Missing or damaged 'pci.sys'

[Questor]

I have an old P3 computer running XP Pro that had 384Mb of RAM and, as a
result, ran pretty slowly and did a lot of page-swapping. In my attempt
to spruce it up I took out the 128Mb stick and put in a 256Mb stick
which should have brought the motherboard up to it's maximum of 512Mb.

All the RAM sticks are PC100 and from the same manufacturer but when I
did this, XP refused to start stating that "the file 'pci.sys' is
missing or damaged" and halted. Stopping the POST with the Scroll Lock
always showed the proper amounts of RAM (128/384/512) found immediately
before halting with the error.

I played with the 3 sticks a bit - moving them around the two slots,
mixing up which one went where but could never make the error go away if
both sticks were 256Mb. According to a couple on-line memory scanner
applets (and the users manual for the motherboard) the maximum I can
hold is 512Mb so I am wondering just why this error pops up. I also
downloaded the MS memory scanner that fits on a floppy and ran that
overnight with two 256Mb sticks in it - no errors.

As near as I can tell, the 'pci.sys' I brought over from another XP Pro
computer is the same as the one on this machine but still errors out.

I know the computer is old and creaky, but it makes a good platform for
both my flatbed plotter and my wide-carriage, dot-matrix printer.

Questor

 

[Questor]

--->

I have an old P3 computer running XP Pro that had 384Mb of RAM and, as a
result, ran pretty slowly and did a lot of page-swapping. In my attempt
to spruce it up I took out the 128Mb stick and put in a 256Mb stick
which should have brought the motherboard up to it's maximum of 512Mb.

All the RAM sticks are PC100 and from the same manufacturer but when I
did this, XP refused to start stating that "the file 'pci.sys' is
missing or damaged" and halted. Stopping the POST with the Scroll Lock
always showed the proper amounts of RAM (128/384/512) found immediately
before halting with the error.

I played with the 3 sticks a bit - moving them around the two slots,
mixing up which one went where but could never make the error go away if
both sticks were 256Mb. According to a couple on-line memory scanner
applets (and the users manual for the motherboard) the maximum I can
hold is 512Mb so I am wondering just why this error pops up. I also
downloaded the MS memory scanner that fits on a floppy and ran that
overnight with two 256Mb sticks in it - no errors.

As near as I can tell, the 'pci.sys' I brought over from another XP Pro
computer is the same as the one on this machine but still errors out.

I know the computer is old and creaky, but it makes a good platform for
both my flatbed plotter and my wide-carriage, dot-matrix printer.

Questor

Wow. I'm not doing too get here in this NG. That's two now that went
unanswered on me. :<(

Questor

 

[Andrew E.]

After microsoft memory tester completes its 6th pass,if all is ok,you
probably
should quit it at that point,12 hrs or more wont help..Either way,1 128mb &
1 256mb doesnt equal 512mb,where did the other stick come from..Also,P3
uses a socket 370 processor,while 3 slots are available,only 2 get used,try
running only in the 2 default slots.Also,even with the same mfg,memory
sticks come in 1 & 2 sided memory chips,some boards wont run with 2 diffrent
types,they are not compatable.

 

[Questor]

I simply let the tester run overnight while I slept - extra runs didn't
hurt it.

I realize that I'm working with less than 512Mb. All the sticks are the
same manufacturer (and all are PC100). There are only two slots on the
motherboard for RAM, not three.

Note that I said there was only an error if BOTH sticks were 256Mb and
that I got no error if they were unequal (128 & 256 or 256 & 128) in
their respective slots.

Questor

--->

 

[Chuck]

Perhaps the 256Meg memory strips are not enough alike to work properly?
(Or, there may be an obscure BIOS setting involved) Try starting in safe
mode, and see what happens.

 

[Questor]

No BIOS involvement at all and both sticks are from the same
manufacturer; however, they appear to have different run numbers on
them. Starting is safe mode is not an option because I don't get that
far without the damaged pci.sys error.

Questor

--->

 

[Chuck]

I've seen this error. but it's been too long ago to remember the
details. It may have to do with BIOS shadowing, or the video card. (of
all things) VIA chipset perhaps? The last time I really remember
something like this, it was due to a small memory/large memory
change,and windows. . It was occurring back in 2005 with WinXP