidia.com instead of using the drivers from your card manufacture. Nvidia recently updated their drivers and these changes have not been picked up by many OEM manufactures yet. This has helped a number of systems. Including some that the following changes had fixed but could then be undone. 3)Alter CMOS settings for AGP to slow down the Athlon - system board - Nvidia chip set. Go into your systems CMOS Setup and try the following settings which may be system board different. "AGP-4x Mode" if set to 4x or 2x try setting to a lower value like 1x. "AGP Aperture Size" set to default 64M size. "APG Master 1 WS Write and Read" if Enabled, set to Disabled. "AGP Fast Write" if Enabled, set to Disabled. These slower setting or some combination of them have "fixed" some machines not fixed by the Nvidia driver update. They do not really effect display speed that much unless you are a hardcore game'r (and you need a faster display adapter anyway).

c'mom kid, you've never had a BSOD...amazed. You must be about the only person alive whose never had one...

Hi Math, you are not alone! I have still the same error messages. Found you with google :) Using a EPOX 8k3A+ MOBO 256 MB PC333 ATI clone Radion 8500LE from FIC 2x80GB Maxtor ATA 133 (Raid 0) on the int. HighPoint Controller. Fist everything looks fine. Win ME and Win XP multi boot. Than I found an error on one of the hard drives and I change the drive. After a while my problems start. Self rest, or the program stops without an error message and the desktop comes up. When I start the program again, self reste or it freeze. Than I change the settings in the BIOS. AGP X2, activate all WS on AGP and PCI. After that I have the same errors like you. Also I can not install Win XP. It freeze when I try to install it, or when it starts the first time a explorer error occure and thats it. I destroyed thr Raid several times, but always the same. I can only install ME. My next step is to check if I have the same problems on the other int. IDE controller. I think it is one of the HDDs or the controller. First i have had a look after the video card and the RAM. The RAM is checked 3h with a program vom CT. My old video card do not fit in my new system. I will tell you my result of the test. Regards, René