Three months ago I purchased a Dell XPSB800, 800 Mhz. computer and
experienced major problems from the getgo including the
beloved "volumebug" as accurately described in earlier postings to
this site. Dell was unable to help me cure the problem and they
finally replaced the computer with an upgraded XPSB933, 933 Mhz.
computer. After loading my software etc. on the new machine,
the "volumebug" reappeared! The "Blue Screen of Death" showed up on
start up almost every time I booted. Sometimes I'd be able to boot
successfully two to four times in a row but the BSOD that we all know
and love so well always reappeared.

In desperation, I searched for info on this problem and, thank God,
found this egroup. After spending the past day diagnosing the problem
by disabling various items in the start up list and repeating each
variation many, many times, I think I have found the source of the
problem for my system. It is a bit different from the fixes described
in previous postings so I'd like to share my experience with you in
hopes that someone may benefit from the work I have done.

I won't go into all the variation I tried except to say that, in the
end, I booted successfully over twenty five straight times without a
single crash!

My system is decribed as follows:

Dell XPSB933 desk top computer w/
Pentium III, 933 Mhz. processor
Windows 98 second edition operating sytstem
128 MB RDRAM
75 GB IBM Hard Drive
1.44 MB, 3.5" floppy drive
32 MB, NVIDIA GeForce AGP video card
Soundblaster Live audio card
12X Samsung DVD drive
Promise Ultra 100 ATA controller card
Intel DSL, internal modem
HP 4100C scanner
HP 952C printer

I found that I had to disable both the "HPSCANMonitor" and
the "StillImageMonitor" files under the msconfig.exe Startup tab in
order to get consistant, error free start ups. Since the error seems
to be timing related and, therefore, random in occurance, it is
possible to make a change in the start up file list, reboot once
twice or even more and get clean boots only to have the system crash
on the 7th or 8th try. For this reason, when I would get a clean
boot, I would repeat the reboot process twenty or thirty times to
gain a much higher degree of confidence that the "volumebug" was
really gone. This only occured when both of the above files were
unchecked (disabled).

Another thing I found was that both (yes both)of
the "LoadPowerProfile" files are needed by Windows at start up and
both could be checked (on) when the "HPSCANMonitor"
and "StillImageMonitor" files were both turned off (unchecked.)
Microsoft explains that both of the "LoadPowerProfile" files are
needed at startup in their support web site located at the following
address:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q187/6/11.asp

At this point, I am not sure how to fix the problem other to disable
these two start up items and possibly not be able to use my scanner.
I have not yet tried tha scanner operation with both of these files
unchecked.

If someone can give me some guidance on what to do with these files
so that I can use the scanner, I would appreciate it.

Sorry for the very long posting!

Jim