XP Crash / Help

[JetLinus]

Alright. My old 1.2Ghz Athlon machine doesn't work anymore and it's making me very sad as I got all my programs on it and use it a lot. Format is not an option for me.

OS is WinXP with NO SP, but up2date.

This happened: Suddenly, when I turn on my PC, just when the login screen is supposed to appear, I get a bluescreen. With a STOP msg, and some error called BAD_POOL_CALL.
Then, my actions were as follows:

1. Booted up in safe mode. Did an up2date virus scan, and checked for suspicious startup programs. Nothing. I looked up the error msg I got, and apparently it's caused by malfunctioning drivers. I didn't change anything on my system before, so I tried to deactivate stuff I don't need anyway...
2. Tried to boot normal. The login screen appeared for a second, then changed to bluescreen and STOP msg again.
3. Disabled basically every piece of hardware that isn't essential. Tried to create a new profile for this.
4. Anyway, I got a bluescreen again, but DIFFERENT this time. It said something about a driver called avgntdd.sys, which is in fact my virus scanner. A bit surprising, as it's quite good and I was never disappointed by it (AntiVir Personal Edition). Went to safe mode again, reinstalled the virus scanner. No problems.
5. Back in normal boot, I get a bluescreen again, DIFFERENT this time. No error msg, just STOP 0x000000C4. Looked it up, malfuncioning hardware again...
6. Opened up computer, removed 2 NICs, 1 SoundBlaster Card, 1 TV card (that has been disabled for years anyway). Set all BIOS options to "low" basically (i.e. disabling PCI speed stuff etc).
7. Same problem again. I read something about "VERIFIER", a tool that checks for bad drivers.
   I boot to safe mode and run it. Unfortunately, it says "OK, settings saved, pls reboot for the driver check". But obviously I can only reboot back to safe mode, where it DOESN'T run automatically of course. Tried to start it manually, wasn't successful.
   Wrote down the list of driver-files that DIDN'T pass the XP certified test anyway.
8. K, now the trouble begins. I thought what the hell and put in my XP SP0 CD. In safe mode ofc. Ran setup, chose "Update" (i.e. repair).
   This all goes well and takes ages, setup reboots, checks for hardware...
   BLUESCREEN.
   OMG!
9. Always at the same percentage. STOP msg again, this 0x000000C4 again. MS says its caused if this VERIFIER thingy finds a bad driver or whatever.
10. Ok /me thinks, there must be a friggin way. Booted up with Super Utilities 2002 / ERD Commander 2002 from CD, and renamed the files that VERIFIER said in the first place were going to be checked.
    afs2k.sys, elbycdfl.sys, elbyvcd.sys, fwdrv.sys, pfc.sys, precsim.sys, viaagp1.sys, viapfd.sys, wrdrv.sys.
    Also renamed the directory of my virus scanner.
11. Now the XP setup can't find my CD drive anymore. Might be because of afs2k.sys, but that's not the only file needed apparently.
12. I copied the XP CD to HDD, telling Setup to get the files from there. Currently it's installing / checking hardware again.
13. FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok plssssssssssssss help!!!! Anything?


Here my questions:

• WTF?
• How do I get VERIFIER to run AT ONCE and not next boot?
• What could cause all of this?
• What happens when I choose "Reinstall" in Windows XP setup. It tells me I couldn't keep my programs and files, but what does it actually do?
• How do I debug the kernel-stack or memory or dump or whatever. There was a complicated MS KB article I couldn't quite follow, commands like <!command>, to be entered in Debug Mode.
  I JUST NEED A SOURCE FOR THE PROBLEM. This debugging could tell me the driver name maybe?
• Get my system to work again pls!

P.S.: I know, format etc would be needed, but I got 120GB of data and a LOT of program settings on it that I need to backup before.

Also, I know that "reinstall" and keeping your programs is shit usually. BUT: On Win98 the other day my uncle got a virus, the whole system-directory was infected and emptied etc. I reinstalled it from the original setup cd (wasn't even SE), and HEY, everything perfect again. And I mean REALLY nice. All drivers there, all desktop icons and programs still working.



And the worst thing: I actually didn't change anything. No updates nothing. I can't remember what could have caused this.


