possible hardware problem

[petitchou]

hi everyone. i received such excellent help on my previous problems here that i thought i would come here for me new, evil problem.

so here is the story.
about one month ago i downloaded a program that is supposed to remove malware and worms..anyway, when i opened it after installing it my computer screen went black and rebooted. windows did not load. i ended up having to format it and since then it was behaving strangely. i formatted a few times with the same problems occurring (my firefox was crashing a lot, so was my msn, the computer would also reboot at random times, most often when i would come back to it after leaving it for awhile) so i eventually decided it was hardware, not software. i did a memory test and it said that was fine.
so today i decided that i would take everything out, clean/dust it and put it back in. this is when the current problem began. my computer will boot up and windows will begin to load, but it either loads forever (that little blue thing keeps going across the screen) or it reboots as soon as windows begins to load.
i am pretty sure this is a hardware problem. i have two hard drives and it behaves the same way for both. i do not know enough about hardware to know what could be causing this problem.
please help!
thank you, in advance.

computer specs:
Windows XP5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2
704 MB DDR
AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2200+, 1.82 GHz
ATI Radeon X1050 Series video card

[Rondog]

Just to double check, everything is plugged back in where it needs to be?

First we need to find out why Windows is not booting.

When you start your PC, if you press the F8 key, it will bring up a menu, you need to use the arrow keys until Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure, or something like that.

If a bluescreen appears when you do this, please post what the error message/error number is.

If not, please post back with what it does.

[petitchou]

so it let me log into my windows account after disabling.
i restarted and it gave me a blue screen "Bad_Pool_Header"

[Rondog]

Have you done any Windows updates or installed new hardware or software recently?

Also: do you know the error code? 0x0 something?

[MUff1N]

List of possible problems for Bad Pool Header...
* Drivers for some NetGear (and other brand) wireless adapters.
* Drivers for all kinds of hardware.
* Indexing service
* Conflict between active anti-virus scanning software and some CD burning software


Just a hunch...if you can get into Safemode and disable the Indexing service this may solve your problem.
This is something I do regardless because all it does is slow down your access times to your data on the HD's.
Select Start/Run ant type in: services.msc and hit Enter.
Scroll down till you find "Indexing Service". Right-click it, Stop it and set it to Disabled.

My other hunch is that your mobo is going bad.
This can cause all kinds of problems including file corruption even though test may show everything is OK.
At least that was the case with me one time.
Within 2 weeks it died completely after starting to have problems, but yours maybe working just enough to keep it going until now.
This would also explain all of your other problems you've had with your system before.


Here's a list of sites with Bad Pool Header and possible solutions.
WindowsSecrets.com | Everything Microsoft forgot to mention

[petitchou]

i have not done anything to the harddrives except format them.
i decided i might try formatting my main drive last night and the files wont copy right. i also rain memtest twice (it passed both times)
so i plugged in my second drive and it gave me the same blue screen..BAD_POOL_HEADER
error code: 0X00000019 (0X00000020, 0XE164B5F8, 0XE164B640, 0X0C090209)

[petitchou]

i cannot get to safemode.
i think it is my mobo.
argh.

[MUff1N]

I too ran memory tests, hard drive tests, mobo tests, and CPU tests & all of them said everything was fine or so the tests thought!
That was the exact same problem I was having trying to do a clean install of Windows was file corruption!

I had to do this 4 times before it halfassed installed the operating system with all kinds of problems.
Then a few days later when I tried to turn it on it wouldn't even bootup.
Just the lights came on and fans would spin with a Black screen.

So, there's a PC shop near my house (the only one in town) that offers free diagnostics so I took advantage of that and they verified the mobo was bad
by testing out all my components in another mobo. (In hopes that I would buy the $25 "Cheap generic mobo" they had for $140! Yea right! LOL)
So I ordered a new mobo for it and all was once again well.

Unless you have your mobo bench tested to see if in fact it is bad, I wouldn't put all my bets on it...but it sounds like it to me.

[booman]

Wow, that sucks... Replacing a motherboard is a hard situation.
Glad it works though. Guess its nice to have an extra motherboard around huh?

[petitchou]

someone is giving me his old motherboard. i am hoping that i will be able to install it myself.
i wish it was as easy as the ram

[MUff1N]

Don't worry about it!
The first time I replaced a mobo in a system, quite frankly I was scared I was going to totally screw something up!
I had NEVER done this before & how was I going to remember where all those plugs and wires went!

But once I got in there it wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be!
You see everything has a "special" socket to where only one plug will fit into a socket a certain way! It's basically fool proof!

The only thing you have to do really is, Take Note of "how" the mobo is mounted!
Most will have Stand-Offs to keep the metal of the case away from the electronic contact points on the mobo.
Take these off the old mobo & put them on the new one.
(Depending on the mounting, they might be attached to the board, or the case. If the stand-offs are attached to the case just leave them where they are
as long as they line up with the holes on the new mobo, otherwise you might have to move them to an empty hole to line up properly.)
Tighten the stand-offs ONLY finger tight to the mobo as to not crack the mobo and break any internal traces.
(But not so loose that the screws turn around with the stand-offs like cloasters said)

The second thing will be the CPU mount. You will need to remove this off the old board and put that on the new one as well.
This is really easy...just put it on the new one the same way it came off the old one.


As long as you do this and take your time you'll be just fine.

And if your worried you will forget what goes where, then take a piece of masking tape and put a 1 on it and a 1 on the mobo where it plugs into on the new board.
I almost did this until I saw that the plugs and sockets were all fool proof.

[cloasters]

It's a good idea to firmly cinch the brass standoffs in to the case. You DON'T want the boogers to turn with the screws that hold the mainboard in place (on top of the board) when it's time to remove the motherboard in the future. Been there, not at all good.