BSOD while installing XP on a formatted drive

[Black Panther]

My brother's hard drive failed (I'm sure it did because it was clicking like crazy).

So I disconnected it, formatted his other drive, and started to install XP.

Mid-way through installation the pc just powered itself off.
Then it wouldn't even POST and monitor remained on standby.

I gave the pc a good cleaning with an air compressor. It was quite very dusty...

The pc now POSTed, but while installing XP again I got a BSOD. 0x00000008E

Guess the mobo or ram coincidentally had to fail just at the precise moment I was installing XP?



Because I didn't even touch inside the pc. I didn't install any new hardware, because the 'new' drive had been installed for 5 months there.


___________

Edit: I'll check the bios that the controller option is set to 'Compatibility' / 'IDE' just incase...

[lilhasselhoffer]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315335

Remove all RAM modules. Spray channels out. Use a soft eraser (one of those gummy white bricks) to remove any buildup on the ram module contact points. Reinstall the RAM, making sure it seat properly. Complete a new XP installation, wiping the drive clean and formatting it in another computer first.

[Black Panther]

Hmmm, could it be because I've got 3GB RAM installed?

I'll try installing with only 1GB just in case, then I'll try lilhasselhoffer's method.

Thing is, just now I tried to check the bios (to check hdd settings) and I couldn't. It kept searching for a 'rom' file and looping.......

Bad bios checksum.
Starting bios recovery
M2NAMPLS.ROM not found

Meaning the bios is not there?? I had just accessed the bios exactly before I started this thread..

So I went to another pc, and downloaded the motherboard bios..

When I powered up the pc again to install the bios, it wouldn't even POST. Yet again...

What on earth is this mess?

[Mussels]

one possibly related thing - you can choose the uh... something size when you format a drive, usually defaults to 4KB (with a max of 64KB, cant remember name)

if its above 4KB file compression doesnt work, and that breaks windows as an OS drive. so beware of that, although since you're having BIOS errors i dont think thats the problem here.

[micropage7]

have you tried to unplug the power from psu to the board and try to unplug all then boot it up?
it could be from your board that goes have some err

[Derek12]

I think that:

PSU is bad, or
Motherboard is bad, or
You have something bad connected or loose.

Since you're experienced random issues like POSTING sometimes and BIOS checksum errors of nowhere.

Try to do a clear CMOS. Boot with the minimum hardware

[Black Panther]

Duh.

It was only a bad ram stick <--- me

His pc is still good, only now it's got 2GB ram instead of 3GB.

Thanks anyway everyone.

[95Viper]

1. Bad memory dimm - test, either by, trying in a different system or you may want to try swapping the memory (using one module at a time) from dimm slot a to dimm slot b.
2. Dimm slot bad
3. Improper memory configuration
4. CPU has died
5. ROM chip has died

I am betting on #1. #2 is a possible. #3 to #5... less likely.

EDIT: Darn, you beat me to it... I gotta start typing /posting faster.

[Derek12]

Originally Posted by Black Panther

Duh.

It was only a bad ram stick <--- me

His pc is still good, only now it's got 2GB ram instead of 3GB.

Thanks anyway everyone.

I didn't know a bad RAM could cause bad BIOS checksum and random POST/No POST, but meh, everyday one learns anything

[95Viper]

It will on some ASUS boards... I had one a while ago that did the same thing.
Not saying it was the boards fault, as it was the only board I ever had a memory module die.


EDIT: The error is confusing, too, because it really looks like a bios rom failure or something related to it.

[micropage7]

Originally Posted by Derek12

I didn't know a bad RAM could cause bad BIOS checksum and random POST/No POST, but meh, everyday one learns anything

yeah usually bad stick just give you beep, beep, beep and not bad checksum
umm btw have you check the bios battery too?

[Derek12]

Originally Posted by 95Viper

It will on some ASUS boards... I had one a while ago that did the same thing.
Not saying it was the boards fault, as it was the only board I ever had a memory module die.


EDIT: The error is confusing, too, because it really looks like a bios rom failure or something related to it.

Thanks for the clarification, maybe the BIOS is copied to RAM and executed from it after booting, and it corrupted due to RAM failure, but I've never experienced that, only instability/No POST/beeps/less RAM detected, etc.

[lilhasselhoffer]

Quick reality check, because apparently nobody checked out my earlier link.

This behavior may occur if one of the following conditions is true:
•One or more of the random access memory (RAM) modules that are installed on your computer are faulty.
•The RAM configuration is incompatible with Windows XP.

Directly from MS. Perhaps I did not make myself clear. What I meant was to clean everything up, because MS is reporting a RAM error. If this did not work, do what they instruct you to do. Not rocket science, nor time consuming. Please read links, I don't post them unless they're worth reading.