BSOD page_fault_in_nonpaged_area after XP transport

Discussion in 'Parallels Transporter' started by mstockman, May 10, 2007.

  1. mstockman

    mstockman Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    Hi, all... I'm hoping someone can help with this. I've seen some other discussions of this error but none of them seem to apply to my situation.

    I used Transporter to migrate a Windows XP laptop into Parallels. Whenever it boots up, I get a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and the following error:

    page_fault_in_nonpaged_area

    I've tried booting into safe mode to try to disable drivers, etc. but when I boot into safe mode, Windows says that I can't log in until I register XP for this new machine, and I have to boot into regular mode to reactivate XP. So I'm stuck.

    I thought it might be the video settings on the original laptop, so I changed them to something very simple (no multiple displays anymore) and re-transported the image, but there was no difference.

    I'm hoping someone can provide an idea of how to proceed. Thanks for the help.

    Mike
     
  2. mmischke

    mmischke Hunter

    Messages:
    155
    This error is most often driver-related - the result of a kernel-mode process (usu. a driver) accessing memory which it shouldn't have access to. The fact that you can start Safe Mode (even though you can't log in) suggests that the problem might be with a 3rd-party driver. Under Safe Mode, only certain core drivers are loaded (like those to access the drives, etc.).

    The video driver change that you mentioned would have been the first thing I'd have tried, too. Did you bring it down to standard VGA? If not, that's something to try. Also, try uninstalling any 3rd-party hardware drivers, if applicable. Given the proprietary nature of notebook hardware, you may be dealing with a driver that the notebook needs to run but which is incompatible with Parallels.

    As a worst-case scenario, you could create a fresh Windows installation inside of Parallels, connect it to the notebook over a network and pull the files you care about over.
     
  3. jechan83

    jechan83 Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    Have you tried changing the acceleration mode to normal? This worked for me when I got that error. If you edit the configuration of the VM and then under the first setting (forgot what it's called), there should be a tab labeled Advanced. Under that there should be a setting named acceleration, which is normally set on high. change it to normal and then reboot. mine stopped bsod'ing after that, and I was able to disable drivers and programs under windows using msconfig. After disabling what wasn't needed, I changed the acceleration setting backed to high and it worked fine...
     
  4. mstockman

    mstockman Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    Solved the hard way...

    Thanks for the replies. I had changed the video to VGA, and had also tried turning off all of the Parallels extra features (acceleration, etc.) just to be safe, but without any luck.

    I tried booting from the Windows XP installer and repairing the existing installation, but the Windows installer just copied the files over and tried to boot off the C drive, which promptly blue-screened.

    Finally, I just installed Windows again, blowing away the existing Windows folder. That worked fine, except that none of my registry settings or application-specific files were there, so I'm rebuilding that part. But at least all of my data and user folder settings are there, so all was not lost.

    Kind of a pain, though. I know that Transporter can't be perfect, but I was hoping it could take a Thinkpad installation and make it work under Parallels. Guess not.

    Thanks for all of the help, though.

    Mike
     
  5. mmischke

    mmischke Hunter

    Messages:
    155
    I'm a big fan of blowing away Windows and reinstalling everything at least once a year, virtualized or not. I realize that this is a rather unpopular suggestion. There's always that pregnant pause that follows. :) It keeps things pretty clean, though, and many of us can resurrect our machines in less than a work day. It's sort of like cleaning out the garage. In the end, things tend to run better.
     
  6. a geek

    a geek Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    I just had the same problem transporting a thinkpad- turned out there was a Lenovo driver called SM BIOS that was causing the BSOD. To remedy:

    1) Boot into safe mode
    2) Go into device manager
    3) Find device tree called "SM DRIVER" (if it is not visible, enable viewing of hidden devices in device manager in tools or view menu)
    4) Right click SM BIOS and click to uninstall

    Reboot and all will be well. Hope this helps!
     
  7. radvas

    radvas Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    Just putting the words "page fault in nonpaged area" here so that this topic shows when searched on the partial error message.
     
  8. Eugene A

    Eugene A Parallels Team

    Messages:
    3
    One of our customers reported that ENABLING DirectX shading (in Configuration Editor - Video) made Windows run normally again.
     
  9. philsto

    philsto Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    Lenovo Woes

    That fix for the Lenovo driver (SM BIOS) worked perfectly. Thanks.
     

Share This Page