Stupid STOP: errors when booting...

[Mini-Me]

Hi.

Workshop PC which is on 24/7 won't boot anymore.

When I got to the shop today, turned on the monitor, and the system had the following STOP error:

STOP: 0x0000008E (0x00000080, 0x80502D11, 0xF85E4FB8, 0x00000000)

So, I rebooted and got the same error, so I shut-down completely, restarted, and got the same error. Next, I rebooted and started in safe mode, which DOES WORK UP UNTIL A CERTAIN POINT - I get the announcement that the system is running in safe-mode, the system loads all the desktop icon graphics, and the hourglass is showing, and I can move the mouse, and the HDD is working, then I get ANOTHER STOP: error even in safe mode:

STOP: 0x0000008E (0xc0000005, 0x00196028, 0xF80905A8, 0x00000000)

Can anyone tell me what the hell is going on?

This is my work computer, and although I can rustle up another computer by the end of the day if I have to, I would like to get this one going again if possible, to prevent having to install lots of software and restore data from backups...

I will do a little hunt now on the net for those specific STOP errors...

[mjc]

Typical list...start off with RAM, then drivers, then services...and then, well, there are some rootkits around that can cause this, too (they run as a service and if they screw up then the BSOD).

But, I'd place money on RAM being the cause...

[Mini-Me]

Hokey pokey - Will run MEMTEST on it for starters...

[Mini-Me]

Well, can't even run MEMTEST, as system now flatly refuses to even post.
Have tried swapping the RAM with know-to-be-good, remove all devices etc, but the system won't even beep at me anymore.

What is kinda conclusive to me, is that with no RAM at all in the machine, there is also no beeps of any kind - fans start up, but nothing else. To me, this looks like a dead-motherboard. Any good m/board in the world should complain bitterly at power up in the form of beeps, if no RAM at all is installed...

I've started assembly of a new PC for work - I have a whole shed full of parts, cases, m/boards, CPU's, RAM, HDD's etc pulled from old machines or from upgrades...
;)

[Paul Komski]

If no beep with just psu and mobo and cpu/hsf then it could be any one of those three.

[Mini-Me]

If no beep with just psu and mobo and cpu/hsf then it could be any one of those three.

Totally agree - looks like those STOP: errors were prophetic in terms of what the system was going to do...(Stop, in other words!!! :D )

Perhaps over Christmas, I will get a chance to tinker with it to find out if it can be salvaged, but for right now, I need my invoicing ability back!!! :p (hence the somewhat hurried investigation as to the problem, and what must seem like a sudden dropping of my old system by other members here!)

Ahh, well - that's life in the computer world.
I have built up another one using an old spare Compaq USFF PC, which is very small in size, so will be a better fit in the corner of my workshop then the full-tower box was. It's a little less powerful then what I had, but all I need is a basic system for running my invoicing program, and access to the net for technical downloads etc, and a 1300MHz will do that OK, but just not with the best speed.

[Sylvander]

"just not with the best speed"
Try Puppy Linux 4.1.1 (http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads/official-releases/puppy-linux-411) as a start; You should find it amazingly fast even on older hardware.
If you install to a 1 GB or 2 GB or greater Flash Drive, you won't even need to install to a HDD, but can if you choose.
512 MB of RAM is good, but 256 MB would do.

There are lots of puplets to choose from. (http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads/puplets)

[Mini-Me]

Yep, have Puppy 4.1!!!
:)

I love it as a small, simple and fast Linux distro.
Unfortunately, my invoicing software is Windoze only, so I have decided to pinch a copy of Win2K-PRO w/SP4 from stock to build the new machine. 2K seems to work OK on a 1300MHz with 512. I would be a little unwilling to put XP on that CPU speed...

[Sylvander]

You could install WINE to Puppy and then use Windows programs in Puppy.

Wine 1.0 [stable version] and md5sum available here. (http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=256755309&t=26717)
If [from within Puppy] you click on that link to the "PET" file, it installs easy as could be.

Not sure where to go from there, so I'd be interested to know. :)

[mjc]

XP wouldn't be too bad on that machine, just keep it lean and don't go too fancy with it.

