Dual Boot: XP crashes, but Win98 OK

[bulldawg1979]

Every time WinXP tries to load, my computer reboots itself. The computer is old and I thought the suspects (e.g., bad motherboard, RAM, hard drive, etc.) were probably hardware and not software. Then, I remembered that long ago, I setup the system to dual boot, so I tried to boot into Win98 and had no problem (I'm using it now to post this message). So, it would seem my problem is with XP.

I have tried "Safe Mode" and "Last Known Good Config" to get into XP, but the system reboots when the XP screen appears. I booted to the XP CD and tried to use the repair option to startup the recovery console. I got a blue error screen with the STOP" 0X00000024 message. I do have some backups of my data, but not as recent as I would like, so I would like to avoid a fresh install of XP.

Any ideas? You guys usually rescue me, so I'm looking forward to your input.
Thanks,
Bulldawg1979

 

[ojai00]

Is your Windows 98 installation on a separate hard disk or is it on a separate partition on the same disk as your XP installation? You could have a failed hard drive or a corrupted OS installation. Is there any other message in the bluescreen? That will be more helpful.

 

[Lord Evermore]

MS doesn't even have an article in the knowledge base for 0X00000024.

You can do a Repair install (one of the installation options, not the Recovery Console) to reinstall Windows while leaving your data and applications. This presumes there is in fact not a hardware problem. You should do some testing with things like Memtest86+, run the hard drive diagnostics from the drive manufacturer (careful not to zero the drive). Even though Win98 boots okay, it may still be a hardware problem which Win98 just doesn't encounter. In fact I think Win9x specifically uses memory differently from the NT series.

Any other information from the blue screen may also be helpful.