# Stop: 0x000000F4



## Jeff S

Working on a computer that gets a blue screen error stop:0x000000F4. It says a process or thread crucial to the system has been unexpectedly exited or terminated. We have run Memtest, hard drive utilities, switched ram, switched motherboards, switched video cards etc. Still freezing up or getting blue screen. Other computers in the office are identical setup. Only one having issues. We thought by switching the ram and video cards we could narrow the problem down. We then swapped motherboards from an identical computer. Same problem. We thought it may be a software conflict but all computers are running identical software. Can someone help? The complete error code is:
stop: 0x000000F4 (0x00000003, 0x8A572020,0x8A572194,0x805D11F8)
I searched Microsoft and Google and causes ranged from hardware failures, to hard drive set as slave, to software.

Thanks Jeff S.


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## refuso

Taking a look at the parameters followed by the F4 error; you have:
The INVALID_AFFINITY (3) usually only occurs due to a hardware problem, faulty hardware, or incompatible drivers. 
This means that the chances of the error being software related are slim. Have you tried removing the hard drive completely, and booting it in a machine which has no issues? It could be a faulty driver installation on that hard drive - and if it still causes the same error running in a different machine, at least you know that it's not a hardware issue with any other component in the original machine.

Presumably you could just run a disk duplication installation on this hard drive too, seen as though your network uses identical machines? Reinstalling should fix it if all else fails. Obviously if it doesn't, then you have a hardware issue with that specific hard drive.


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## Tony.b99

Try punching the error code into you browser, see what it comes up with


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## Guest

Hello JeffS, and welcome to our forums!

From an information page this came up:

_One of the many processes or threads crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated. As a result, the system can no longer function. Specific causes are many, and often best resolved by a careful history of the problem and the circumstances of the error message. One user, who experienced this on return from Standby mode on Win XP SP2, found the cause was that Windows was installed on a slave drive; compare_ The page points to This Microsoft Support page.where the following resolution is given:

_*RESOLUTION*

To resolve this behavior, use one of the following methods:•	For Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA) hard disks, configure your disk drive as master only. For Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) hard disks, connect the hard disk cable to a master channel SATA connector on the motherboard.

•	Connect another device as a master, such as another disk drive or a CD drive or DVD drive.
•	Change your PATA cables, your SATA cable, or your IDE cable even if the cable does not appear worn.
•	Install Windows on a new hard disk because it is possible that your hard disk or your Windows installation may be corrupted._

Do you have PATA (Parallel ATA) or SATA (Serial ATA) drives in your system?

Please provide more information on your system, have a look at READ THIS: Required Information under the *Hardware* header to see what info we would need.


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## gboyles

I installed a new harddrive a few days ago and a couple of days ago the Blue Screen of Death with error messgae Stop:0x000000F4 appeared on my screeen. It said if it was the first time this has happened, simply re-boot. It was the first time so I just re-booted. Then today, that darn Blue Screen of death came up again upon boot up. Since this was now the second time it happened I called Dell Tech support (Am I ever glad I bought the harddrive from Dell rather than somewhere where I would have saved $5) After getting past the language understanding, the Dell Tech support technician had me start by unplugging the power cord going into the computer, the monitor cord, the mouse cord and the keyboard cord. He then had me remove one by one all of my memory cards (4 of them). Then he had me re-install one memory card and replug all of the cords and reboot. He had me repeat the process untill all four memory cards were re-installed. I then tried to connect to the internet and my mouse stopped working. When I wiggled the mouse cord, the Blue Screen of death with the same error message came back again. The tech had me once again start removing memory cards one at a time and upon each removal reboot each time. The hit F1 to continue or F2 for setup utility message began popping up at boot up. Each time I took something out or put in back in, the tech guy had me unplug the power cord first. After trying all of the memory cards, he then had me take out the small round battery that looks like a large watch battery. He then had me re-install one at a time all of the memory cards rebooting and shutting down after each install and finally had me re-install the battery. It worked. I asked him what it was that we just went through and he said sometimes when installing new hardware expecially haddrives various componets may not configure properly during the install and removing then re-installing allows them to reconfigure with the new hardware. Makes sense to me? I guess.


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## CRGS

Thanks to gboyles' story about the long crazy response to 0x000000F4, I started to replace things - in reverse order.

IT WAS THE BATTERY!!!

In 10 minutes I was back in business. 

Why can't a certain large arrogant company simply create an error message "Your CMOS battery is low" ?????

Would that make to much sense and too little money?


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## Mindhuter

I had stop-errors too.

Windows XP Pro SP3 , system bought in 2008 . Problem was: the blue screen would appear and the system would shut down. In the beginning, this happened about once a day. But it started to happen more frequently. From once a day on friday, to once every half hour on sunday morning, to not being able to enter Windows at all on sunday night. 

I had no clue what the problem was, and I hadn't made any changes recently, so I: 

- formatted and reinstalled Windows, which seemed to be the solution at first. For hours, the system worked fine. So I started to configure everything and i thougt the problem was over. The next morning however, I was greeted again by the blue screen of death. 

- stripped the pc: removed RAM except for 1 strip and changed the strips, removed all cards, removed two of the three hd's, all except the one that had the operating systems. Removed dvd drive, checked all coolers, and checked if the system worked with a linux live cd instead of win xp. In all cases, the system would work for half an hour and then it would crash, after becoming slower and slower. Note: using the linux live cd went pretty well, problems would occur only when I started moving data from one hd to another, or when I would try to acces the files on especially the hd with the operating systems. It wasn't all too clear though, sometimes it would crash when I opened the explorer. 

- so I started to worry about my Asus motherboard. Replaced the CMOS battery, which had no effect. Testing took a lot of time, since the problem would occur after half an hour of sometimes hours. Bios update seemed to work, re-installed xp again, worked for a night, in the morning greeted by a blue screen agaoin, cried. :sigh:

- started running tests on the disks. Hadn't done this before, because i wasn't able to burn a cd anymore due to the problem. The operating system containing HD tested defect. Had lost the receipt, but managed to get it replaced for free because the store (MyCom in the netherlands) accepted my internet banking screen dump as a receipt). The new HD works fine, in linux live the data-moving is much quicker than before and problem-free so far. Will install xp AGAIN now. Will update if problem re-occurs.

It seems the slowing down of the system, as well as the occurring of the problem more and more frequently over time should have made me realize this could be caused by a HD slowly dying. Also, I should have tested the hd's earlier and I should have run more extensive tests with linux live cd and no hd's connected. I gave up on this after two hours, but didn't conclude the problem must be in the hd's. My mind was on the motherboard too much, also because the internet was full of posts on problems with this board. 

Good luck with this nasty problem. There's light at the end of the tunnel. :wave:


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## guangjen

i had this very same problem on my laptop and it turned to be one of the ram sticks


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