Blue screen message

[spark-e]

Using WinXP Pro on a SATA HD

I was attempting to back up my hard drive (a weekly thing) when the computer sudenly restarted and when the welcome screen came up I got a messsage about my personal settings being lost.

Thats fine so I clicked the Administrator icon and the desktop came up with no taskbar and it just hung like that for 20 min.

So I rebooted and tried to go into safe mode but it just hung there or if I get to safe mode I get a blue screen.

I tried to install WinXP Pro on another partition, just so I can get into my HD and save the last weeks worth of work.

But I get this blue screen message:

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

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, resart your computer. If this appears again, follow these steps:

Disable or uninstall any anti-virus, disk dfragmentation or backup utilities. Check your hard drive configuration and check for any updated drivers. Run Chkdsk /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.

Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x00000024 (0x001902F8, 0xf7956810, 0xf7956510, 0xf73bd857)
*** NTFS.sys - Address F7bd857 base at f73b3000, datestamp 3b7dc5d0"

I tried to repair for the XP CD and it just gets stuck trying to install a dll file then goes to blue screen.

Cannot reboot in safe mode, goes to welcome screen and when I click on the Administrator icon I get a blue screen and it reboots.

What do you suggest?

I've only had this hard drive for a week and a half and its dying on me already?

[Paul Komski]

Could be hard drive, could be RAM, could be a BIOS that needs flashing. Would suggest that first steps would be to test the drive and the RAM and see if you can access the drive normally from another PC.

Is this a faily modern PC or motherboard??

[spark-e]

I downloaded NTFS4DOS and made a floppy that defragmented the partitions.

Afterward I was able to boot in safemode and backup my previously inaccessible files.

Sometimes during the backup of a large file the computer would restart on its own so it was a touch-and-go job but I got it done.

I am about to reformat the partition and reinstall Win XP Pro and see what happens.

I just got this new barebones system that I'm using. It came with a K8N Neo3 Series MS-7135 (v2.x) ATX Mainboard.

When I started the system I downloaded the latest BIOS drivers.

The memory, I can't vouch for. I got it from a cheap yahoo vendor. I have this module (DDR1606-6A, 1 GB) in one slot and in the other slot is a 512 MB DDR400Mhz module that the barbones system came with.

The hard drive is a Maxtor 7L250S0 250GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA/150 Hard Drive.

I have not tried to access HD from another PC yet but it is recognised in BIOS and I cannot say if its faulty.

The guilt seems to be with the memory but I cannot say for sure. My experience is too limited as I have only built one system and this is my second barebones sys.

You tell me your expert opinion?

[Paul Komski]

Everything indicates file system corruption rather than purely faulty hard drive surface/sectors. That could have been caused by bad power supply anywhere from the mains to the disk controller or by bad memory or by errant software of course.

Good and appropriate memory and PSUs are both much more important for the integrity of your system that most people give them credit for.

I would never advise defragging as a method of repair if any important data was involved. Much better would have been chkdsk /r from another pc - having first imaged the drive to other media if data was important. Imaging could have been attempted from outside windows using knoppix or BiNG or IforDOS or ...

[Sylvander]

Troubleshooting Stop 0x24 or NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM Error Messages (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=228888)

[spark-e]

I'm frustrated beyond reason here.
Lets break ths down.
I am using the following:
Sempron 3000+ Barebones Kit
CPU:AMD Sempron 3000+ 128 KB Socket 754 CPU
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo3 H nForce4 Socket 754 ATX Motherboard
512 MB RAM
HD: Maxtor 7L250S0 250GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA/150 Hard Drive
Lite-On LH-18A1P 18x Double Layer DVD±RW IDE Drive

I was trying to install WinXP onto the HD. I cannot because in the middle of loading files I get a blue screen ACPI.sys error.

I did a flawless install two weeks ago. The system crashed in the middle of backing up my files to an external HD. System would not reboot because of an NTSF error.

