PFN List Corrupt BSOD - Vista Home Basic

[VirtualLarry]

I installed Vista Home Basic on a new build tonight, and once when running the installer, I got a "PFN List Corrupt" BSOD. Later, after I finally got it installed, I got another similar error. When it rebooted, just after getting into Windows, I got an "IRQL_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL" BSOD.

Problems might be hardware, I dunno. Did a Memtest86+ run and nothing showed up. All brand-new hardware. I'm only using out-of-the-box Vista drivers, no 3rd-party drivers yet.

C2D Celeron 440 (2.0Ghz)
Gigabyte 8I865GME-775-RH Rev 2.0 (C2D support) micro-atx
Seagate 250GB IDE HD
Lite-On 20X IDE DVD-RW
Sony 3.5" floppy

Arg, just thought of something, this micro-atx case only has a 200W PSU, I wonder if that's enough. It's a single-core C2D celly though, with a TDP of only 35W.

Whoa, just noticed, the CPU fan spins and stops, spins and stops. I'm in a well-cooled room with the AC going full blast. The CPU heatsink isn't even warm, although the northbridge chipset heatsink (a small passive job) is burning hot to the touch. I can only hold my finger to it for about a second or two. (I recently picked up some Evercool VC-RE heatsinks, might try a replacement with one of those.)

Or possibly the problem is with out-of-box drivers in Vista?

Update, after installing Orthos, and running Small FFT, I can get the CPU fan to spin continously. I don't know what the CPU temp is though, because CoreTemp refuses to work with Vista, and TAT refuses to run on a C2D Celly.

I also don't think that it is a power-supply issue, because if it were, the added 100% CPU load would likely push it over the edge into instability, and that didn't happen.

So it's either northbridge temps, or buggy drivers, or some other unknown wierdness.

I should also point out that I'm not overclocking at all.

Just discovered that according to Gigabyte, this Celeron 440 CPU is only supported with BIOS FB, and I'm still running FA.
I wonder if this could be the problem: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2064922&enterthread=y

It doesn't appear to be related to temps or voltage. I just ran some looped 3DMark2001, while running Orthos Small FFT, and no crashes. Surely that would have increased the temps on the northbridge, what with the integrated video and all.

Just updated the BIOS, and now it shows microcode patch level 0032, before it showed 0000. Hopefully that fixes the problem.

Damn, just got a BSOD trying to shut down Vista - "BAD_POOL_HEADER". That was AFTER I updated the BIOS. 🙁 Time to try XP on this box.

XP installed OK, but on the first boot, I got a BSOD. So I guess it's not a Vista problem at all. Must be a damn flaky mobo or something, because I appear to be Orthos and Memtest86 stable.

Mods, feel free to move this post to Tech Support.

 

[cprince]

It's either really bad drivers or your system is very, very, very unstable. Check your RAM timings.

 

[xtknight]

Try a LiveCD like BartPE (Windows) or Ubuntu (Linux). This can help determine if it's a problem with your core system (CPU/mainboard/PSU/memory) or the hard disk you're installing to/reading from. I've gotten BAD_POOL_HEADER when my IDE controller (AFAIK) was shot. A mainboard replacement fixed that one.

If you use the Ubuntu LiveCD you can get more debug messages by using the "dmesg" command. You can redirect that to a file and post the file if you'd like.

LiveCDs may still access the HD a tad by probing for IDE controllers and partitions as well as for swap space (but only if you specify).

 

[VirtualLarry]

RAM timings according to Memtest86+ are 3-3-3-8. FSB 200MHZ, DDR400.

Interesting you should mention the HD causing BAD_POOL_HEADER. It's a brand-new 250GB Seagate though. I'm using a 24" rounded IDE cables snaked to both the HD (Master) and the DVD (Slave) on the primary IDE port. SATA ports are disabled in BIOS. I've been using the same rounded cables in my other machine though and it's rock-solid.

Did the Evercool VC-RE heatsink mod to the northbridge. Now it gets barely warm. (Assuming I put it on correctly.) No crashes today yet, I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Also disabled "smart fan" in my BIOS, so fans run at 100%.

 

[xtknight]

So what's your plan?

Are you going to do the LiveCD stuff or just hope that the cooling fixes it?

I'm actually really curious what the problem is here.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I tested it for another day with the new cooling, and didn't get any crashes, so I've delivered the box to good ol' mom, and am going to cross my fingers that the cooling was the problem, and hope that it doesn't happen again.

 

[cheapherk]

I know I am replying to an old post, but I recently got the pfn list corrupt BSOD on my laptop. I had just put in a 2GB stick into my new Acer laptop (now running one 512 stick & one 2GB stick). I booted the computer to a BSOD. I took the 512 stick out and ran it with just the new, 2GB stick- it booted up fine. Now I knew it wasn't the new stick of RAM. Finally I switched the order of the memory in the so-dimm slots. Booted up fine. For some reason, something didn't like the two sticks of RAM where they were. I switched them around, and now all is fine.