[Paul Komski]

XP wouldn't be too bad on that machine, just keep it lean and don't go too fancy with it.Couldn't agree more. With 512 ram on P2s upwards XP will usually run very nicely until it gets bogged down with excessive startup items and/or bloated TSR security. With a small footprint a/v such as Avira and just the Windows Firewall it should load and run pretty nicely for most "mundane" applications.

Heck I even have an old laptop Dell Inspiron 7000 (Pentium II 333MHz with just 256 RAM) that works quite acceptably for Internet Access and Office 2000 suite currently running WinXP Home SP3 and with a USB 1.1 port attached to a wireless dongle for wifi network access.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Heck I even have an old laptop Dell Inspiron 7000 (Pentium II 333MHz with just 256 RAM) that works quite acceptably for Internet Access and Office 2000 suite currently running WinXP Home SP3 and with a USB 1.1 port attached to a wireless dongle for wifi network access.

Hey, let's not s-t-r-e-t-c-h things too far now... ;) The PII systems I had never saw anything newer than 98SE or WinME! (Sorry, but ((or that)) I never tried Win2K)

The oldest 2 systems I've run XP on and felt comfortable with are a desktop with an AMD Duron 850mhz coupled with pc133 RAM and a PIII 850mhz with pc100 RAM. Both using XP Home and startup trimmed to only loading essential programs unless others were needed and opened after the fact.

I've since dumped Office 2000 for Open Office and when I need a lighter footprint I use an older version of same or one designed for an earlier OS or a portable.

I will never use Windows firewall however, I insist one one capable of bidirectional monitoring.

[Mini-Me]

A PII 333 with 256 running XP?!
That's adventurous of you, Paul!!!
:D
I've already put 2K SP4 on the machine now, so I guess we'll never know, but I have seen XP running on 1300MHz machines(Duron's), and they were pretty slow. Mind you, they were full installs with internet, so...
My 1300 is a Celeron, and with 512 it seems quite happy with 2K.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

My 1300 is a Celeron, and with 512 it seems quite happy with 2K.
If you're adventurous you could put it on ME and see what kind of spectacular crashes or freezes that may occur...


Oops! Sorry! I now realize you are trying to fix a problem rather than comment ON one... ;) ;)

[Paul Komski]

I don't see it as adventurous - the result is simply empirical. I happen to have the old lady and have experimented with her in all sorts of ways. It was a surprise to me that XP worked as well as it did when Ubuntu was much tardier than the XP and 2K installations. I dual boot with Puppy (for use for many quick boots) if I am in a real hurry but the XP installation is useful and more versatile than 2K which I previously had installed on it. My major problem was getting PCMCIA cards (and a PCMCIA NIC in particular) to work in any other version of Windows.

OK its not like quicksilver but without all the extras is still a great functional machine that I can use to troubleshoot away from home and also use to lend-out when repairing someones PC. It boots from cold to the Windows jingle in 60 seconds and creates or restores a 2gb image file of a clean installation +SP3 +"must-haves" in about 12 minutes; 6mins for clean install of SP2 in a 1GB image file. What more could I ask of her?

There's only one 1.1 USB port so I tend to use it for wireless LAN and put a four port USB 2.0 card or wired NIC in the cardbus. Serial modem for dial up.

The real reason that I wanted XP on this machine came from problems with Win2K as outlined elsewhere (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?p=415187).

[Mini-Me]

Well, to finish up this thread, I thought i would post a couple of photos for the reference of others:

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/1115/asrockmb1eam1.jpg

And another view...

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/166/asrockmb2exo8.jpg

A-LOT of bulging and leaking electros.
All of the caps with red-circles around them are bulging, and most of them show signs of leaking too. Not that surprising that the computer was acting weird with this many caps on the way out!

This board was(is) an ASrock K7S41GX for socket 462 CPU's, and I have used about four of these exact boards, and this is the first one to die. I think I got a pretty good run of 4.5 years of nearly 24/7 operation from this board, when you think that new, it only cost about NZ$80.00, which is about forty bucks or so in American cash...

Because of the cheapness of this board, and the number of caps bulging, it is being biffed(thrown out), as it is not worth re-capping a board this old, as I am sure most of you reading this will agree...
:)

[mjc]

I don't...it would make a quite lovely target for shotgun practice, before sending what's left off to the trash...:D