XP Pro System is hosed

[Pat]

Ever since XP SP3 came out, my system has been hosed. First, it was
dead, 6 saying it couldn't find some file in the system directory.
After fighting with it all night, I reinstalled Windows. Once
everything was back up, and I reapplied SP3, things started going to
crap again. This time, the messages suggested I had a hard drive
issue. Considering I had just rebuilt this system last December and
replaced everything BUT the system drive, that was a possibility. So,
I went and bought a brand new Maxtor 300GB IDE drive. Reinstalled
Windows. Let that burn in for a day, and everything seemed OK, so I
started reinstalling my apps. Shortly thereafter, the system started
going haywire again. Locking up with no entry in the system or
application event log. I had 4 GB of memory in it, so I took out one
stick, and ran WinDiag on it for something like 26 hous with no errors
found, then I ran MEMTEST86 on it for 49 hours with no errors found.
Confident the problem wasn't memory, I started over again. Formatted
the drive, reinstalled Windows, and let that burn in for 2 days.
Everything was hunky-dory. Once again, reinstalled the rest of my
apps, and let Microsoft Update bring everything back up to date.
Everything was cool for about 3 days, then the system started going
nuts on me again. Locking up, and giving me BSODs. The last one I
captured had stop error
0x0000007F(0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000). Trying to
boot using safe mode, I kept seeing the system would reboot right
after mup.sys loaded. Researching this pointed to power supply as a
potential problem. I have a Power & Cooling 750W PSU that is less than
6 months old, but I went ahead and bought a brand new Rosewill 750W
PSU that came highly recommended on NewEgg. Tonight, I swapped the
PSUs out, and I still can't get Windows to boot. I ran the repair
console, ran CHKDSK /R. It took forever, said that it found some
errors and fixed them. When I attempted to reboot the system, it went
to a BSOD, which flashed by so quickly I couldn't read it. Then it
went into a reboot loop that I could only stop by powering down. What
do I do now?

My system (all new within the last 6 months):
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual 6000+
3 GB RAM, DDR2, Single Channel
Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H MoBo
System drive: Maxtor 300 GB IDE (100GB boot partition, 200GB other
drive)
Second drive: Seagate Barracuda 500 GB SATA drive
eVGA GeForce 8500GT PCIExpress video card, 512 MB RAM
NetGear G311 Gigabit Ethernet card

 

[Pat]

There are known problems with SP3 and AMD processors.
There are known problems with SP3 and Norton Antivirus.

I don't have either of these, so I wasn't really paying attention, but
you can check at  WindowsSecrets.com. Look for the free edition with
date 5/29/08.

"The problems with XP SP3 include AMD-based Hewlett-Packard desktop
computers constantly rebooting and Symantec antivirus products
developing strange behaviors."

There may be other problems as well, but I think this has you covered.

Jim

Thanks for the info Jim, but I'm neither running an HP nor NAV. My
system is a beige box, with Windows installed from the original
Windoze CD instead of a manufacturer image.

 

[Pat]

So, I've rebuilt the system - AGAIN, and per TVeblen's recommendation,
I've not installed SP3. It's better than 24 hours since I finished the
rebuild, and the system has been stable with no errors logged in
either the System or Applications event log. To answer some of the
questions that have been posted here:

1. Jim - WRT to the AMD vs. HP problem: I've read multiple articles on
this topic, and it seems to be tied to systems that have been built
with a sysprep-type of image, that contains drivers for multiple
devices and CPUs. Those systems seem to have the problem with the
Intel power management feature getting turned on. Since my AMD system
isn't built that way, I don't see how that applies to my situation.

2. Larc - You asked if I had the correct SP3 installed. I was actually
originally running a pre-release version of SP3, which my system ran
just fine on for about 4 weeks. Right up until the day the official
release came out, and auto-updated my system and I came home and found
it hosed. The first time I rebuilt it, I had downloaded the full SP3
ISO image and burned it on to CD, and installed it that way when I
rebult my system. I went straight from the base install that include
SP1a to SP3. That died shortly therafter, so the next time I rebuilt
it, I applied SP2, then SP3 from my disk. THAT died shortly
thereafter, so I installed SP2, then let Microsoft Update apply SP3.
THAT died too! So - I've had just about every flavor of SP3 you can
get...

3. Dave W - I think your information is dated. The RTM version of SP3
was officially released on April 21st, and then released via Windows
Update on May 6th - the day my system got hosed the first time. Why
did I reinstall it? I must be a glutton for punishment! Actually,
the first time my system was hosed, happened to be the day that
Comcast was working on the lines in my neighborhood, and I was
optimistic that it was just a case of the update being interrupted. I
have no excuse for the subsequent times. I guess I'm just an optimist.
Or crazy!

4. Claude Hopper - See response #2.

Thanks everyone for weighing in. I'll report back on how this goes,
and if I happen to learn anything about SP3, I'll be sure to share it
back. Cheers! - Pat

 

[GMAN]

The problem applies to all AMD machines, not just HP. There's some
file that's used only for intel machines that gets loaded by mistake.
The details are in the article.

Jim

Way to go SP3 beta testers!!!!!!

