Oh no! Not again! (Serious PC probs)

FRGT/10 · July 2006

I was upadting my graphic drivers (NVIDIA MX440 GeForce 4) and my sound drivers (Realtek AC'97 for VIA (R) audio controller), but when installing the sound drivers the PC STOPped and I got a BAD_POOL_CALLER error.
So I rebooted and, naturally, I couldn't hear any sound because the sound driver is now damaged...
But what's worse the PC immediately crashed and got a 0x0000008E error, it included the nv_mini.sys file.
it repeated with several crashes, (one after logging in with the user, others right after the WinXP logo) and in one there was a long list of drivers located in winxp/drivers folder which had "an inappropiriate length and were shortened) so now the only drive I can use is a floppy drive;
the CD-ROM drivers are damaged because I can't see them in My Computer (when I check the (the list with the devices installed - device manager?) there is a "!" on them and saying that the drivers are damaged (along with the graphic and sound drivers)
So I'm stuck on a half-working PC with only a floppy to install from (so I can't even reinstall WinXP) :(
Oh, and turned off System Restore a few days ago and deleted the files because I needed some disk space, and I kinda forgot to turn it back on :oops:

Can anyone help?
(I would search but my PC is veery instable, I'm surprised that my PC hasn't rebooted yet)

VincentAC · July 2006

The drives not working under Windows should not affect the booting from CD in the BIOS.

Does the BIOS see the drives? If so, what happens when you try to boot from CD?

If you can boot from CD, the best thing to do would be to wipe the drive (delete the partition) and start from scratch. BUT you'll lose everything that's on it. Hopefully you keep all the documents etc on another drive/partition or you have a recent backup.

If you can't boot from CD then you'd be best to find someone you can borrow a pc from, put your drive in their PC as a secondary drive and copy the needed stuff from your drive to theirs or just put it on CD from there. Then format the drive under their Windows.

FRGT/10 · July 2006

I have 2 partitions, the XP in on the D: which contains mostly programs, all vital data is on the C: drive

I'll try deleting all the defect devices in safe mode and then try booting in normal XP. I'll try to get a WinXP CD ASAP.

Wish me luck :)

FRGT/10 · July 2006

nope, I erased the devices, booted up, they installed, but the same error. (drivers missing or damaged (code 39))

I'll try getting that XP reinstalled, or maybe trying that secondary-drive method of yours..

Arjun · July 2006

From previous experience, it's time to put on the gloves and do the format-partition-reinstal-windows trick (well not really).

BruceNorton · July 2006

I had a similar problem a while back with an ATI graphics card, and again with a NTL broadband modem.

Start your machine in safe mode and go into the control panel. Go into the device manager and delete the drivers or do a driver rollback if possible. Also delete any duplicate drivers etc.

Go to one of your mates houses and see if there is a driver uninstall program on the web for your particular devices if so download it and run it on your machine.

Sometimes the original driver CD has the driver uninstall program on it.

FRGT/10 · July 2006

Ok this morning I rebooted to safe mode a couple of times, and I duon't know how, but the CD drives are back. I even installed the video drivers without errors till now. But the sound it one BIG problem.

I tried reinstalling, uninstalling and installing the drivers again, but it's simply just not working. In the device manager it says that the device is OK, but WMPlayer says there's a problem with it, I hear only the PC beeper and in the Sound volume settings it says that there is no audio device installed on my PC :(
I tried reinstalling the drivers several times, searching for "new hardware", but I always end up with a "installed" sound card which doesn't even exist

Lee Fogarty · July 2006

take the sound card out, re-boot & remove every sound device. You should go into the hardware manager & remove devices from there too.

Plug the card back in & try again - in a different slot if you can. It does sound like a knackered card though.

Arjun · July 2006

On an unrelated note, is it possible for the hard disk to make an alarmingly lour whirring noise? I've been hearing this sound for a couple of days now. I did open the cabinet to see if it was a fan problem but either it's the acoustics or there is a prob with the disk since the sound *seems* to originate from close to the vicinity. Anyone have similar problems before? And if so, what do they portend?

FRGT/10 · July 2006

Dunno about the PC noise. I'd say it's the fan. A friend had a "noise" problem and it was the PC un an unstable surface...

I don't think the card is cracked up (or at least I don't think so) since the PC recodnizes it after deleting the drivers and rebooting...

DEATH · July 2006

Hard to say, a hard drive makes a hich pitched whining noise when it's on the way out, but so do cooling fans. I've noticed a noise from my PC lately, it's the small little fan on the graphics card (uses an Nvidia MX440 GeForce something or other, same as Matt's). You'll know when it's only got a few more hours left, you'll get the click of death when the read/write heads can't seek properly.

May interest you to know Matt, I've never used the XP driver for this Graphics card - I've always used the one from the Nvidea website from about a year or two ago and never had a problem, although I know people who DO have issues with the XP driver.

Sometimes, Windows just has a hissyfit and all the drivers become corrupted. I don't know why. Anyway, I keep a back up CD ROM of all my main drivers just in case. Since I've insalled XP though, I have to say the system has been extremely well behaved - more than I ever thought it would be.

