CF errors during booting XPe - Compact Flash issues

[Scott Kelly]

I have a non-EWF XPe load that boots fine on a 3.2gb IDE hard drive on my
target device (a PC like board using a Geode processor). I let it go
through FBA, etc. I then use Ghost to dupe the drive to a bigger 10gb IDE
drive. That 10gb drive can then boot XPe on my target device. So all is
well in the XPe loading and the duplication process. No swap file. No EWF
(I will turn on EWF RAM later.). The file system is FAT32 with a primary
1gb partition with the O/S and a secondary partition with 2gb for my app.

I now have a Samsung 8gb OEM Compact Flash card. The end stamp is labeled:
"MUCF08GSASI-05" No other markings on the CF card. I have NOT done
anything to flip the fixed/removable bit.... because I don't think I need to
because... I have an IDE (2.5" 44pin) to CF adapter. This lets me
disconnect my small HDDs and replace them with the CF cards. So I don't
THINK I need to flip the bit. If someone can confirm this - that would be
great. If I do need to modify the bit - then I could use help finding the
utility for Samsung. Also, I don't think I need to because...

When I try to boot my system with the CF card it actually starts to boot. I
see the white progress bar screen, then the XP splash screen with the little
blue progress (Kit car) kind of thingy. Then I get the blue background
screen with my mouse in the middle. Next up I get the "Welcome" screen.
That would normally by followed by the desktop. But when I boot the CF
card... it seems to stop there for a very long time (like 1 hour) and then I
sometimes get a blue screen of death:

KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR
:
Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x0000007A (0xE13B42F8, 0xC0000185, 0xBF8AEE57, 0x0610F860)
*** win32k.sys - Address BF8AEE57 base at BF800000, DateStamp 3d6de5e5

Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong - or steps to further isolate the
problem?

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Oren Winter [MS]]

Bugcheck 0x7A (KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR) indicates that the requested page
of kernel data from the paging file could not be read into memory. Are you
certain you dont have paging file enabled on your image?

Also, looking at the DDK documentation for 0x7A bugcheck - this is what is
says for the second parameter in the bugcheck (0xC0000185):

0xC0000185, or STATUS_IO_DEVICE_ERROR, is caused by improper termination or
defective cabling on SCSI devices, or two devices attempting to use the same
IRQ.

I'd probably check the h/w (including the connectors) and IRQs (if these are
controlled by jumpers on the adapter?).

Thanks,
Oren

 

[Scott Kelly]

I am pretty sure I don't have a page file. I say that because when I boot
my HDD image and look at the
Advanced memory settings I see that there are no page files defined for
either partition.

The CF card is connected via the IDE connector which works perfect in the
HDD world... just seems to have trouble in the CF world.

Scott

 

[Stuart Langley]

Did you copy the pre FBA image to the CF card and let the FBA run of did you
just copy a post FBA image from the HD to the CF?

You can ensure that you have page file disabled by looking at the properties
of your particular "Devices: Computer" component (e.g. ACPI Uniprocessor
PC).

Regards,

Stuart

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

I second the suggestion for the pre-FBA on the CF card. The CF card IDs
differently in the registry than a HDD. Running FBA on the CF card is the
best way to go.

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
XP Embedded Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental
Toolkit

 

[Stuart Langley]

As a side note to this, some documentation does suggest that running the FBA
process on a CF card will shorten the life of the card due to the large
number of writes to the disk during the FBA process.

In this situation it is best to run the FBA process on a card that then
becomes your master image, and use one of the many cloning tools available
to propagate this image to other flash cards.

Also, in the 3 or so years that I have been developing with XPe I have run
the FBA process on the same small sample of CF cards many many times, and
have yet to see one die as a result.

Regards,

Stuart

 

[Scott Kelly]

After reading the postings here and talking to some people - I went out and
got me a brand new 2gb CF card and .... IT WORKED JUST FINE.

So the problem appears to be that my "purchased on eBay", "claims to be new"
compact flash card is suspect.

My guess is that the card is just plain flaky or is at the end of it's life.

Thanks,
Scott