I'm getting desperate, any ideas?

[rustymeadow]

Hi,
If anybody could help me I would be forever grateful.

I have had my current computer for over a year. The specs are as follows:
ABIT VP6 dual PIII board
PIII 733 MHz x 2
512 MB SDRAM PC 133
Pioneer DVD Rom 16x
Plextor Burner
Soundblaster Live
80GB Maxtor HD

Now, this is my problem. I was running Windows XP for the past year. All of a sudden two weeks ago, the computer would give me a blue screen every time I would boot up. After trying endless things to fix it, I decided to attempt a clean reinstall of XP.
Now, it won't even get through the installation and it hangs and give me, yet again, a blue screen error message.

For the record, I have tried the following:
1. Pulling all PCI cards from the machine.
2. Reflashing the bios
3. Installing Windows 2000

All have the same result.

But here is the interesting part: I can install Windows 98 without a glitch... no problems at all.

Any ideas what is wrong or what I can do to rectify this... this computer is on the verge of getting thrown out my window.

Chris.

[Vader011]

I had the EXACT same problem. To fix it, do a low level format of your hard drive and then do the reinstall. If you need a low level formatter, visit the drive manufacturer's website. The process takes a few hours or so to complete, and worked for me like a champ!

[Vader011]

I should read better

I KNOW that maxtor has a low level formatter, and it's included with the HD (if you bought it retail). If you got an OEM drive (and who hasn't), here are the two Maxtor utilities (I cant remember which it is).

[Shakari]

try re doing the master boot record using a win98 boot disk

fdisk /mbr i think it is

worked for me

[ipdave]

Memory gone bad can cause this. So can a "creeping" CPU.

-Try powering down, remove and reseat the memory.

-Remove and reseat the CPU(s).

-- if this doesn't help, try swapping the memory sticks around, or just use 1 of them.

-- try using a memory checking program if you have one.

[Seavoices]

It seems only to be a memory problem. you had removed the PCI boards, reflashed your bios, but you haven't tried to use some others memories in your Mobo. ask for a friend to loan it for ou and try to reinstall Xp again. It's going to work...

[Arupache]

Try installing from your other cd-rom device. I had this problem earlier, and it turned out to be a dying cd-rom

[albedo039]

once had similar thing. The computer kept bombing out randomly, at bootup or whenever it wanted to. Eventually traced it to dodgy RAM. but difficult to tell without taking it all out and putting a friend's RAM in there and see if it works.

[rustymeadow]

Alright, here is the update... thanks to all who responded by the way...

1. I tried the low level format (took a LONG time!!!!)... didn't work!

2. Tried swapping the ram... didn't work!!

3. fdisk /mbr... I tried that about a week ago... no go.

4. I removed both CPU's... and tried one, then both in different slots... still doesn't work.

I think I discovered what I can do to solve the problem... buy another computer, lol.

Any other suggestions would be more than welcome.

Thanks again.

[Nunyobiznes]

Windows 2000 Pro or Linux. XP sucks for dual proccessors. Performance boost like you wouldn't believe.

[rustymeadow]

Hi nunyabiznes01:
Not that I don't appreciate the reply, but if you read the first post, I've already tried 2000. Same results.

As for linux, I can install that without a problem, much like 98. Point is, for my day to day use I prefer Windows.

So I don't care if it is 2000/XP, I'll take either or... any other suggestions???

[ipdave]

Linux and 98 don't stress the hardware with drivers for video, chipset, etc as much as win2k/xp. Since this had been running ok for a year, it sounds like an issue with the motherboard/chipset - unless you added more hardware (drives, cards) and your power supply is getting flaky. I still would bet that the m/b is on the fritz.

If you can get ahold of AMIDiags or other system checkout disk, try that first to ensure that the memory doesn't have issues at higher addresses than usually used in Linux or 98, and that your system chips are ok.

[Shadey]

rustymeadow

were you getting the *SAME* error message each time ?
can u make anything out of the blue screen error message ?

[rustymeadow]

Problem Solved!

Shadey: That was actually one of the problems I was having. I could never read the first few lines of the error message because it kept doing a memory dump really quickly and the error was then off the screen. However, I did manage to isolate the problem. It was an IRQ conflict... my guess was that the error message was the old IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

Regardless, what I did was manually adjust the IRQ settings in the bios. Upon startup of the Windows XP installation, I hit F5.

This brought up a screen asking me what type of computer I had. I chose a "Standard PC". Then the rest of the installation proceeded as normal. Worked like a charm.

Thanks for the help everybody.