Boot Problem in XP...Virus, hardware failure, ?

[oldbear]

Hi Everyone,

I posted a continuous booting problem on 25 Sep. I have more information and I thought it best to open a new thread. This is in a Gateway FLEXATXSTC BRO 300S. It's got a 1 GHz Celeron and a Maxtor D540x-4K 20Gig harddrive. The owner (friend) was loading games the day before the problem occurred. Her son shut the computer down normally. When my friend turned it back on, it was continuously booting. So here is what I have done so far:

I went into the bios turned off all the checks being bypassed (wanted the motherboard to perform all checks). When i rebooted, it stops immediately after the Gateway screen disappears (at the beginning) with the following message "Windows NT has found only 447K of low memory. 512K of low memory is required to run Windows NT. You may need to upgrade your computer or run a configuration program provided by the manufacturer." OK, so far so bad.

I have done the following: (1) Downloaded the latest Powermax harddrive diagnostic from Maxtor and run it on the Gateway...the harddrive passes all tests with flying colors.
(2)Put the drive in my Windows ME machine and tried to do a virus check with the latest Norton (old program with latest virus definitions) and got an error message along the lines of "a utility program is blocking access to this drive". I could not check for viruses. The drive is 100% NTFS by the way. Windows ME doesn't recognize the partition. (3) Tried two other hard drives hooked to the same ribbon cable and power connector in the Gateway. Both harddrives booted without a hitch. One only boots to a c: prompt while the other boots in Windows 98 SE. (4) I booted with a floppy drive...no problem. My first two inclinations were (a) Virus and (b) a screwed up software problem from the games. But, that doesn't answer the possible hardware problem if the error message is legitimate. So, I did a (5) I took the memory stick out of my good Windows ME computer and put it in the Gateway. Same problem shows up. I get the same error message about the memory.

So, I'm at a loss. I don't want to wipe the drive and write all 0's (low-level format option on Maxtor Diagnostics disk) unless there is something to gain. If it's a virus, that may not solve the problem. If it's a hardware problem with the cache on the harddrive, why isn't the diagnostic finding it? I can take the drive all the way down but I really hate to lose everything on it. I don't have a windows XP machine with a virus checker to run on this harddrive. Suggestions?

Thanks,

oldbear

 

[bcastner]

ME is not going to read an NTFS filestore.

But in any case a zero fill may be just what is required. A proper one would remove a boot sector virus.

The low memory error is nearly conclusive it is a bootsector virus I would think.

 

[wolluf]

A few hits here -

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?h...required+to+run+Windows+NT"&sa=N&tab=wg&meta=

- but don't know if any use (possible issue with boot.ini or ntldr file?)

 

[oldbear]

wolluf,

That search you gave me doesn't appear to work...must be something I'm not doing right.

oldbear

 

[mainegeek]

oldbear, When you say it was continuosly booting, how far would it go and to what screen before it would boot again?

 

[xomcat]

Try booting from your XP disk. At the SECOND prompt asking if you want to repair or install, choose repair.Try Fix MBR and/ or FixBoot.Let us know.

 

[wolluf]

To get to link I posted, go to Google groups and search for "512K of low memory is required to run Windows NT".

But suspect bcastner may be correct about boot virus. Running fixmbr from recovery console (as per xomcat) or fdisk /mbr from an Me/9x boot floppy (write protected) normally fixes that - though there is at least one (whose name escapes me) where it doesn't. An anti-virus rescue disk set should sort out any boot virus (Trend have one you can download - went on 7 floppies last time I used it).

 

[oldbear]

Mainegeek, Xomcat, Wolluf,

The rebooting would follow immediately after the Gateway screen disappeared...in other words immediately upon hitting the hard drive to begin booting. There were no Windows XP screens ever. It doesn't get that far. I turned off several things in the bios ...now it doesn't immediately reboot...but it does stop with the error message I mentioned. I'm getting the original XP software today so I can try the Repair suggestion from Xomcat. Then maybe try Wolluf's suggestion or vice versa...Intriguing problem. Thanks Gentlemen!!

oldbear

 

[mainegeek]

Do you have GoBack installed?

 

[oldbear]

Mainegeek,

Ihave no idea, I can't get to Goback or anything else. i'm hoping the Win XP Cd i'm getting today will let me boot to look at the file structure.

oldbear

 

[mainegeek]

Is your reset button stuck?

 

[oldbear]

Mainegeek,

No, used a different keyboard. But, I did have a strange thing happen. I connected the hard drive on a different platform and it continuously rebooted on it. I didn't go into the bios to turn everything off to see if I was getting the same error message but was surprised to see the problem migrate to the new computer. This leads me to believe it really is a virus.

oldbear

 

[mainegeek]

I meant the reset button on the front of your case.
Try booting with a floppy bootdisk. If you can get to A:>prompt with it then run fdisk and select #4 to view and see if your partitions still have a Volume and File System Type listed.

 

[TKoch]

Old Bear,

You have bad RAM - replace it and you will be ok.

The error message that referred to "low memory" is refering to the first 640k of your RAM. if it can only find 447, then the rest is damaged. If you have more than one stick of ram in the computer, try one at a time. If you only have one stick then you will need to purchase or borrow a stick (it will be pc 100 or pc 133 sdram, it would not hurt system to use only 100 if you are not sure which it is exactly) and boot with only that one. It should work for you at that point.

Please post again if you have questions or run into additional problems

- Trevor
CCNA, CCNT, A+, NET +

 

[mainegeek]

TKoch,
He stated that he has the same reboot problem with the HD when put into another machine as well.

 

[oldbear]

disconnected the hard drive and ran just the CD with Windows XP. Same error message about the low memory. Virus eliminated....It appears Tkoch may be right. I'll get another stick to use. The one in my other computer gives the same error message.

oldbear

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi there,

you can switch out ram sticks as much as you like, it's gonna get you nowhere... the 640K ram is onboard the MOBO not on a mem stick...

TRY clearing the BIOS (by either taking out the BATTERY for at least 10 min or thru the jumper on the MOBO)...

then go into BIOS and load the DEFAULT values before attempting to Rescue the system with WinXP of the CD...

there is a possibility that you have a BIOS Virus or somesuch proggy sitting in the back...

about the drive, well if you had a second system with either W2k or XP, you could hook the drive up as slave, boot up and do a intensive scan of the drive (to get rid of any errors in the file structure and log any physical damage to it's MBR)... also you could do a full virus scan from the second system on that drive (thus making sure that it is totally clean) before reinstalling it on the first system (and doing a recovery from that)...

Ben

 

[oldbear]

Bigbadben,

I've secured another Win XP Disk to try out. I'm getting another stick of memory....didn't know any RAM resided on the Microstar MS-6312 motherboard. Bios Virus? How? No one was flashing the bios. The users were playing games and getting on the internet. If I get the same error message about memory with and without the hard drive attached, i.e. the cd causes the same message with the hard drive disconnected....I'm beginning to think it is the memory ..but then it could be a motherboard defect and not the memory stick. I'm still confused about the lower memory being a part of the motherboard. I've seen cache but not RAM since the early PCs, XT, and 286's. Anyway, I'll see if I can find any info on the Miscrostar MB to verify the low memory is on board.

Thanks!

oldbear
oldbear

 

[wolluf]

oldbear - have you investigated possibility of boot virus?

 

[oldbear]

wolluf,

I suspected a boot virus at first but have since changed my mind. I get the memory error message with the original memory stick in the Gateway and with the one from my computer in the Gateway. I have suspected something was wrong with my own stick for a while now...numerous reasons. So, I disconnected the hard drive in the Gateway and only had the CD-ROM and the floppy. With the floppy empty (and I can boot from the floppy with no problem) I booted from the CD with Win XP. I get the same error message as the hard drive does when it is installed and booting. So I think I am down to two choices. Either the memory truly is defective in both the Gateway and my other computer, or the motherboard in the Gateway has a memory line or chip problem that is not allowing the 64K of low RAM from 447K to 512K to be read. The virus can't be right. The error message I get also happens on my other machine. This would tend to make me believe it is the memory stick. But, I tried the hard drive on an old 200 Mhz system (with only 40 lines in the IDE cable not 80) and this system continuously booted too. Really weird to me. It makes you think it is the hard drive but without the hard drive I still get the same problem with booting from the CD. Still a possibility is a bios virus that got burned in somehow in the Gateway...not sure how that happened if true. Vexing...damned vexing...with get some good parts to verify with and make a final decision. Curious Question...Why does Gateway use Cable Select on it's hard drives and CD-ROMs instead of Master and Slave? Wonder if I could boot from a floppy and reflash the bios on the motherboard with a good clean copy just to be safe....Finally, somewhere along all the troubleshooting I've done, I saw a message briefly about the A20 line high was not working...does this have anything to do with it? Is it the motherboard going south?

Any ideas let me know.

Thanks Everyone.

oldbear