Xp pc bsod

[trooper11]

Ive run into a serious issue with one of my xp machines. A few days ago, I found that my pc had shut off, most likely from an external power loss (we had been having some bad weather). I turned the pc back on only to see a BSOD occur moments after the xp loading screen would show up.

This BSOD gave the following stop error: ***STOP:0x00000024

The error message did not list any specific file beyond this stop error


My first task was to do some testing on the hard drive and see if i could retrieve the data. My system drive is partitioned into two sections: C: 10GB OS only drive and the rest into a D : drive that contained programs and the page file (among some other files). I was able to use the UBCD to launch recovery tools and copy each of those partitions to another drive (All of the data was recovered, but the partitions were definitely damaged from the failure). I also ran diagnostics on my hard drive and ram, both components came back just fine.

Next, I formatted the system drive and then copied back over the C: and D : partitions. Of course Im still getting a BSOD when it hits the loading screen, but the error has changed.

The new BSOD is as follows:

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

***STOP: 0x00000050 (0xBEFF001C, 0x00000001, 0x8051ABE6,0x00000002)



I have tried to boot into safe mode, but the loading process stops right after loading Mup.sys .

I was hoping that I could retrieve a dump file and see what was cuasing the BSOD, but there arent any dump files on the system for recent dates (the most recent one is from march, so somehow debugging must have been disabled). Is there any way to enable debugging so that it will save a dump file from outside of windows?

I have also tried some scans with antivirus/spyware tools from within UBCD and it did remove a few things, but that didnt change the result. I would also like to point out that a few minutes before the system shut off, Microsoft Security Essentials warned me of an infection, so I dont know if maybe it did something to the system instead of the power failure.


Any ideas would be helpful.

 

[mav451]

Have you run memtest? BSOD ending in 50 usually indicates a RAM problem.

 

[trooper11]

I did run a memtest for a few hours and nothing came up. Im running three 1GB sticks so I wonder if i should scale that down to one and run the test again.

 

[The Merg]

You should do that and also just try running one stick to boot up. If that doesn't work, try another stick, and so on. Of course, there is always the possibility that the slot for the RAM is faulty and that is causing the error with the RAM.

- Merg

 

[RebateMonger]

The original message, STOP:0x00000024, appears to mean that the NTFS file system was corrupted, which would go along with a power outage.

What do you mean by, "Next, I formatted the system drive and then copied back over the C: and D : partitions"?

If I wanted to try to save the program installations, I'd probably have attached the disk to another PC, run a "Chkdsk /r" on it (which would probably result in the loss of some files), and then attempted a "Repair Install" of XP.

Otherwise, I'd assume you'd reformat everything and re-install XP and your applications from scratch, and then copy back your data.

Unless you have system backups, which would, of course, be best and easiest of all.

 

[trooper11]

When I said I formated the drive, what I did was made a backup of the drive onto another drive, and then did just as you said, ran a chkdsk and even tried a repair install of windows. Chkdsk did say it made repairs, but it still wouldnt boot into windows.


Next, I formatted the hard drive and then recreated the C and D partitions and trasnfered the data back into each partition from the backup I made. It was at that point that I started getting the second BSOD message.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

When I said I formated the drive, what I did was made a backup of the drive onto another drive, and then did just as you said, ran a chkdsk and even tried a repair install of windows. Chkdsk did say it made repairs, but it still wouldnt boot into windows.


Next, I formatted the hard drive and then recreated the C and D partitions and trasnfered the data back into each partition from the backup I made. It was at that point that I started getting the second BSOD message.

Did you copy over the windows directory as well? Because if so you likely copied whatever file was corrupt.

 

[trooper11]

Thats a good point. I probably did copy over the curropted file. Any suggestions on how to repair or replace the corrupted file (or an app that might find the corrupted file)?

 

[RadiclDreamer]

If you boot to the recovery console and do sfc /scannow (provided you have a cd with the same SP as your install) it will check your windows install and attempt to repair any mising/corrupt files from the cd. This is different than a repair install.

 

[COPOHawk]

I deal with a lot of similar BSOD issues for customers. Here is what I do:

1. Boot Ghost Recovery CD 12 or higher. It uses the Vista file system check which is better than the XP chkdsk. See if it solves the issue.

2. Spyware/virus - I have seen nasty ones that cause a corruption like this. Pull the hard drive and attach to a good computer with an external enclosure...run scans. If clean, then move on.

3. Run Memtest (boot CD)...allow it to complete at least 5 passes to test memory.

4. Take a spare HD and do a complete clean install of XP. See if you can get the problem to be replicated.

Most of the time I see these, it is software related. I have had failing Dell workstations which showed as good (using Dell hardware diagnostics), but continued to BSOD with clean installs of XP.

Troubleshooting comes down to determining if the issue is software or hardware...then moving ahead. Is this an OEM box or homebuilt?

 

[RebateMonger]

You need to determine whether the problem is hardware or software. If you boot to an XP Install CD and do a full install of XP and it boots, then you have a software problem with your old install. If it doesn't boot, then there's a hardware problem that needs to be fixed.

It'd probably pay to perform the disk maker's diagnostics test on the boot disk first.