Windows NT Restarts Continuously with Blue Screen

ID: Q174630

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SYMPTOMS

When you start Windows NT, your computer may briefly display the blue startup screen and then continuously restart.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if the following conditions exist:

A fatal system error (STOP error) causes the computer to stop.

The Automatically Reboot option is enabled under Recovery on the Startup/Shutdown tab in System properties.

The Windows NT paging file is smaller than the amount of physical memory installed in the computer or there is insufficient free space on the system hard disk to write the error dump file (Memory.dmp).

RESOLUTION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it.

Workarounds to this problem require a parallel installation of Windows NT. To make the necessary changes, follow these steps:

Install Windows NT to a different folder.

Run Regedt32.exe from the new installation of Windows NT and go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.

On the Registry menu, click Load Hive, and then open the System file in the original Windows NT installation location. By default, this location is:

%SystemRoot%\System32\Config\System

Enter an arbitrary name when you are prompted for a key name in the Load Hive window. This loads the original HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive as a subkey of the current key.

Change the value data in the AutoReboot value to 0 (zero), instead of 1, in the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CrashControl

Collapse the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subkey and unload the hive.

This disables the Automatically Reboot option in the original Windows NT installation. After you follow these steps, you may be able to gather information from the STOP error message and resolve the problem that prevents the computer from starting.

Another workaround may be necessary if the minimum size of the paging file is set to a value less than the amount of physical memory. Windows NT requires a paging file on the system drive large enough to hold all of physical memory, plus 1 megabyte (MB), to write debugging information. You can modify the PagingFiles value of the original installation so that the dump file can be created by the STOP error message. Enough free disk space must be available on the system drive for the paging file.

Follow these steps to change the PagingFiles value in the System file in the original Windows NT installation location:

Follow steps 1-4 from the preceding workaround.

Change the data value of the PagingFiles value to allow a minimum value of the amount of physical memory plus 1 MB, but not greater than the amount of free space on the hard disk. The key name is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\ Memory Management

For example: "<drive>:\pagefile.sys <nnn> <nnn>" where <drive> is the letter of the system hard disk and <nnn> is a number for the minimum and maximum size of the paging file.

Check the following key to verify that the CrashDumpEnabled value is set to a data value of 1:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CrashControl

Collapse the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subkey and unload the hive.

Attempt to start the original installation of Windows NT and the STOP error message should appear. The dump information is stored in the paging file.

Restart the computer and select the parallel installation of Windows NT. This allows the dump file to be created and you may be able to use the information to resolve the problem that causes the STOP error message in the original installation.

NOTE: The dump file is saved in the %SystemRoot%\Memory.dmp file, where %SystemRoot% is the parallel installation system folder.

MORE INFORMATION

Windows NT may encounter a problem during startup that results in a STOP error message. Depending on the system configuration, the blue screen may not be displayed long enough to record the error information. Using the workarounds listed above, you can alter the startup process so that important information about the STOP error message can be gathered.

For additional information about how to troubleshoot STOP error messages, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: Q123750
TITLE : Debugging Windows NT Setup STOP Screens

ARTICLE-ID: Q129845
TITLE : Blue Screen Preparation Before Contacting Microsoft

ARTICLE-ID: Q165863
TITLE : Troubleshooting "Stop 0x0A" Messages in Windows NT

Additional query words: Pagefile Autoreboot


Keywords          : kbenv kberrmsg ntboot ntregistry 
Version           : WINNT:3.5,3.51,4.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: July 13, 1999