Stop error message on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 and that has almost 4 GB or more of physical memory: "0x00000050" or "0x0000000A"

Consider the following scenario:

• You have a computer that is running an x86 version of Windows Server 2003.�
• The physical address expansion (PAE) feature is enabled, and the virtual address space that is used is greater than 4 gigabytes (GB). This means the physical memory is usually more than 4 GB.

Note In some cases, the virtual address space that is used is greater than 4GB even if the physical memory volume is less than 4 GB. Some space is reserved by BIOS, and the virtual memory of some session pools are mapped into a range that is greater than 4GB.

In this scenario, you receive one of the following error messages: Note

• The four parameters in this error message vary, depending on the configuration of the computer.
• Because of the generality of memory corruption problems, you are not necessarily affected by this specific problem if a Stop error on this list occurs on the server. We recommend that you contact Microsoft Customer Support Services to determine whether this problem is occurring or not.

On a computer that is running an x86 version of Windows Server 2003 and that has PAE enabled, the page table entry (PTE) and the page directory entry (PDE) are 8 bytes wide. In a specific scenario, a PDE or PTE is not updated in an atomic operation. This behavior leaves the PDE or the PTE in an inconsistent state for a short time. If the PDE or the PTE that is in the inconsistent state is cached or is pre-fetched into a processor, an invalid PDE or PTE is saved into the cache of the processor. When this occurs, any later memory access that relies on the data structures that are cached or that are pre-fetched fail. This behavior causes the symptoms that are mentioned in the "Symptoms" section.�

To resolve this problem, apply hotfix 978243. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

For more information about software update terminology, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: -