a different BSOD for every startup method

It's me with another slew of mystifying, yet annoying errors.

WinXP Pro SP3 (the beta thing off of MS Update, installed some time ago)
AMD X2 5000+ CPU
7950GX2 GPU
Hitachi 160GB+250GB HDD
XMS2 2x1GB RAM
535W PSU

I've gotten used to my computer's morning hiccups (after anywhere from 5-30 minutes after starting first thing in the morning, it freezes, and in the Event Viewer it said it found an error with the SATA controller on my slave drive, as if it couldn't find it or something, but that's another issue involving replacing one of the SATA cables), but when I started it this morning, I could never get it past the logo loading screen.
If I try to start normally, I get BAD_POOL_HEADER. If I try to start in Safe Mode, I get IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. If I try to use the installation CD to go into the repair console, I get IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL or maybe MMDRIVER_something.
I tried cleaning the dust out, reseating the memory, reseating the GPU, letting it sit for an hour or two (in case of overheating, but that shouldn't be the problem), and I'm still getting these errors. I can't ever make it to the Windows logon screen.

Even it it's a driver issue, I can't even get to a command prompt through the repair console, let alone anything else.
What's wrong with this thing?

 

You may want to repost this in the Malware section and follow these instructions and post the logs they ask for. Just in case it is Malware.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 (Read and Run Me First link)

 

Use the geeks memory tester on your memory first off, this would be the prime suspect.
You can also try one stick at a time if you don't have dual channel.

Why are you using SP3, you may be bettter off without it. Certainly the beta version.

 

Maybe I'm misinterpreting, but the only things I currently have access to without BSODing are the BIOS, boot menu, and installation disk startup screen. Anything farther than last two and I BSOD. I can't get to a command prompt (unless there's a way other than the repair console or Safe Mode), or the Logon screen, or my hard drive at all, so I can't get logs of any sort unless there's a non-Windows way of going about it. I have no way of knowing if this is malware because I can't access anything.
I'll try booting with one stick of RAM in either of the top two slots and see if that's affecting it. Other than that I don't know what to do, since I reseated and cleaned them.

I have an idea what to do if Windows or the repair console ever feel like booting again, but for now I have no access to them whatsoever.

 

These testers can be loaded to bootable media, floppy or CD to run the test without windows.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Memtest86_d4226.html

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Memtest86_d1247.html

 

Whoops, I meant to quote saying that I can't get logs and confirm anything about malware. I happen to have a live distro of Ubuntu with MemTest86+ 1.65 (is there a significant difference between that and 2.01?), so I'll try that and post the results.
When switching the sticks, though, I noticed a couple things. If I put one in one slot, I get BAD_POOL_HEADER, and in another I get IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR__EQUAL. I can't remember whether it was another slot or trying to boot from "last known configuration", but the other error I got before was DRIVER_CORRUPTED_MMPOOL. There was no consistency, though, because I tried keeping one in the same slot and always selecting "start normally", and it would alternate between messages.
Since I have a Linux distro, after doing the memtest I'm going to try backing up my stuff through Ubuntu, then reformatting both my hard drives.

 

We are watching this space

Good luck.

 

I believe someone posted this site earlier. May it can help with those messages.

http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm

 

I ran MemTest for a few hours, it passed 12 tests so I think it's all right. I actually didn't realize it kept running until I told it to stop, unless there were more tests I didn't wait for.

I haven't installed anything in a while, but maybe my hard drive(s?) decided to corrupt or something. They still appear on POST fine, but maybe it just couldn't access a sector. I'll try to access various places in both my hard drives through Ubuntu to make sure they're not completely screwed and hopefully back up things before reformatting. I just hope it's not a hardware issue.

 

Before you do anything more drastic check out the SP3 issue

(uninstall or system restore).

 

I didn't have System Restore on (thought it would save space, but time is more valuable at this point ), but if I ever find a way to get back into Windows I'll see what I can do. If I uninstall SP3, would it roll back to SP2 or way back to pre-SP1 if they're cumulative?

 

SP3 should be listed in Add/Remove programs in the control panel, as should SP2 and SP1 if you installed them separately. You also uninstall them separately.
Don't forget to tick the show updates box at the top.

I suggested this because I though you could get into Windows, albeit with some gnashing and grinding of teeth.

 

Well crap. Maybe it was just too warm in my room, but my GPU was pixel artifacting like crazy. It's like a rainbow exploded on my screen, except not so cool. The monitor's fine, I tried with my laptop.
In other news, I used HFT (some disk-checking utility) and it didn't find anything wrong with any of the tests. When booting up the Ubuntu LiveCD it said "[some number] buffer I/O error on device hda (assuming master drive), logical block [some number]", but otherwise worked fine. I tried doing an update and distro upgrade, but before it got done it would either freeze or, in this last case after turning the monitor off and being gone for about an hour, made a funky swirly color line on the screen. Maybe it was a dumb idea trying to update something running off a CD, but I was trying to get the ntfsfix command to work. I also tried getting TestDisk, but for some reason that first gave me a white screen, then just plain froze even though it worked to extract the tar file the first time, but I couldn't figure out which nondescript file was the runnable before something else went wrong.
I'll have to screw around with it more tomorrow, after everything's cooled off.

Oh yeah...something this drastic wouldn't happen when something like DFT thinks both my hard drives are Masters, would it? I'll have to fix that, too.

