blue screen (Page Fault in Non Paged Area) on startup when having external (usb) hard drive disconnected

[Theodore Long]

There is a blue screen when my system loads up. It occurs long before on my system when I was using Windows XP. I am using a external usb hard drive. Whenever I connect it, the error appeared. And that appear only on startup. But when the drive is disconnected there is no error. The same now occur on Windows Vista. I am using Vista Ultimate. Is this a bug or I can assume some kind of hardware failure.

[SMichael]

You can start by finding error and the cause behind it. First disable automatic system failure on boot. You can do that in safe mode. Now note down the error report and post it here. You can find more detail in Event Viewer. This will give you a basic idea why the error appeared. You can then troubleshoot. Some of your internal ports are not appropriate and that is the one which is causing problem.