The OEM Home eXPerience

[Chudnab]

Hola -

Well, I am disheartened. It's been nearly two months since my (outdated) PC has been up and running. I thought I could solve the issue by replacing the fried Graphics Card... not so. After attempting to troubleshoot the little things first, I decided it was time to wipe and restart. I didn't own a copy of windows so I figured I save a few bucks and order an OEM version of WIN XP Home.

I read a great deal of reviews about the product and, inspite of a few negative posts, figured it was a safe bet. Obviously, it hasn't panned out quite like I hoped. The first install attempt seemed to be going very well. Clean setup, F8 to agree, copying folders, then the oddities. At about 68% completion the "file could not be copied" messages began to swarm. Press Enter to retry, ESC to skip file, etc... I pressed enter to try and recopy the files but none of them would stick, so I just started skipping them all. There were so many that the only way to make progress was to hold down the ESC key. Then it happened, the BSOD! I read the screen and proceeded to restart and try again. The second time was even worse. I started receiving the file could not copy errors before 1% completion. I tried again, only to fail once more.

I am in desperate need of assistance! I know this will be frowned upon as a N00B mistake; however, I really need some help.

Thanks in advance!

Chud

 

[kimsland]

Ram or overclocked CPU fault

Start with resetting BIOS to defaults (usually DEL prompt, when you start your computer)
If this is a Desktop computer (sorry didn't check), confirm any internal ATA HardDRive has been jumpered for CS (Cable Select) and is plugged into IDE0 (on the Motherboard)

Next (if the above doesn't help) try Memtest and scan your Ram for 7 Passes (about a 4hr scan) any faults whatsoever, replace the Ram.

If that doesn't help (and we are looking hours from now!)
Replace the CD/DVD drive
or
Replace any HardDrive or CD/DVD Drive data cable
or
Disconnect the floppy (if you have one, oh and still on the Desktop idea)

Anyway try the above


Good luck, and let us know the outcome

 

[Chudnab]

Kim,

Thanks for the advice! I'll post again (most likely tomorrow) and let you know how everything went.

Yes, it's a desktop.

-Asus A7N8X Deluxe Mobo
-XFX GeForce 6200
-Seagate 120GB ATA
-Corsair TWINX Platinum Dual Channel 2048MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB)

 

[Chudnab]

Kim -

Ok, here's where I am right now. I reset BIOS to default, CD drive was on Cable select (I forgot to check, but I think it was plugged into IDE1?). Long story short... I got the BSOD again. It read: "A driver corrupted pool memory used for holding pages destined for disk."

I shut down the computer, disconnected my sound card, floppy drive, and changed the cables from my HD to MOBO. Rebooted, loaded setup (really slow), still had a plethora of uncopied files, setup completed 100% this time; however, hope was crushed by another BSOD. This one read: "Bad Pool Header." I shut down the PC and here I am...

Thanks again for your help.

 

[kimsland]

Memtest [/URL]and scan your Ram for 7 Passes (about a 4hr scan) any faults whatsoever, replace the Ram.

 

[Chudnab]

Kim - I am so excited, relieved, happy, thrilled, etc... I said the hell with the Memtest, I didn't feel like waiting 4 hours to figure out if I needed to go buy some new Ram. So I headed up to Fry's and bought 2GB of Low Latency Kingston. Came home, replaced the RAM, booted, and ... no errors!!! I can't thank you enough. I'm on the final loading screen for Windows Setup.. I'll drop a follow up post to let you know how everything turns out.

Again, thank you very much!

Chud

 

[kimsland]

Thanks for the update :grinthumb

Although I wonder if the old Ram would have scanned as faulty (sometimes faulty Ram scans ok)
But to hell with that ! It's fixed Give the old Ram cards to the kids for show and tell.

 

[Chudnab]

Everything is running great! Again, I can't thank you enough. I really appreciate your help.

I'll let you know what the kids think of my fossilized RAM :haha:

Chud