Ok, so I used a NTFS4Dos boot disk to defragment, which fixed things enough for me to boot to safemode. I backed up my data. Good.
Ok, next step, reformat HD and reinstall WinXP

This goes well until in the middle of the install (at 70%) I get a "setup cannot copy file" message. No matter what I do I cannot get the file to copy. The CD is not faulty. I am now using another CD and I still get the same message.

Ok so I read up on "setup cannot copy file" and find out that it might be a memory issue or a CPU overclocking issue. The BIOS won't allow me to underclock the CPU but I make sure it is set to default.

Anyway I try to install WinXP again and it starts to give me a "driver_irql_not_less_or_equal" blue screen which ends with ACPI.sys error string.

So I swap memory modules and things get really bad. The PC won't give me a visual and it beeps. I end up having to take everything out. Disconnect HD, DVD Drive and clear CMOS etc.

Now it boots to BIOS and everything seems normal again. I get a message about CPU overclocking and being set to default.

I shut it down, reconnect HD and DVD drive. I attempt to install WinXP and get the blue screen ACPI message.

I reboot and start again.

At this writing the WinXP setup has stalled at "Setup is loading files (Video Driver)...

PS: I made a Knoppix Boot CD and it seems to start but then my screen goes black and stays that way for 20 minutes . But thats another issue for another day.

My immediate goal: How do I install WinXP.

How do I keep my sanity? Go out and buy another PC, because this one is asking to be thrown out into the river.

Once again 1:34 PM I am left with a "driver_irql_not_less_or_equal" blue screen which ends with ACPI.sys error string: acpi.sys - Address F87C0E3A base at F87B6000, datestamp 41107d27.

Maybe I have a bad HD huh?

whats to be done? I'm gonna go out, start up the truck and mow it all down if I don't get an answer soon...

[Paul Komski]

This sort of thing can happen and it can be extremely frustrating because BSODs can be caused by such a wide range of hardware and software problems. As stated already bad memory or a bad PSU would be high on my list of suspects.

Anecdotally I have had similar problems with two installs (one on an MSI board) that nearly drove me to distraction. When I changed from a SATA to a PATA drive I managed to overcome all the problems. The same SATA drives worked just fine on new systems but it left me wondering if there was some failure in the development of the mobo chipsets in the manner of integrating the mobo's buses with the new or fairly recently developed SATA chipsets. As I said it is purely anecdotal and its up to you if you want to try a PATA in place of a SATA.

[Sylvander]

The info I'm seeing HERE (http://www.kayodeok.btinternet.co.uk/favorites/kbasewinxp.htm) at "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" suggests this is a hardware/driver problem.
[Use "Find" to go directly to it]

e.g. Troubleshooting a Stop 0x0000000A error in Windows XP (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314063)

[spark-e]

Ok, just before I revved up the truck. I remembered that I had another stick of 1GB memory on another computer. So I got out the truck, took the pc back in (thus depriving everyone in my neighborhood of a really great show) and took out the 512 MB memory that came with the barbones system.

I have another system whose hard drive creaked itself to death just before the barebones sys arrived. So it sits there with everything minus the HD and while I wait for its replacement to show I figured I might as well use its memory for the new barebones sys.

The new system has two slots and during all my trouble I had the 512 MB memory in slot 1 and a 1GB stick from my old sys in slot 2.

It occured to me that maybe there was not enough memory or that the 512 stick was totally screwed.

So I take it out and put the extra 1GB memory in slot 1 giving me 2 GB memory in total.

I try the WinXP install again and voila, it goes off without a hitch in less than 20 minutes! I'm up and running with no problems for the past 24 hours.

The Knoppix Live CD also boots without a hitch. Whereas before it would tell me to hit enter to load Knoppix and then just hang as a black screen, the live CD booted up in less than 1 minute.

So I had memory troubles. I did a scan of the 512 Memory module with Knoppix Memtest86 and there was a lot of red going round. With the 2 GB modules installed, there is no red during a memtest.

So there you go (or so I have learned the hard way):

Remember, when in doubt, take the bad memory out!

[Sylvander]

Nice one! :D :cool: