Bad Pool Caller error

Boy, am i frustrated. My son bought a new Dell and had it shipped to him in Germany. All fine till he installed some flight simulation game.He didn't like the game so uninstalled. Now, gets the BSOD with "Bad Pool Caller" error and "Bugcode_usb driver". I spent a couple of hours trying to contact Dell and get some answers---via phone and chat and email. What a joke. Finally got a number for Dell's German website. Son called it, but all in German(of course). Son cannot call Dell's US toll free number from Germany. Dell apparently has no way for him to get help while he in Germany. Any ideas what these error codes mean. He cannot use the computer to get on the internet to find answers---thing keeps giving BSOD. I have tried Microsoft, Dell, and many other sites searching for answers or a way to find/fix problem, but only get confused---possible driver problem, RAM, etc. I suspect the game and/or improper uninstall, but how in the world does one go about finding out. I have never heard of this error message---He is running windowsXP on a Dimension XPS, P4, 1GB DDR Ram.
Any ideas where to start?

 

You could ask him how he uninstalled the flight simulater.Did he uninstall using the programs uninstaller or did he uninstall under Add/remove.there is a difference.

 

I believe he used the add/remove and he said some things didn't get removed from the file so he had to manually remove them. I had him do a system restore to a point two days before, but that didn't help. he just got the computer about a week ago and thus probably doesn't have more than the one restore point. does any one know what this error message "bad pool caller error" is trying to tell him? If I knew what this message indicates, it might help to narrow down the problem and what to look for. What about using the recovery disk--assuming one came with the machine? any ideas would be helpful. It is bad enough trying to get support from Dell when calling from stateside, but when he is in Germany it is impossible.

 

Reading your post ,I see you attemped a restore.I wish we could of got to you sooner.all he had to do was reinstall the flight simulater program and then uninstall through the program's own uninstaller.
I can't stress enough how system's are hosed by not going through the proper procedure to uninstall.

Your error code refers
Stop 0xC2 or BAD_POOL_CALLER
The Stop 0xC2 message indicates that a kernel-mode process or driver incorrectly attempted to perform memory operations in the following ways:

By allocating a memory pool size of zero bytes.
By allocating a memory pool that does not exist.
By attempting to free a memory pool that is already free.
By allocating or freeing a memory pool at an IRQL that was too high.
This Stop message is typically due to a faulty driver or software.

 

So, at this point, what are his options to try and get the system up and running again? I have a couple of ideas, but are they feasible: 1. look in the recycle bin and see if some of the files he manually deleted are still there and put back to the original file. 2. use the recovery disk and do a full installation as it originally came with the computer or 3. see if there is an earlier system restore date--problematical as he has only had it a week. what do you advise?

 

my wife has this problem with her laptop. Pops up when she removes her USB floppy drive. I haven't had the time to get to her computer, but I was just going to try removing the USB controller from the device manager and let Windows reinstall it in hopes that it might fix what ever is borked.

 

Can he get into safe mode? From the sound of the file name it's something that is called at startup or is part of a device driver. You could stop the call to it from safe mode.
Where exactly does it lock up? After the welcome screen? On the windws XP loading screen?

The quickest way to resolve the issue would to be simply reimage the unit. If he's had it a week then I ca't imagine that he's got too much on there. He can back up in safe mode (if he can get there) then reimage it back to like the day it was new. Whole process will probably take an hour

 

Damn ever time I get to post Ive been to slow,and i'm with the suggestion that he reinstall.

 

Stop 0xc2 Bad Pool Caller errors are almost always driver errors. It could be the Flight Sim software installed drivers, or, its a conincidence.

Bugcode_usb driver almost always means its a USB driver that caused the problem. That can be ANY usb device he uses (We see it most often on USB cable modems).

I would go with Kodo's advice, I would also look to see what USB devices you have and remove all of them, if possible, from the computer.

Then, I would add them back in, find the culprit, then handle the situation from there.

jujet84:

Recommending a reinstall this early in the game seems silly. You are too quick to throw in the towel

 

you know what considering the circumstances,I disagree still recommend the reinstall.

 

Quite what I figured, that's why I was wanting to know where it hung in the boot process.
Honestly though, if he's only had it a week then it's probably not to much changed from the original install. It all depends on how quickly and easily he wants to resolve the issue. I'm sure it could be tracked down, but a reimage would certainly be the easiest way.

 

I called my son on landline and he thinks he fixed the problem by using driver verifier. instead of using "normal", he played with the different options, etc. and says it seems to work now. I do not use Win XP so not familiar with verifier. He ended up calling Dell long distance and spoke to them but after two hours---phone company will be happy--they suggested he do re-install. he did not want to do that so played with driver verifier as I told him he had a driver problem most likely---thanks to all you guys! the "bad pool caller" error was coming up while he was online and would click onto Yahoo mail and then at other random times. He did use Add/remove rather than the game's uninstall. I do hope he has solved his problem and I thank all who responded---fantastic.

 

Interesting,thanks for the update glad it workked out for him.

 

Sorry, I guess I was more interested in finding the cause, to prevent future repeats, but I guess I am weird like that.

I guess my advice for now on will be to reinstall to keep in line with the current theme of fix it suggestions that seem to be taking over the forum

 

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