Page fault in non paged area

Windows xp is restarting as soon as it appears to be finished booting. The
error message is the title of my post. System Restore doesn't work in safe
mode, so that's out. Does anyone know how to resolve this problem?

Background information on Stop Error message
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms793437.aspx

0x00000050: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
(Click to consult the online MSDN article.)
Requested data was not in memory. An invalid system memory address was
referenced. Defective memory (including main memory, L2 RAM cache, video
RAM) or incompatible software (including remote control and antivirus
software) might cause this Stop message, as may other hardware problems
(e.g., incorrect SCSI termination or a flawed PCI card).

Remove the dust bunnies and test the RAM memory

Check the hard drive for bad sectors by running chkdsk /f /r

Check the System log of Event Viewer for Error Reports.

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in the
System log in Event Viewer for the last boot. No Information Reports or
Duplicates please. Indicate which also appear in a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer.

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right click on
the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties,
Hardware,Device Manager. If yes what is the Device Error code?

Try Start, Run, type "sigverif.exe" without quotes and hit OK. What
drivers are listed as unsigned? Disregard those which are not checked.

run a RAM test

Get memtest86 to check your memory.

I ran memtest86 and my memory is fine. I read that antivirus software can
cause this error, so I uninstalled it. However, this didn't solve the issue.
Any other ideas?

I am not clear what you mean when you refer to System Restore and safe
mode. What happens if you try?

Lots of suggestions still left to try.

Background information on Stop Error message
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms793437.aspx

0x00000050: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
(Click to consult the online MSDN article.)
Requested data was not in memory. An invalid system memory address was
referenced. Defective memory (including main memory, L2 RAM cache, video
RAM) or incompatible software (including remote control and antivirus
software) might cause this Stop message, as may other hardware problems
(e.g., incorrect SCSI termination or a flawed PCI card).
Source: http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm

Remove the dust bunnies and test the RAM memory
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...ardware_Tshoot

Check the hard drive for bad sectors by running chkdsk /f /r

Check the System log of Event Viewer for Error Reports.

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in the
System log in Event Viewer for the last boot. No Information Reports or
Duplicates please. Indicate which also appear in a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer.

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right click on
the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties,
Hardware,Device Manager. If yes what is the Device Error code?

Try Start, Run, type "sigverif.exe" without quotes and hit OK. What
drivers are listed as unsigned? Disregard those which are not checked.

You said that Windows exits after it "finished" booting. Okay, so just
far did the booting and Windows startup process progress?

You said that you tried to run System Restore when booting into Safe
Mode. Well, it sounds like you were able to complete the boot and
Windows load process okay when in Safe Mode. So it is something that
you load during normal Windows startup that is puking. In Safe Mode,
use msconfig.exe to disable what startup programs it lists. It doesn't
list all startup locations but this would be a start. Then reboot into
normal mode to see if the problem went away or not.

Which programs loaded during startup should I NOT disable?

I get a message that System Restore can't run in safe mode

All of the startup items. If normal bootup works okay after that,
reenable them one at a time until the problem returns. The last one
reenabled when the problem reappears is the culprit.

Found the culprit. It was the file cfgwiz.exe, which is a Norton Systemworks
or Antivirus file. I disabled that through MSCONFIG.EXE and the computer
booted fine. Thanks a lot Vanguard, the solution you provided took me 10 min,
compared to the 2 hours I spent on the phone with Microsoft support to no
avail.

Actually, this is just a by product of a bigger problem. I've noticed that
whenever I attempt to open the C:\Windows\System32 folder in windows explorer
or perform the dir command in dos under C:\Windows\System32\Drivers, I get
the same error. What would cause a page fault when an attempt is made to open
these directories?

If you got back to disabling all startup items by using msconfig.exe,
does this problem continue?

I don't get a blue screen . However, I get the message, "Windows has
encountered and error and will close the application...etc." It mentions that
the file kernel32.dll caused an error.

[WangVS]

I don't have that file as no Norton software has been installed on this machine since I installed WinXP Pro 64 on it. I searched anyway, but no file.

I have been getting the "win32k.sys Page Fault in Non-Paged Area" crash since I upgraded the two monitors from 20" 1600x1200 to 24" 1920x1200 and installed Ultramon. I did check and find that my pagefile was way too small, and increased it to about 1.5 times my 8 GB of memory. No time to tell yet whether that will make a difference.

Next I plan to uninstall Ultramon.

After that I don't know. A page fault is not a fault in the conventional sense. It is operating system terminology for a signal from the CPU chip to the operating system that the currently executing process needs a memory page that is not presently in memory and has to be paged, or swapped in. If a page fault occurs in or for non-paged memory, that indicates a bug, either in the OS or in the application where the fault occurred. Any process can have non-paged memory, protected paged memory, and unprotected or writeable paged memory. The fact that the program identified in the BSoD is win32k.sys suggests that this may be a Microsoft bug. Win32k.sys is probably involved in running 32-bit apps in my 64-bit XP Pro OS. But I suppose it could also be indicative of a problem in one of those 32-bit apps.

It's just disconcerting that this occurred after upgrading the res on the two monitors. The only other change made to the system was installing the trial version of Ultramon, a utility for working with multiple monitors. Ultramon itself has not crashed afaik.

Oh yes, one more thing: I have ECC memory. That means Error Correcting memory. I really don't think this is being caused by the memory.

Have you tried putting the res back to where it was and uninstalling
Ultramon?

If your BIOS set to use ECC memory? Was it installed in the same
timeframe as the above stuff? Do you actually NEED ECC RAM?

Have you tested memory? Memtest is a decent tester but there are many
others available.

I think I'd start with looking at RAM, after putting things back as
they were before you made the changes. Then report back here is no joy.

[WangVS]

Originally Posted by Twayne

Have you tried putting the res back to where it was and uninstalling
Ultramon?

Not yet. I will.

Originally Posted by Twayne

If your BIOS set to use ECC memory? Was it installed in the same
timeframe as the above stuff? Do you actually NEED ECC RAM?

This is a Dell Precision 690 -- a server grade tower. I don't think Dell even sells non-ECC memory for it. Yes, it's configured to use ECC memory. No, it wasn't installed around the same time as the monitor upgrade. It came this way from the factory.

Originally Posted by Twayne

Have you tested memory? Memtest is a decent tester but there are many
others available.

Some people have reported clearing up this problem by changing memory. That's really distressing because the error reported is an internal OS / app thing, not a true "fault." A page fault is a signal from the CPU to the OS to let the OS know that a memory page presently not paged in must be paged in for the current process to continue. In principle it has nothing to do with memory problems. But of course, Windows being Windows, anything is possible.

Originally Posted by Twayne

I think I'd start with looking at RAM, after putting things back as they were before you made the changes. Then report back here is no joy.

It's a good suggestion. I'll do all of that.

A page fault is a hardware interrupt. The hardware doesn't generate such
an interrupt on a whim, it generates it because something in memory (I
would call them page tables) has a bit set saying that the corresponding
page in the address space is not resident.

"Non-paged memory" is simply storage where the system does not set the
"page invalid" bit. If something else comes along, and sets that bit,
then you will get your page fault when the page is referenced.

Admittedly, this would not be anything to do with an actual memory fault.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ms793437.aspx