 

[Pat]

Here's the latest:

1. By 6 the morning of the 31st, the system had locekd up with a BSOD:
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA; STOP: 0x00000050 (0x8ACBB778, 0x00000000,
0xBA655721, 0x00000000); NTFS.SYS - Address BA655721 Base at BA635000,
DATESTAMP 45CC56A7.
Believing this could be related to some suspect Kingston memory I
have, I yanked that stick out, leaving me 2-1GB Crucial Ballistix
sticks in place. The system restarted just fine. That was Sunday
night, the 2nd...

2. This morning, I tried to access the system remotely, and it didn't
respond. When I got home tonight, there was a new BSOD: AN ATTEMPT WAS
MADE TO WRITE READ-ONLY MEMORY; STOP: 0x000000BE (0xB7F3C313,
0x0E4FC121, 0xBACDBCE4, 0x0000000B); KS.SYS - Address B7F3C313 base at
B7F2D000, DATESTAMP 41107ef8.

From what I can tell, this suggests an issue with the video driver. I
have the latest driver from NVidia, which is actually MS signed!

BTW - I'm still running at SP2, with autoupdate disabled.

Any suggestions? This has been going on for a couple months now, and
is getting quite tiring!

TIAFAH! - Pat

 

[Pat]

BTW - Forgot to mention that it seems the system is good for about 36
hours before throwing a BSOD. It doesn't seem to be tied to a time of
day, just duration that the system has been up and running.

 

[Pat]

Hmmm. Guess I'll try pulling the eVGA card and use the video on the
MoBo to see if that gets me past this 36 hour mark. I'l also see if
the event log shows something consistent before the system locks up.
Thanks TVeblen!

 

[Pat]

Whoa! New information.

You've got onboard video and you've installed a video card. I've read of a
few problems that occur with that setup if not done properly. You could have
competing drivers, resource conflicts, or BIOS issues. Any of which would
explain the paging errors. Installing SP3 could have awakened a beast. The
trick, I have read, is to disable the onboard video in BIOS while at the
same time removing it and it's drivers from Windows before installing the
new Video card and it's drivers. My head hurts just thinking about it.
That's providing that this is your problem, which you can't be sure of right
now.
Hopefully someone more experienced than I with that setup will come along
and concur and possibly advise you with a step by step.

Funny you should mention that! I did have the onboard card disabled in
BIOS. BUT, I HAD installed all the drivers that had come with my MoBo,
which included the ATI drivers. Of course, my vid card is nVidia. SO -
I actually ended up doing what you suggested - removed my nVidia
drivers, removed the ATI drivers, then reinstalled the nVidia drivers.
It's been up since about 10:30 last night. We'll see if I make it past
the magic 36 hour mark!

 

[Jim]

It's been up since about 10:30 last night. We'll see if I make it past
the magic 36 hour mark!

If you are still having problems consider a detour. Get yourself a Linux
live CD. I prefer PCLinuxOS, Knoppix is another great one.

Use these to test your system. If you still experience problems you may
have hardware issues masking as software problems.

 

[Pat]

Well, new info: This afternoon I found a new BSOD: A process or thread
crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been
terminated. STOP: 0x000000F4 (0x00000003, 0x88EA9410, 0x88EA9584,
0x805D11F8)
Now, when I attempt to start this box, I just get non-stop, slow
beeps, not even pixie boot. Methinks I have a dead MoBo, and this was
the issue all along!

 

[Pat]

Well, new info: This afternoon I found a new BSOD: A process or thread
crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been
terminated. STOP: 0x000000F4 (0x00000003, 0x88EA9410, 0x88EA9584,
0x805D11F8)
Now, when I attempt to start this box, I just get non-stop, slow
beeps, not even pixie boot. Methinks I have a dead MoBo, and this was
the issue all along!

Well, after doing a little poking around about the beeps, I reseated
both the video card and the memory sticks (no easy feat with my
massive cooling tower over the CPU!), and the system booted right back
up with no problem. I've submitted an RMA for the video card - we'll
see if that makes a difference!

 

[GMAN]

Well, after doing a little poking around about the beeps, I reseated
both the video card and the memory sticks (no easy feat with my
massive cooling tower over the CPU!), and the system booted right back
up with no problem. I've submitted an RMA for the video card - we'll
see if that makes a difference!

Your massive cooling tower could be flexing the hell out of the motherboard
and causing the video card and ram to pop loose. I doubt it the video card.

 

[Pat]

Do you think it may have been a poorly seated video card all along?

No, I had gone through and reseated it a few times along the way here.
MAYBE with the memory, since I hadn't touched it since installing it.

NEW INFO: Last night, after having the system running for a couple
hours with Twonky Media streaming media to my DLink, the system locked
up with a BSOD with a MEMORY_MANAGEMENT message, STOP 0x0000001A
(0x00041785, 0x00E00000, 0x00031F70, 0x00000000). After power-cycling
it, it came back up, acting as if nothing had happened. After about
another hour of streaming, it crapped out again, this time with an
"IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" message. It did that 2 more times before the
night was over. There is a KB article about this, stating that "This
problem occurs because of a race condition in the memory manager.",
for which there is an update that I installed. We'll see what happens
next...