Clean Install Crashes

[Martin Murray]

I started having some random crashes on a previously stable XP installation,
so I decided to do a clean install. Now I have real problems.

I removed all extra hardware, 2nd video card, ATA expansion card, USB
devices, etc. Leaves me with a SOYO motherboard, a AMD 2400 XP+, an ATI
Radeon 8500 All-In-Wonder video card and that's about it. Did a zero-fill
of my Western Digital 120GB drive and got no errors.

After the initial install format & file copy from the CD, XP does a reboot
and starts the installation proper. At the end of this process, it says
something about removing temporary files. At this point, my computer
resets. It never used to do that, but rather XP would finish up gracefully
and do a controlled reboot. After the reset, system behaviour is erratic.
Sometimes the computer crashes without warning. Sometimes, it will seem
stable for a while or longer... BUT I cannot install SP1 or SP2. At the
time these updates want to start .CAB file creation, they fail without
explanation. "The SP2 update stopped unexpectedly." Periodically I will
get warnings about failed .DLLs or processes. Such as lsass.dll or the
Generic Host Process.

Any ideas what I've got going on wrong in my system?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Martin Murray

 

[D.Currie]

I started having some random crashes on a previously stable XP
installation,
so I decided to do a clean install. Now I have real problems.

I removed all extra hardware, 2nd video card, ATA expansion card, USB
devices, etc. Leaves me with a SOYO motherboard, a AMD 2400 XP+, an ATI
Radeon 8500 All-In-Wonder video card and that's about it. Did a zero-fill
of my Western Digital 120GB drive and got no errors.

After the initial install format & file copy from the CD, XP does a reboot
and starts the installation proper. At the end of this process, it says
something about removing temporary files. At this point, my computer
resets. It never used to do that, but rather XP would finish up
gracefully
and do a controlled reboot. After the reset, system behaviour is erratic.
Sometimes the computer crashes without warning. Sometimes, it will seem
stable for a while or longer... BUT I cannot install SP1 or SP2. At the
time these updates want to start .CAB file creation, they fail without
explanation. "The SP2 update stopped unexpectedly." Periodically I will
get warnings about failed .DLLs or processes. Such as lsass.dll or the
Generic Host Process.

Any ideas what I've got going on wrong in my system?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Martin Murray

#1 guess would be memory gone bad.

 

[Martin Murray]

Memory: I don't think so. I've tried removing memory, leaving it with one
512M stick. Unless that one stick is bad, the memory is OK. And it does
pass initial post testing.

CPU?

 

[Uwe Pilgram]

Try MEMTEST version 1.55 or better. It is a standalone diskette based program. Memory and
northbridge chipsets are always suspects in case of erratic troubles.

Regards
Uwe

PS. If you don't find MEMEST send me a mail.

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi,

Are you sure processor temparature is OK? You should be able to check it
without needing Windows.

I know you say you filled a drive with zeros, but have you tested this
drive properly? That's the first thing I'd look at. You can get a util
from Western Digital; make sure you run all low level tests. If you have
a spare drive, give that a go instead.

I've seen these kinds of problems when there's a mismatch between the
real drive geometry, and the geometry being reported by BIOS and
software drivers. I assume you FDISK'd the drive before you tried to
reinstall?