k7s5a not POST ing; also Windows XP BSOD ??

[thedeliman]

Hi all,

any help with this very frustrating problem would be greatly appreciated.

First off, I've been running this setup without any major hitches for 3-4 months. yesterday, while my system was humming along nicely in Win XP (with no major hardware or software changes), I got the first BSOD I've seen under XP: "Page_fault_in_non-paged_area", with win32k.sys listed as the culprit.

So of course, I rebooted, and when I got back into windows, xp sent error report info to the online crash analysis site. After less than 10 minutes of being in windows, I noticed at least six incidents of program crashes (this time having to do with Microsoft HTML handler or something, and also Internet Explorer). Again, I decided that windows was unstable, so I turned the system off for 1/2 hour.

When I turned the system back on, I got the SAME bsod during bootup as I faced the first time--page_fault_in_non-paged_area. This time, however, it did not list win32k.sys as the culprit. Again, I pushed the reset button.

At this point, the system failed to POST. I would only get a power saver mode for my monitor (meaning it got no signal from the motherboard?). All the fans are spinning, and I don't get any error beeps. After multiple times of powering off, then on, still no POST shows up.

Here are my system specs:
*Antec server case with enermax power supply (newegg)
*ECS k7s5a motherboard
*Athlon XP 1700+
*512mb crucial pc2100 ddr-ram
*64mb ATI radeon 8500
*60gb Maxtor DiamondMax 7200 rpm
*plextor 16/10/32 cd-rw
*lite-on 16x dvd drive

Having said that,
1)is it likely that the motherboard decided to cause all these crashes and then just quit entirely? (I know all my other components are good because I had a similar POST problem with a second k7s5a motherboard last week!)

2)also, which motherboard would be stable (reliable) with an Athlon XP config with a Radeon 8500 video card? This is the 2nd k7s5a board that died on me, and I've had enough with this company...

thanks,
karl:disgust:

 

[DaiShan]

Have you tried another psu? also have you tried with different RAM?

 

[thedeliman]

Hi,

i haven't changed the psu or ram. the system has been working fine for ~3 months up until yesterday, when that string of crashes happened. i do have an "AMD-approved" powersupply- Enermax.

also, if it were ram problems, i should still get error beep codes, right? system is dead silent right now.

thanks
k

 

[DaiShan]

you would only get beep codes if you didn't have any ram in there, or if they weren't populating the correct banks, if the ram is dead, it won't give you a beep code to my knowledge. Also components do sometimes just die, even high quality ones, so it might be your power supply even if it is approved, but I am just brainstorming here, this is where I would start, not necessarily the solution.

 

[NogginBoink]

Random STOP 50's are one indication of bad RAM. (Note that bad RAM is not the only, nor the most common, cause of STOP 50's.)

Ensure your RAM is properly seated. Stop overclocking (if you are). Try removing one DIMM, shuffling DIMMs between sockets, etc.

Bad RAM is certainly a plausible explanation for these symptoms.

-Noggin

 

[thedeliman]

hi,

what's a stop 50?
also, my processor is not being overclocked.

i'll try the ram swap first...

 

[DaiShan]

the error message you were getting was a stop 50 no?

 

[thedeliman]

sorry, i don't remember if it specifically said stop 50 or not.
i probably should've written down the hexadecimal code too...

the only thing i remember was the description: Page_fault_in_non-paged_area

also, how would i test if the power supply is bad (aside from buying another unit)?

thanks
karl

 

[MEDA]

I just had a problem like that and it was the power supply.
K7S5A
AMD XP-1700
60gig Barracuda
128 meg 2100 ddr

thought it could be the switches too but they checked out OK

 

[thedeliman]

WAY TO GO, NOGGINBOINK!!!

An update--and a new question--will follow:

Update
=====
it appears that I was too closed-minded about the whole ordeal.

YES, it was a defective RAM module (yes daishan, even the best computer parts can fail sometimes). That's really wierd, though. Why on earth did they make a BIOS error beep system if they don't include one for failing ram modules? (for curiosity's sake, powering on with no ram at all also gave no error beeps. Strange...)

the reason I thought it was my motherboard was because I'm building a clone system for my folks, and in that instance, it *was* a dead motherboard (I swapped all their components into my system, even their ram and CPU, and it worked fine.).

So anyway...
An hour ago, after swapping in my folk's memory modules, the system powered up with the happy BEEP. However, I couldn't simply load windows as if nothing happened--it failed to start up. I had to start in safe mode first, but it did work. after convincing myself that it wasn't a fluke (i fully loaded windows/BACKED UP DOCUMENTS/powered down like 5 times), I decided to swap my own ram back in--all 512 mb.

i was surprised that it posted with my own ram again! but that's where the similarities ended. almost immediately after I logged in as Administrator, I got another STOP error:

MEMORY_MANAGEMENT

however, there was no error code associated with it. so i rebooted, and again, it somehow did reboot. this time, I couldn't even get past the login screen. almost immediately, I got another STOP error:

PFN_LIST_CORRUPT

STOP: 0x0000004E (0X00000099, 0X0000003D, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)

this definitely sealed the deal that it was bad ram.
(plus, the third time I tried to reboot, it finally failed to POST--like what happened yesterday).

Question
======
Now, this is a somewhat important follow-up question. When I first swapped in different ram and loaded XP in safe mode, I decided to log in as Administrator for backup purposes. However, when I opened up My Computer, I was shocked to find that I couldn't open c:\Documents and Settings\Karl (!!!)

It said "Access is Denied", although I logged in as administrator in safe mode...

My question is, how do I regain access to the entire system as an Administrator?


Thanks for all the help, guys!
-karl