Hello, I have been having difficulties with one of my pc's. My brother was on the computer yesterday morning, and when I came home he complained that he kept getting a blue screen whenever he ran programs, and that he would have to shut down the computer. I booted up the computer, and opened windows media player. As the media player was opening, I got a blue screen which stated,
"A problem has been detected and windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. if this is a new installation, as your hadware or software manufacturer for any windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press f8 to select advanced startup options, and then select safe mode.

Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x0000000A (0x00530079,0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x8082B1D9)".

I read the error message, and then turned off the pc. I noticed it was erasing files before i turned it off(or unpacking them or whatever it's called). I turned it back on, and now windows doesn't boot. It gets to the Windows XP screen where it rolls the bar back and forth, and then it shuts down and reboots.
So I made a boot disk. I put the files boot.ini,ntdetect, and ntdlr onto the floppy.
However, when i ran the floppy i got the error, "Non-system disk or disk error, replace and strike a key when ready". I figured maybe the floppy was bad, and I got the windows operating system cd. When I run the cd, I get to the windows setup screen where it says

"To setup windows xp now, press enter.
To repair windows, press r,
to exit, press f3 or something like that...."

However, when I select one of those options, it begins to load it, and then I get that blue screen of death again. I'm not sure what to do... I would run a virus scan, but I can't boot.


Then, Last night I ran a test, I think it was a boot-up BIOS test, which ran through a period of extended tests, and the APIC test failed. The message read,

"System memory failure, read FFFFDFFFh, expected FFFFFFFFh at address 80042010h, suspected memory component located on system board, at label CHANNEL A DIMM/"

Everything else checked out okay. I'm not sure exactly what this means, maybe the cache memory is bad? I'm fairly certain it's not the RAM, I pulled that out and checked it.

What do you think is wrong and what do you think I should do? I also have about 5 years of family pictures saved on there, and was wondering if there was any way I'd be able to get those back....

hi dhouse
that's some good work. it is ram and looks like the dimm (double inline memory module) located at channel A is shot. remove 1 memory module and try to boot. of course if no boot that's the bad module. replace with the other memory module and try to boot. if both are not bad then the system should boot without blue screen. windows may not boot. sometimes memory failure can cause data corruption. if it doesn't boot normally into windows proceed with over the top reinstall using the windows install cd.

1. Boot the computer using the XP CD. You may need to change the boot order in the system BIOS so the CD boots before the hard drive. Check your system documentation for steps to access the BIOS and change the boot order.
2. When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below
This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
Windows XP to run on your computer:
To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.
3 Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.

To setup Windows XP now and Repair Install , press ENTER. do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R", (you Do Not want to load Recovery Console). I repeat, do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R".
4. Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows installations.
5. Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair. If Repair is not one of the options, END setup.
6. Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot. Do not press any key to boot from CD when the message appears. Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your applications and settings will remain intact.

You're right, it was the RAM...however it won't let me repair the files. After I accept the liscense, I get to the partition screen, and it either wants me to install windows, or to erase a partition. I think this would probably erase my pics and music...what should I do? I don't have enough free space on my harddrive to make a new partition. I have another computer also, but it has a different type of system board.

yep. that situation happens often with failed ram and data corruption. unfortunately you're going to need to do a new install. if you have more than one partition you may be able to boot to knoppix or bartpe on cd and transfer the files to another partition. if no other partition get a new hard drive, install windows and connect the old hard drive and "possibly" recover the files y'all want. be sure to understand that data corruption under those circumstances sometimes renders a hard drive inaccessible to an end user.

knoppix is a linux os that boots completely from cd and memory. it has a file manager that can access all file systems.

Link For Knoppix 700 MB

Link For Bartpe Bootable CD ISO 51 MB

Bartpe is my personal copy uploaded on File Factory. Burn to cd and boot from it.

in case y'all need burning software to burn iso try this
Link To CDBurnerXP

CDBurnerXP is freeware, 100% clean.

just a thought...possible to connect the failed hd to your other computer?

How would I do that? Maybe use a USB enclosure? How do those work, and where could I get one? I think they're different kinds of hard drives...

i'd recommend newegg.com online. bestbuy and circuit city should have one as well. they connect thru usb. usb 2.0 is better than usb1.1 but any usb 2.0 is supposed to be backward compatible. it's good to have separate power. just plug in the drive, plug in the power, plug in the usb. i don't have external but do imagine some may have drivers and may have specific install routines..

I'll give it a try..thank-you for all your help

Hey, I got the USB enclosure today, but when I try to open the harddrive it says the disk structure is corrupt and unreadable...does this mean everything's gone, or is there any way to get it back?

could be. i'd try Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0, there's a partition recovery utility with it.

Acronis
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/

then if necessary

Restore My Files data recovery
http://www.restore-my-files.com/index.php

could be it's gone but these apps will give y'all a chance. i'd try to restore the partition first. if acronis can restore the partition maybe you'll not need restore my files depends on the depth of corruption and neither of these apps is guaranteed.

Is it necessary to purchase the software for those? I see a demo version, but idk if that would help with my problem. I'd like to avoid paying more money unless absolutely necessary...besides, the arconis trial download is unavailable.

yes it's necessary and there is no guaranty it'll be able to recover data.

I think I'm going to give my hard drive to an IT guy I know and see what he can do with it. If that doesn't work, I'm just going to buy a new hard drive...I would really like to get those files though...

Last night, I had tried everything I could think of to get the information off the hard drive, and I was getting ready to take the hard drive out and send it to a tech guy I know. Our family was having a family prayer time, so I asked if they would pray about the computer. They did, and afterwards I booted up the computer to browse the web before I took the hard drive off and packed everything up for the night. When I booted up the computer, the checkdisk thing ran automatically and restored everything on the harddrive. It is now back in full working order. I had tried rebooting before, running the checkdisk thing, but nothing had worked. The checkdisk thing wouldn't even run because the hard drive was so corrupted. Then I turned the computer on, didn't hit one key, and it fixed itself. Wow....there was no reason it should have done what it did...I don't know what you guys think about that, but I'm saying thank-you Jesus!

that's great news. kinda restores one's faith and i don't mean faith in windows.