HELP! The Blue Screen of Death!

H

HDSjr55

Geek Trainee
Please help me. My main computer (the one I am now using is very old and slow) is busted. It was working fine for several weeks after I replaced the power supply, and then after installing my USB printer and my daughter intalled her SIMS game, the computer went crazy. First, it just started to reboot randomly. Then, thinking the problem was the OS (windows 2000 Professional) reformatted the HD and reinstalled the OS. From that point in it was disaster. When I tried to install Windows 2000, near the end of the installation, I would always get either:

Stop 0x00000050 PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (or)
Stop 0x0000001E KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

I then tried installing Windows 98, and I kept getting:

Fatal Error 06 @ 0028:00000017 (or)
Fatal Error OE @ 0028:00000009 (or)
Fatal Error O5 @ 0028:C2920074

One time I got an error message that mentioned ntoskrnl.exe

I then tried to install WIndows 95 and I still kept getting the same hangup.
I would end up with a blue screen with Error O6 @ 0028:00000009. I then got it to the point that it would go into safe mode, but I can't do anything with it. Sometimes it hangs up on the intial W95 screen and the computer is screaming a high pitched tone and I have to reboot. Now, the majority of the times I get:

While initializing device IOS:
Windows protection error. You need to reboot computer.

With everything I have tried, I am fairly sure the problem is with the hardware.

I am at my wits end! I don't have the money to have a service person fix it and I really need to have this computer up and running.

Any one who understands what's happening, please tell me what is going on and how to fix it (or where to find the info on how to fix it)! Please!

Thank you for any help you can be: I am going bananas! :(

I have an IBM PC with a pentium chip running Windows 2000 Professional with 128 mg of RAM.
 
http://www.memtest86.com/

Download that for either a floppy disk or .iso to burn to CD (which will be bootable, both floppy and CD will be bootable). Run that first, and run it for 24 hours if you can. If that comes up without errors, you can start looking elsewhere.

The next thing I'd check is the CPU's temperature, but that depends on if your motherboard supports it. While you can't get into Windows right now, you may be able to check it through BIOS. Usually, you hit the [Del] key right after you turn the machine on, but it could be one of the Function keys (F1, F2, etc). Now, while in BIOS, don't change any settings if you don't know what you're doing. You can add some extra headaches if you do. However, what you're looking for is something along the lines of PC Health or something to do with Fans and Temperature. I'd love to be more than vauge, but without knowing the motherboard on that system, this is the best I can do. If you see it running close to 60*C, you might have some airflow problems, and quite possibly need a new fan for the CPU heatsink (if there's one there to begin with).

Lastly, you can run a diagnostic on the hard drive. Now, you'll probably have to pull it out to look, but the top will have the brand and numbers you can use to track down the company and diagnostic tools. You should be able to download something that will tell you if your hard drive is on it's way out or not. If it comes up as bad, it's likely not under warranty any longer, but even if it is, try replacing the IDE cable it's on and then run the diagnostic again. Bad data cables can cause all sorts of hell.
 
I'll join the band and point at the memory also. Either that or the hdd, but I'd look at the memory first, like BigB suggested.

If possible, test your system with a known working stick of RAM, and test your current RAM in another known working system.
 
Thank you for your help and suggestions. I will try them all immediately and let you know how they turn out. Again, thanks for the quick response. I really appreciate it!

HDSjr55
 
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