Read/Write errors crash computer

[dcloud]

I've been having some weird read/write errors which crash my laptop. This just started happening about a week ago. I have ran all virus scans and spyware tools and my system is clean in that regard. I also ran scandisc and defragged both my hardrives (I have 2 hardrives om my laptop, a 100GB and a 40GB, both SeaGate Momentus drives). I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 running WinXP Home (SP2).

I downloaded the SeaTools hardrive utility off the Seagate website and made an ISO CD to check both HDs. I ran the Full Tests with the SeaTools utility. Both drives passed all tests, except for this time the main HD (100GB) reported "yellow" (moderate) file structure errors while the smaller HD (40GB) reported "red" (critical) file structure errors.

This is kind of hard to determine what exactly is the problem. It says in the utility that these "file structure errors" can be caused by almost anything.

I shut down the laptop for a while then went to work this evening and turned it one and immediately got the blue screen. This time I had set it so the blue screen would stay and not go away and I could write down what it said. Without all the gobbledy-gook here are the highlights:

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[Blue Screen]

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

SPECIAL_POOL_DETECTED_MEMORY CORRUPTION

... and then I press F1 to continue and get [Black Screen]

Memory Read/Write failure at 3FFF0020, read 10FF10FE expecting 10FF10FF
Memory Address Line failure at 3FFF0000, read 10FF10FF expecting 00000000
Strike F1 key to continue, F2 to run setup utility.

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Now I thought perhaps this might be a RAM issue, so I removed one of my RAM modules and restarted the computer. I find it highly unlikely that both these fairly new SeaGate drives have failed (they are only 6 months old). With the one RAM module out I was able to start the computer with no blue/black screen error messages.

I came here and posted this message and so far I haven't had any problems. Yet .....

If anyone has had similar issues or has any suggestions I would be glad to hear them. Thanks.