Lee Fogarty · July 2006

as long as it's not the CPU fan, unplug it & see if you still get the noise..

VincentAC · July 2006

If that loud whirring changes to clunking then it's your HD dying.

But, I get a loud whirring sound when my GFX card's fan spins up for the first time that day. The fan seems to rub against it's casing for the first minute. So it could be something as simple as that.

FRGT/10 · July 2006

May interest you to know Matt, I've never used the XP driver for this Graphics card - I've always used the one from the Nvidea website from about a year or two ago and never had a problem, although I know people who DO have issues with the XP driver.

Sometimes, Windows just has a hissyfit and all the drivers become corrupted. I don't know why. Anyway, I keep a back up CD ROM of all my main drivers just in case. Since I've insalled XP though, I have to say the system has been extremely well behaved - more than I ever thought it would be.

you mean NVidia MX 440 GeForce 4? :)
I have the drivers from NVidia, version 52.16. But I've read somewhere on the enternet (and had the experience with it) that drivers with version up from 72.xx have some issues leading into constant BSOD and infinity-loop errors.
I knew I should leave a backup of the old but stable drivers just in case, and it was a good thing I did.

but as for the soundcard...that's a chapter of itself.
I hope that it will work once I'll reformat and clean install a new Windows, if it won't, I'll have to buy a new soundcard (this time with a MIDI port :) )

FRGT/10 · July 2006

ok I did a Repair on the Windows, during installation I had some errors (some files were not found? :confused: ), ok and the sound drivers are back :)

BUTt:

I have an error in Microsoft System Management BIOS driver, telling me the driver is damaged.
and my PC now turns on for more than 5 minutes. It gets stuck just before the list of the users (it is already on the light-blue screen with the message "Windows is starting up") but it's not raeding anything from the HDD. When I press the Power switch on the PC it doesn't react, and after some time it shows me the suer list (I don't know whether it has ignored that I wanted it to turn it off or if the power off button triggered the system to start doing osmehing in the first place...)

I might try installing, not repairing. Will it be ok if I reinstall it over the previous WinXP installation? I'll leave the formatting as the last option...

KeepGood · July 2006

If you find the XP installer cant find files during the file copy (right at the beginning of the installation), 99% of the time it's a memory problem. If this is whats happening, stop the installation, take a stick of ram out and try again, repeat this until you find the faulty module.

When having problems with graphics drivers. Always make sure you have the chipset software installed first, especially when you have a VIA chipset and an AGP graphics card. VIA's implementation of AGP isnt very good and is prone to problems. If your chipset is an Intel chipset (above Intel 815), make sure you have the Intel INF installer intalled before the graphics driver (under 815 doesnt matter). Also dont use the drivers that are shipped with XP, these are very basic drivers. NVidia drivers arent always the most stable. If you are sure its the graphics driver is causing problems, just keep trying older versions until you find one that runs happily with your system.

Try not to have Windows on a drive other than the 'C' drive. The OS will let you install it elsewhere quite happily, and in theory it will work fine. Unfortunately alot of software causes problems when windows isnt on the 'C' drive (just bad coding).

EDIT: Yes you can install over your previous installation, just choose 'leave filesystem intact' during the installation. You will still need to install most of the software you previously had installed, so all appropriate system files are updated, and registry entries are recreated.

FRGT/10 · September 2006

OK today a friend came with his HDD, we backed up all the files on it, reformatted the drive and installed a clean Windows XP (SP2 included)
Made 2 partitions:
C:\ (10GB) SOLELY for Windows-based apps
E:\ (27BG) - everything else (so if something would mess up I'd only have to format the C drive (funny that it pout the DVD Drive as D:\ and the 2nd partition as E:\ :) ), installed motherboard drivers, but I didn't install NVidia drivers cuz it told me that I the WinXP one is newer (and I'm not downloading the new drivers, I've had enough of the "new drivers" which punked my PC 2 times already)

But now when he connected his HDD back after the reinstall the PC crashes or freezes (even though it worked with the 'old' windows' now it doesn't. The PC doesn't do it when the HDD is not connected so it's the HDD probably...) so I can't copy back my files.

So I gave him about 5 DVDs to burn the stuff on and awaiting to have my data back in the evening :razz: :)

VincentAC · September 2006

FRGT/10 wrote:

(funny that it pout the DVD Drive as D:\ and the 2nd partition as E:\ :) )

Before I reinstalled XP a few months back I had 2 HDs (1 partitioned into 2 like yours), CD and DVDRW.

Back then, C: and D: were the main HD and E: was the other one with F: and G: being the opticals.

Now, C: and E: are the main HD and D: is the second HD.

God only knows why - it's exactly the same setup I had before.

FRGT/10 · September 2006

OK so reinstalled, returned everything...
But the PC freezes/resets periodically, including errors, which by finding up, are because of the RAM

I now have a friend's RAM in my PC and everything's ok now. So I need a new RAM

Oh no! Not again! (Serious PC probs)

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