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Problems reformatting

T

Teclis2323

Senior member
Hey guys,

Last night I was happily doin' my own thing, downloading some demos from Gigex. My computer froze up, so I rebooted it using the SHUT DOWN menu. No problem, I thought. When the Windows screen came up (LOADING XP PROFESSIONAL - - - ) I thought I was okay, but in that load-up time between the loading screen and the welcome screen, I got four messages, all saying that different applications were failing to initialize.

After a few futile reboots I tried repairing my Windows installation using the CD. Seemed to work fine; however, when I got to the black loading screen (again) I got the message that there wasn't enough virtual ram to load windows. The rig then shut off again. ARGH! I repaired it again, but this time it just shut down right after the Windows screen!

So I then tried installing a fresh copy on my alt. HDD, which didn't really have much of use on it anyways. It gets to about 30-50% and then the MOBO speaker alarm hits me with an alert. So I tried on my original HDD, figuring i'd have to cut my losses. SAME THING.

Please, has anyone experienced this? My rig has worked happily for a year with no problems. Now - this! I don't understand why a freeze-up in windows would stop me from being able to re-install a new OS copy. I have a hard time believing it's the hardware, as it has shown no problems up until now.

Help me Anandtech Gurus, you're my only hope!
 
Is it possible that the CPU is overheating?
Is the CPU fan running?
What is the CPU temperature in BIOS?
Are you overclocking anything?
 
Loose IDE cable? (happened to me once) Recheck power cables, IDE cables. It might be that your IDE thing on your mobo is going out.
 
I'll make sure to check both of those tonight!

Does anyone know why my OS would crash/freeze and then just not boot up? Is it a registry thing?

Jacob
 
This might sound like a poor solution, but maybe you should using the revert function? I'm sure you have a few earlier save points that windows made along the way that should revert your system back to an earlier time and hopefully solve whatever software related issues, it helped me once when stylexp screwed up my pc. If that still happens, then maybe its a hardware issue
 
Okay, what's happening now is:

It boots up and seems as if it's going to load windows, but then I get the "NOT ENOUGH VIRTUAL MEMORY"

and it shuts down.
 
Problems with Virtual Memory
It may sometimes happen that the system give ?out of memory? messages on trying to load a program, or give a message about Virtual memory space being low. Possible causes of this are:

The setting for Maximum Size of the page file is too low, or there is not enough disk space free to expand it to that size.


The page file has become corrupt, possibly at a bad shutdown. In the Virtual Memory settings, set to ?No page file,? then exit System Properties, shut down the machine, and reboot. Delete PAGEFILE.SYS (on each drive, if more than just C🙂, set the page file up again and reboot to bring it into use.


The page file has been put on a different drive without leaving a minimal amount on C:.


There is trouble with third party software. In particular, if the message happens at shutdown, suspect a problem with Symantec?s Norton Live update, for which there is a fix posted here. It is also reported that spurious messages can arise if NAV 2004 is installed. If the problem happens at boot and the machine has an Intel chipset, the message may be caused by an early version (before version 2.1) of Intel?s ?Application Accelerator.? Uninstall this and then get an up-to-date version from Intel?s site.


Possibly there is trouble with the drivers for IDE hard disks; in Device Manager, remove the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers (main controller) and reboot for Plug and Play to start over.


With an NTFS file system, the permissions for the page file?s drive?s root directory must give ?Full Control? to SYSTEM. If not, there is likely to be a message at boot that the system is ?unable to create a page file.?
 
Okay,
Checked the power. seems tobe fine.

Checked the HDDs. neither one will reformat.

Checked the IDE connections - they're fine.

What's this "Virtual Memory" it speaks of? Does anyone know what that is? I can't chagne any drivers becaues I can't even get into windows! I've tried to reinstall windows on each disk, but it doesn't work on either harddrive!

Aah!
 
The fact that you have had problems with installing windows suggested that you may have a hardware problem (heat).
That is why I suggested that you check your CPU temperature in the BIOS.

Good luck
 
Navid,

I will definitely check that out!

Thanks for sticking with me on this one. It sucks to be without a computer....makes ya feel lonely, almost.
 
I just took the HSF off of the proc. I'm letting the proc cool down, and I will reapply new AS3 when i replace the HSF. I lapped the bottom of the HSF to a mirror-finish; hopefully it will allow a better heat conduction.

The HSF was filled with dust and extremely hot. I'm hoping that this is the problem.

I will let you all know.
 
No problem. I know what you mean. It can be very frustrating when you are not sure what the problem is.

Are you overclocking? If yes, you should set everything back to default untill the problem is resolved.

Take it easy and post back.
 
Well, it seems to have fixed the problem. I completely reformatted and installed XP. Now I just need to finish setup and Il'l let you know if everything's spiffy.
 
Run Motherboard Monitor and set it up to log the temperatures.
http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

Run memtest to make sure that your memory is stable. Run it overnight.
http://www.memtest86.com/
If you have any errors, that is not good. You need to back off the overclock of RAM or increase the voltage.

If memory is stable, run prime95 overnight.
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm
It should still be running the next morning.
If not, you need to back off overclocking the CPU or improve cooling or increase VCore.

If there is ever a crash, check the Motherboard Monitor log and see if the temperature went too high before the crash or if the voltages are OK or not.
 
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