LIVE UPDATE: Yes!!!!!!!!!
XP Setup has passed the hardware check, it's now installing network components (which can't be much as I removed the NICs -- ok, protocol stuff prolly)

[JetLinus]

Another Update

Installation was successful, restart.
Bluescreen!!!
Very soon this time. Error 0x0000007B.
Tells me my harddisk controller or whatever isn't nice or it might be a virus. But I tell you it isn't!
It suggests CHKDSK /F. Will try...

[Vaio]

Get a 2nd drive and Ghost the other drive to it. (A backup is very useful for those 'just in case something goes wrong' moments)

Reinstall XP on a clean drive.

Use one of the other drives as a 2nd hd.

Copy the data you need onto your C drive.

Voila (sorta)

Vaio

[JetLinus]

Did checkdisk, found minor errors (missing indexes). Prtoblem NOT solved ofc.
Save mode gives the same screen btw...
Uh **** why didn't I backup just 2 days before or what? FFS I am soooooooooooooooo disappointed angry etc and hate the world.........

[pablissimo]

By VERIFIER do you mean the System FIle Checker? You can run it with sfc /SCANNOW.

Though if it's bluescreening on hardware checking it could be anything from dodgy ram to a dodgy integrated component on the motherboard to dodgy power to dodgy cabling to ...

Vaio's solution is the only short-term one you have if XP won't install. I got a 0x7B once while putting XP onto my dad's machine, it had an older hard-disk which the BIOS was ill-setup to deal with. It was an old ATA-66 jobby that the BIOS was declaring as ATA-100, somehow allowing me to install XP but not to boot off the drive. Tuned the drive settings down in the BIOS and voila. Doens't fix any of your other problems, and it's probably not even the solution to that one but just in case, you know.

[JetLinus]

By VERIFIER I mean verifier.exe, a program in system32 that verifies non-certified device drivers to see if they work under "real life" and harder conditions. Seems interesting, never seen it before.

Cheers Vaio, but to do a whole drive image I don't have enough free disk space.
It's 2 physical hard disks, 40 and 80GB, stuffed with data.

I'm going to use this new computer (currently posting from) anyway, it's 3ghz now etc. But my old machine hasn't been reinstalled for 2 years or so. It had LOTs of software on it where I wanted to inspect the settings first, look which shortcuts in the startmenu I used etc.
Just transfer a whole working environment. Would've been easy via network. And also I could write 2 CDs at one time, use 2 machines for zipping, as file storage etc.

Now it's gotta be done by physical harddisk moving, connecting. Pffff

Cruel world.

Wanted to sort outlook folders before, clean up icq contact list, get rid of shit software, sort all the ripping stuff. That's why all this hassle...

[pablissimo]

Cool, just read the MS kb article on it, never heard of it before

[JetLinus]

Yeap.
But it AIN'T cool, let me tell you this.
(well, if it worked maybe... the idea sounds nice, agreed!)

[Kurashima]

This sounds awfully familiar.

More than 1 stick of memory?

Try removing all except 1, reboot. Then remove stick 1, insert stick 2, reboot , etc.

Continue ad nauseum. Most of the time i find a problem with the system, its dodgy memory.

[JetLinus]

K cheers will try that.
BUT... Let BIOS check my memory "long power on check" mode, you now, quick check disabled.
Seemed ok.
Also all the OSes I got that boot from CD into RAM... No problem.
And safe mode before - worked fine.
It's only since I started screwing up that this things work less and less..

[meglamaniac]

The BIOS ram test is useless for all but critically damaged memory, it won't pick up intermittant or "fade" failures, as well as countless other things. If you really want to test the ram grab a copy of memtest86 - it's free and it's pretty exauhstive testing wise.

The only thing I can suggest without wiping the drive (if it isn't the memory) is to boot off the XP cd, get through to where it asks where you want to install. From this point you have 3 options. The first is to wipe the current install and start again, which you don't want. The second is to install a second copy of windows on the same drive and use that to get the info you need (the installer will complain that this is a very bad idea, which it is, but it will let you do it and this should be sufficient for data recovery). The third option is to let setup try and repair the current install - I'm not sure from what you've said if you've already tried that.