MANY recurring problems keep trashing XP

[sdakota]

I've got a home-built P2 350 MHz w/256 MB on a QS440BX motherboard. I use a Promise Ultra100 TX2 hard drive controller card to run my 100 GB drive. I installed XP Home in March, and everything was extremely stable until July. Since then I have had many weird problems and I don't know what to try and fix.

I have gotten lots of errors in applications such as Internet Explorer, Netscape and Explorer.I usually just get a window saying this program has a problem and must end.

I've also gotten many system errors in the form of Blue-Screens-Of-Death. These errors have included
stop 0x00000050 (PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA),
stop 0xC0000218 (Registry File Failure),
stop 0x0000004E (PFN_LIST_CORRUPT),
stop 0x0000000E (IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL) and
stop 0x0000021A (FATAL_SYSTEM_ERROR).

I've had some problems that seemed obviously hardware-related, such as a "memory test fail" message at bootup, when it's trying to read the BIOS of the HDD card. I've also seen "ESCD UPDATED" messages at bootup when I have not changed any hardware.

I seem to get more and more of all these messages until finally XP refuses to start up at all - usually with a message to the effect that the registry is corrupt, or that
WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE or SYSTEM is missing or corrupt.

At that point, I have tried to "repair" the XP installation (an option in XP setup) or just done a fresh re-installation of XP. I have done this MANY times in the last two months, but the problems just start to creep up again.

I have pulled and re-seated most of my PCI cards; the POST memory test reveals no RAM problems, and Norton Disk Doctor reveals no disk problems. Any ideas where the problem lies ? It seems almost certain to be hardware, but which component ? MoBo ? CPU ? HDD ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated !

Greg

 

[mithrilhall]

Have you tried to update your BIOS and/or your motherboard drivers? ====================================
I love people. They taste just like
chicken!

 

[sdakota]

Mithrilhall: Good question. I was going to do just that until I found out it would cost $25 to do so ! It seems outrageous that I should have to pay for a software upgrade to hardware I have already paid for, so I refused.

The fact that my system was so stable for months leads me to believe that the BIOS and motherboard had been working OK without any updates. These could have gone bad and started causing my problems, but I'll buy another motherboard before I pay $25 for an update.

Thanks very much for your reply !

greg

 

[mainegeek]

Check or replace your cmos battery and try running with disk doctor uninstalled.