failed windows xp pro install - page fault in nonpaged area

[dbraller]

i attempted to do an upgrade from windows 2000 pro to windows xp pro.
i made the mistake of doing an in-place install. in the middle of the
install, with the windows xp load screen up, i get a blue screen with
the error: "page fault in nonpaged area" and then it restarts.

i've done the following so far:
-memtest - no problems
-taken out multiple memory chips and tried with three different ones by
themselves
-flashed bios to the most recent version
-tried reinstalling fresh and resuming install multiple times
-made sure to have an updated raid driver to use during install
-disabled caching

my motherboard is a soyo p4s dragon ultra. i was having no problems
with windows 2000, my memory, or any hardware compatibilities.

any additional suggestions on how to attack this problem?

or concurrently, how to reverse and uninstall the failed win xp install
and revert to my tried and true windows 2000? and if so, any way to
avoid a clean install? i do have backups, but would prefer to avoid
this if possible.

much thanks in advance...

 

[computernerds101]

Windows has lots of problems installing on RAID hard drives. It
doesn't see some even with the drivers, and works just fine with other
motherboards. You probably just aren't one of the lucky ones and it
won't install on RAID drives.
Best bet is to just try for a clean install of XP over your old
/windows directory. If you can do that, XP can see your RAID drives so
you might have a bad disk. Windows isn't known for it's stability

 

[dbraller]

actually, i don't have a raid setup, i just need the highpoint raid
driver installed at setup in order for my hard drives to be seen
correctly.

i do get to a point in the install that lets me select what drive or
partition to install to, and it sees all three of my drives.

 

[Og]

i attempted to do an upgrade from windows 2000 pro to windows xp pro.
i made the mistake of doing an in-place install. in the middle of the
install, with the windows xp load screen up, i get a blue screen with
the error: "page fault in nonpaged area" and then it restarts.

i've done the following so far:
-memtest - no problems
-taken out multiple memory chips and tried with three different ones by
themselves
-flashed bios to the most recent version
-tried reinstalling fresh and resuming install multiple times
-made sure to have an updated raid driver to use during install
-disabled caching

my motherboard is a soyo p4s dragon ultra. i was having no problems
with windows 2000, my memory, or any hardware compatibilities.

any additional suggestions on how to attack this problem?

or concurrently, how to reverse and uninstall the failed win xp install
and revert to my tried and true windows 2000? and if so, any way to
avoid a clean install? i do have backups, but would prefer to avoid
this if possible.

much thanks in advance...

A problematic hard drive can generate pagefault errors.
1.) Determine the brand of your Hard drive.
2.) Visit the manufacturer's website and obtain their Hard drive test
utility.
3.) Run the utility from a bootable floopy.
Steve

 

[Vanguard]

actually, i don't have a raid setup, i just need the highpoint raid
driver installed at setup in order for my hard drives to be seen
correctly.

i do get to a point in the install that lets me select what drive or
partition to install to, and it sees all three of my drives.

You sure there aren't two mass storage device drivers, one for
non-raid and another for raid, so Windows can actually get to the
hardware that requires a driver to see it? Using a raid driver in a
non-raid setup means you are telling Windows you have different
hardware than you really have for its physical setup.

Are the hard drives connected to IDE ports, SATA ports, and are any of
them actually included in the RAID hardware supported within the BIOS?
Often only some of the drive ports will support RAID. If you had IDE
drives connected to IDE ports then you don't need RAID drivers for
Windows to see the IDE drives, so you must be connecting the drives to
some other type of port on the mobo.

Soyo's web site is so slow that I didn't bother to wait until tomorrow
to get the PDF online manual for your particular mobo. Sounds like
you have its BIOS configured to enable RAID support. If you haven't
been using the RAID support then there would be no need to install the
driver for it. From their online manual, you have 4 IDE ports. Only
IDE3 and IDE4 can be used for RAID. That means IDE1 and IDE2 do not
support RAID so you don't need RAID drivers for IDE drives connected
to the first two IDE ports.

 

[dbraller]

sorry if i'm not completely up to date on all the technicalities, i'm
an amateur who's learned through trial and error building this
computer. i'll look into the hard drive problems, but it would seem
strange that i hadn't had problems prior to this.

as for the raid stuff, what i know is that this is what i need. i've
dealt with this with win 2k installs, and learned about this through
troubleshooting problems with that. the highpoint raid controller also
acts as an ide controller. perhaps i don't need the raid controller to
actually do this install, since my primary hd i'm installing to is not
on ide 3 or 4, but i know at some point i do need to install it, i
believe for the hd's on ide 3 and 4 to be recognized.

nevertheless, this seems ancillary to my problem, unless i'm missing
something. thanks...

 

[DL]

Assuming you've tested the hd with the manu checking utility, and your boot
drive is set up, in bios, according to the mobo manual instructions
Disconnect any extra hd's and dvd's, boot from winxp cd delete all
partitions, exit, shutdown.
Boot again from winxp cd and clean install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
NB I havent read your mobo manual, but check it carefully with regard the
sata/raid drivers as to whether you need to F6 during the install process to
install these drivers

 

[dbraller]

ok, ran my hd check utility and no problems. unplugged all extra hd's
and dvd's and tried to do a new install. (not clean, i'll do that in
last resort).

now i get the f8 option when windows xp loads, giving me the chance to
do a safe startup et al, but as soon as i select the os, it blue
screens and stops. if it's not one thing, it's another...