Blue screen - WinCC Flexible 2005

Hello everybody!
I'm new, so I apologies if I'll make some mistakes.
ok
So, let's begin.
I have an IBM A31 laptop with 1.7GHz processor and 256MB RAM, with Windows XP SP2 installed.
I didn't know that Schneider's software and Siemens's software are in conflict, so I did it! Ok, after that I installed Windows XP again with the drivers. Then I installed Simatic STEP7 v5.3 with SP3. I've had some blue screens something like "atapi.sys error....begining dump of physical memory..." with some memory addresses. I solved this problem finding the right drivers for my laptop, then everything was alright. And of course I have to install WinCC Flexible 2005 to the same laptop, but now I have another blue screen with some memory addresses and "....begining dump of physical memory..." and nothing else. I've tried to continue installing WinCC Flexible but the blue screen appeares again.
Please help me with some advices or sugestions, because I have no more ideas how to solve this problem.

256MB RAM

Click to expand...

I don't know if thats your big problem but that is one of them.

256mb

Thanks CharlesM for you're quick answer.
I know that this is one of my problems but I supose something is missing here and I don't know what. ?!!??!!?!?!?!?

256 MB RAM is ridiculessly little these days.
WinCC Flex will be awful if it will work at all. It really begs at least 1GB.
Apart from that, to me it sounds like your windows installation has become unstable.
atapi.sys is a standard windows driver from Microsoft. Reinstall Windows (!) or get a new PC (!!)

Thanks JesperMP

You are absolutly right. I have no doub in what you said, but this laptop is not mine. On the other hand STEP7 and WinCC Flex were installed on this laptop and they functioned properly. So here is my big question mark. How this could happened and now is not possible, or what did the guys who worked with this laptop at that time.

CharlesM said:

I don't know if thats your big problem but that is one of them.

Click to expand...

Installation requirements for WinCC Flex 2007:
WinXP SP2
Internet Explorer V6.01 or higher
Pentium V 1.6Ghz or higher

Graphics Card
Resolution = 1024 x 768 or giher
Number of colors =256 or higher

RAM (memory) 1GB or higher
Hard Disk space= 1.6 GB
DVD=Standard drive

I assume flex2005 needs similar resources.

bkottaras said:

Installation requirements for WinCC Flex 2007:
WinXP SP2
Internet Explorer V6.01 or higher
Pentium V 1.6Ghz or higher

Graphics Card
Resolution = 1024 x 768 or giher
Number of colors =256 or higher

RAM (memory) 1GB or higher
Hard Disk space= 1.6 GB
DVD=Standard drive

I assume flex2005 needs similar resources.

Click to expand...

Yeah bkottaras....that are the requirements for WinCC Flex2007 and for the WinCC flex 2005 are a little lower.But aproximatly are the same.

I have no idea how you got Flex to run on 256k of ram at all. I installed it on my laptop with 2GB ram, and it brought it to its knees. I tried to convert a project from ProTool, and the hard drive churned away for 30 minutes before I gave up. I uninstalled it, and never looked back.

wincc flexible must be the slowest piece of software i've seen. i cannot imagine this running on old laptop with just 256Mb RAM. system requirement for WinCC Flex 2005 is 512Mb as bare minimum and 1Gb recommended, more is better. memory is dirt cheap nowday but if you ask me, don't upgrade it since you will be paying too much for old memory modules and you are still stuck with that old crank, just buy new laptop (without Vista of course)

We had some what we call "blue screens of death" as well. The strange thing is me and my colleages have the same type/spec laptop. Some got issues some dont?!

We have the Dutch version of WinXP on our laptop. We were told that WinCC flexible was not tested for that version of WinXP and they adviced us to install the US/English version of XP.

All in all WinCC flexible has got a lot of bugs. Unfortunately you are forced to use it since the latest versions of displays can only be programmed with WinCC flexible 2007. (Like the MP377).

But I must say 256Mb is very low on memory. That must cause at least some of youre issues. We got 2Gb and still sometimes it takes for ages to do something...

WinCC Flexible is getting better. 2007 is much much better than 2005. 2007 is much faster and is very much improved. 2008 should be out this summer should be even better.

Thank you all....

You are right guys....I asked myself the same questions that you said: minimum memory?!?!!?.....WinCC's harware requirements?!?!?!?!...and so on. But, unfortunetly this is my job. I have to fix it and try to make it working. So, the last thing that I'll do is to reinstall ,again, WinXP SP2, and trying to install WinCC. If it's not working, I'll try to buy a new laptop much much better than this one, but this is my boss decision...of course.
Anyway I thank you again...and I'll promise you that if I'll do this creepy thing working I'll tell you THE SECRET. Cross your fingers for me and wish me luck.
Ok...thanks again for you kindness...and I am looking forward to hear from you soon...of course with other problems.
Best regards
N.B.D.

If it doesn't work, maybe try to enlarge the page file.
With 256 MB the default page file will be 384 MB, making the total 640 MB.
Increase the page file to get somewhere close to 1024 MB.

If it ain't that, then look at buying that new laptop....

My experience with WinCC Flex 2005 is that it is workable - but far from perfect - from 512 MB and up.
The initial version (2004 v1.0.0) was a catastrophe.

A minor succes

thanks God....
Finaly I discover the problem.
Regarding the blue screen of death....here is the messege:
"....
KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR
....
STOP: 0x0000007A...
Begin dump of physical memory.
"
I've read some FAQ's and it seems that is not good.
Here are some links:
--> http://kadaitcha.cx/xp/stop_error.html#0x0000007A
--> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/130801/en-us
I've told you to wish me luck ....f**k it....