 

Now my partition is plain old messed up. I tried using TestDisk (used commands instead of downloading), and it found the partition, but said it couldn't be recovered because it seemed to small. Turns out that in that program it's indeed too small (~235GB instead of ~250GB), but in the BIOS and everywhere else it's fine.
Any ideas on this? Do I have to do some funky stuff with the geometry of the drive?

 

I know that, but I didn't think it would take up that much space (~12GB, noticed it was more ~138 that it listed, and I'm pretty sure Windows put it well into the 140s). Besides, TestDisk says the partition is bigger than the drive, hence "can't recover partition because the harddisk seems too small". I've tried altering the cylinder count to see if making it "bigger" would satisfy it. So far I haven't found the sweet spot because it either still complains or freezes on read errors because I set it too big.
So basically, TestDisk finds the partition fine, but it can't recover it. I tried rebuilding the MBR, but I noticed the dump said "NTLDR is missing, disk error", which basically means Windows is currently screwed until I can recover the partition (and there's only one that takes up that entire drive). I just want to back up stuff before I reformat, but it can't find the contents at the moment. The Ubuntu LiveCD can't tell how much space is free, so I can't determine whether I already screwed myself or not.

 

Well then. That was the stupidest waste of time. Turns out my slave drive has been causing these problems. Duh! As if Windows freezing and the event log telling me there was a controller error wasn't obvious enough! Then again, I think screwing with TestDisk and bazillion other things helped to recover the Windows boot sector so I could at least get to Windows.

I was trying to back up my stuff through BartPE, but I noticed my other drive wasn't there, so I jiggled the cable connector to the motherboard as usual. As it rebooted it gave me a 0x000000C5 error (DRIVER_CORRUPT_EXPOOL), but I don't know what drivers were installed from that drive, or which drivers (if any) support programs on the other drive. Once I disconnected the drive and got the urge to boot into Windows, it worked perfectly fine.

So now I need to figure out how to get my other drive working. I'll try switching the cables (if I can even get to them without taking apart everything, one drive's connector is vertical for some reason) and see if Windows doesn't boot or something before trying a different cable altogether.
Any other suggestions besides reformatting Windows, which I'll probably be doing within the next month or two anyway?

EDIT: Maybe graphics drivers? Either that or the GPU is overheating a bit. Either way might explain the minor graphical anomalies.

 

Thanks for letting us know, sorry you had to do most of the work yourself.

 

It's fine. Posting threads seems to be a good luck charm for me, and getting input always helps form more ideas and things to do.

So now, if I try to boot with the second drive plugged in, it gives me 0x0000000A (IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL), 0x000000C5, or maybe one or two others. I can mount and read it fine in Ubuntu (never got any sort of writing mechanism to work), and it seems like whether I try to just boot Windows in any form, or installation disk, or through BartPE, I get a BSOD. If I can find a way to boot into something Windows-related with it plugged in, I can do a chkdsk and get rid of any errors, then it would probably work fine.
Any ideas? Thoughts?

 

HDD Manufactures Free Diagnostic software

 

I have a HFT bootdisk (Hitachi Fitness Test, I think?), and ran the Advanced Tests a couple times throughout this whole process on both hard drives, and they were both reported as fine. Is this the same thing as what you're talking about, or is there something else that has additional functionality?

 

Let's recap

You have two SATA hard drives??? call them Drive A and Drive B
Windows will boot fine from drive A, so long as drive B is not connected to the motherboard.

Are your optical drives IDE or SATA?
Are the hard drives connected by separate SATA cables to separate sockets on the motherboard?

There are no such animals with SATA as Master and Slave - There are no jumpers to set - The SATA controller is supposed to sort out which is which.

Having said that, many motherboards prefer (require) the boot drive to be in a particular socket.

So check your maotherboard manual for connection details and also make sure that both SATA sockets are properly enabled in the BIOS and something hasn't been inadvertantly changed with all the messing about.

 

Yeah, I realized about the non-existent master/slave thing. I guess I was just using them relative to their functionality (boot=master, storage=slave). They're both indeed SATA drives.
My single optical drive is IDE Master. When I run HFT it lists both my hard drives as "PCI IDE Master", if that makes any difference.

I read that, in general, the boot drive should be plugged into a lower-numbered socket (numbered according to the manual) than the other drives. This has been true: boot drive is in socket 5, other in socket 6. When I first got my computer the plugs were in different slots, also in sequential order, but I can't remember which ones. I'll have to fool with that. The reason I originally changed the sockets was because I was having other problems and that seemed to fix it, although I'll have to see if I can switch back and see. The manual that came with the motherboard doesn't seem to have any info about boot socket preference, but I'll go looking around the Asus site for more info.

I looked around in BIOS and know that both hard drives are detected properly, including socket positions and specifications. My current boot priority order is CD,hard drive. In the hard drive list, the what I'm assuming is the preference list (1 being first preference) is socket 5 (boot/Windows), socket 6 (storage). SMART monitoring is enabled.
Since unplugging the other drive I've noticed that it boots up much faster, both through POST and logo loading time. Maybe it was trying to find an OS on the other drive, too, for some reason. Since using TestDisk, though, I've also noticed that after POST, right before the logo loading screen, "TestDisk" pops up on the screen for a split second. It used to be that it would freeze there, but now it doesn't make a difference. I'll have to see how to make that go away at some point later. Maybe it altered the boot sector to do that.

If it helps any, I have an ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wifi motherboard with an Award BIOS (built through site customizer, which didn't tell me the mobo was wifi, for those of you wondering).