I have a Biostar M6VLR (socket 370, 82C686B, integrated everything) with a Celeron 1.0G, a single 512M 133MHz SDRAM memory module, one floppy, one CD-RW drive and one 30G WD 7200 drive.
I originally installed WinXP Prof on this up about six months ago with no problems. I installed SP1 in there at some point towards the initial install and everthing was fine--at first. About three months ago, I got the error in XP somethinh like the following: "catastrophic error in reading registry. If this is the first time....."
After a couple these errors, Windows complained about registry problems and attempted to restore registry. Then it couldn't find NTLDR (or something like that) and I had to reinstall Windows.
I figure it was a bad hard drive (though new), so I swapped it out with another, installed Windows XP again and everything is fine--for about two weeks! Same cycle. One the third time, I put new cables on the CDRW and hard drive. It installed and worked for about three days.
Through about eight iterations, I have tried
--a new power supply
--new memory
--new hard drives
--new floppy
--new cdrom
--pulled the board out and put on bench while installing
--no floppy cable and new IDE cables
--reset the BIOS
--upgraded BIOS
--physically check for flaws in board
--reseated the CPU (after inspecting for cracks, burns,etc)
--thought seriously about going back to church..
--used Windows 2000 instead of XP or used a different copy of XP (known to be good)
On no occasion since the third install have I been able to completely install Windows XP. It complains about not finding a file. I can ignore or retry. Sometimes I can get all the way through the initial copying without error, sometimes the retries will work, and sometimes nothing works. In any case, after the first stage (copying), it reboots and upon the kernel loading I get the BSOD.
Now I don't have an extra CPU (I'm mostly an AMD guy), but I really am scratching my head here. Has anyone ever had a similar experience? I am at a loss. Any good suggestions would be welcomed!
-Optimist
P.S. Oh yes, I also put in KNOPPIX, which is a full version of Linux which runs only on a cdrom and RAM. It ran overnight with no problems.
I originally installed WinXP Prof on this up about six months ago with no problems. I installed SP1 in there at some point towards the initial install and everthing was fine--at first. About three months ago, I got the error in XP somethinh like the following: "catastrophic error in reading registry. If this is the first time....."
After a couple these errors, Windows complained about registry problems and attempted to restore registry. Then it couldn't find NTLDR (or something like that) and I had to reinstall Windows.
I figure it was a bad hard drive (though new), so I swapped it out with another, installed Windows XP again and everything is fine--for about two weeks! Same cycle. One the third time, I put new cables on the CDRW and hard drive. It installed and worked for about three days.
Through about eight iterations, I have tried
--a new power supply
--new memory
--new hard drives
--new floppy
--new cdrom
--pulled the board out and put on bench while installing
--no floppy cable and new IDE cables
--reset the BIOS
--upgraded BIOS
--physically check for flaws in board
--reseated the CPU (after inspecting for cracks, burns,etc)
--thought seriously about going back to church..
--used Windows 2000 instead of XP or used a different copy of XP (known to be good)
On no occasion since the third install have I been able to completely install Windows XP. It complains about not finding a file. I can ignore or retry. Sometimes I can get all the way through the initial copying without error, sometimes the retries will work, and sometimes nothing works. In any case, after the first stage (copying), it reboots and upon the kernel loading I get the BSOD.
Now I don't have an extra CPU (I'm mostly an AMD guy), but I really am scratching my head here. Has anyone ever had a similar experience? I am at a loss. Any good suggestions would be welcomed!
-Optimist
P.S. Oh yes, I also put in KNOPPIX, which is a full version of Linux which runs only on a cdrom and RAM. It ran overnight with no problems.
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