Continous BSOD

[Mike]

My older PC is in cardiac arrest. Need help in resolving. Please, no
chiding about replacing the PC. Not only do I not have funds for a
replacement but I need to gain access to data on the hard drive.

Here's how it played out:

Initially, BSOD would randomly occur. Sometimes after hours of use,
other times much sooner. Now, it is a recurring event (after trying to
restore OS which failed and then re-install which is not allowed to
complete). BSOD just flashed by now and then reboots. This may
indicate a hardware fault.

Here's what I've already tried.

Tested memory okay.
Re-scanned for virus: System would crash before it can complete
Tried to update virus software, would crash before it can complete.
Have run chkdsk which finds/recovers two lost clusters but that's all.
Tried to repair OS, did not help.
Tried to re-install. System crashes before it can complete.
Disconnected all extra drives including CDROM to see if P/S was an
issue. Still get BSOD.
Reseated CPU. No luck. Would test CPU it if I could find a utility that
doesnt' require windows. [CPU may be an issue. Awhile back (maybe a
year), my PC was acting very slow. Discovered the CPU fan was
inoperative, don't know for how long. Replaced fan and PC was
responding normally but perhaps the CPU is just acting fried.]
Can no longer even start in Safe mode. All attempts to access or reload
the OS fail w/ BSOD.

I did install new hardware (a scanner and a laser-printer) more than a
month before this started to happen. However, I've disconnected and
uninstalled the scanner (although I did find references to it in the
Registry) . I've disconnected the printer, too but not uninstalled. Can
no longer uninstall anyway.

The CPU is an older AMD K6 233 or 266 MHz. If I could find a
replacement, would try that to see if it resolves the problem.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Mike

What is the Stop Error message?

Can you access in Safe Mode or Last Known Good Configuration?

Event Viewer Reports?

Remove all except keyboard, mouse and monitor?

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Sven]

Mike, it appears that, after an exceedingly long life, your computer has
died of natural causes.
I won't mention "replacing the PC."

As to your data: each failed attempt to repair and/or reinstall the
Operating System decreases your chance of recovering your data files.

Pull the hard drive out of your dead computer, install it into a working
computer as a slave drive, and copy your data files to floppy, CD-R, or
whatever.

Steve

 

[Mike]

Gerry the most prevalent stop code was 0x0000008e and pointed to
"ntoskrnl.exe". Last time I tried, I couldn't see a stop code as it
blew by so fast. I suppose I could video tape it and then step through
the frames to find BSOD. Don't think it will help though.

Safe Mode and LKGC are things of the past and no longer accessible.

Next attempt will be to remove all plug-in cards and extraneous
devices. Not hoping for much, though.

I'm leaning towards attributing the fault to a hardware failure that
slowly degraded until it became fatal. I might try acquiring a
replacement CPU (under $25) just to see if I can revive it before my
aged PC 'walks into the light' and becomes one more ghost up in the
attic.

 

[Mike]

Thanks for the reply Steve. Will salvage what I can if all else fails.

Mike

 

[Gil Baron]

My older PC is in cardiac arrest. Need help in resolving. Please, no
chiding about replacing the PC. Not only do I not have funds for a
replacement but I need to gain access to data on the hard drive.

Unfortunately, there is a BIG FAT DEFECT in th best ool o sove this probke, Thetook is verifier.exe and on XP itis brojen If yu try to use the resukt s a cibtinuus reboot loop so it never gets to determine the failing driver, This happebs on two quite different stystems I have and is a sad situation that nobody has ever solved,

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Mike

I have studied a number of reports and these suggest a hardware
problem. Most threads end up unresolved. A number of persons were
suspecting problems with video cards and one reported resolution by
replacing the video card.

However, as this problem has been ongoing for some time
a new install may be the only solution if you know which piece of
hardware has failed.

If you try a new install try it first with only keyboard, mouse and
monitor connected.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Mike]

Last post on this topic. thanks for all the input but the reports of my
PC's imminent demise have, sadly, come to fruition. It served me well
and long but it's time to lay it to rest.

 

[Paul Schwartz]

Failing HDD will show the ntoskrnl.exe error intermittently.
Bad HDD.

 

[Mike]

Maybe, maybe not. Got my barebones system in last night. After I
installed the MoBo, memory and drives, I powered it up. Got the same
BSOD indication but not linked to ntoskrnl.exe. I was not a happy
camper at that point.

BUT...I elected to re-partition the drive, reformat and try installing
XP again. To my pleasant surprise, installation completed and
ultimately the new system booted up. Caveat: The system had only been
running for about 30 minutes before I ran out of gas and went to bed.
I'll give it a few days (if possible) of run-time and see what I see.

Since earlier disk tests reported the drive was healthy, I suspect the
on-board IDE controller went bad. Time will tell...

 

[Vince]

Unfortunately, there is a BIG FAT DEFECT in th best ool o sove this probke, The took is verifier.exe and on XP itis brojen If yu try to use the resukt s a cibtinuus reboot loop so it never gets to determine the failing driver, This happebs on two quite different stystems I have and is a sad situation that nobody has ever solved,

Gil:

QRT while typing in your replies. The RFI is terrible !

de WA2RSX

 

[Mike]

Not sure what Vince is trying to communcate there, but I have one
absolutely final message on my original post. I've been running nearly
a month now with a new MoBo and the harddrive salvaged from my old
system. Final diagnosis: Bad onboard IDE on old MoBo.