BAD_POOL_CALLER error on WinXP boot...

[jonocainuk]

When I boot the computer up, I get this error

BAD_POOL_CALLER

STOP:0x000000C2 (0x00000007, 0x00000CD4, 0x00000000, 0xE12A5A68)

I have read over some other posts and opinions from others (on other peoples problems) is that it could be a faulty harddrive problem, but I don't actually have another harddrive to test as the 3gb harddrive (2nd hdd in this comp) is full of stuff I really can't afford to lose :/

System spec (for the broken comp):
AMD K6/2 400MHz (4x100MHz)
Gigabyte GA-5AA Rev2.2 (BIOS ver 1.3 - I get problems by updating BIOS to newer versions - altho I have tested them but they didnt fix the problem)
256Mb PC-100 SDRAM (2x64Mb 1x128Mb)
3dfx Voodoo 3/3000 AGP (I've also tested an old nVidia RivaZX - but it dont change anything)
Realtek RTL8139 10/100 NIC
USB PCI Card (cant find a connector to make the onboard USB work)
Yamaha OPL-SA3 ISA Sound Card

Fu-jitsu 10gb HDD
Quantum Fireball 3gb HDD
Teac 52x CDROM

250w PSU

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated...

 

[jonocainuk]

I have started to reinstall Windows 2000 Professional - I will try Windows XP Professional again sometime in the future when I can figure out what was going wrong.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate you letting me know them cuz it's got me stumped

thanks in advance

 

[Emeritus]

For the time being. Just remove the 3gb, to see if the error still occurs. If it does, then its not the HD. Just out of curiousity, what problems do you have with a BIOS upgrade?

 

[gill_bates]

This is a Graphics and/or Audio card Problem
REmove Soundcard and test witha newer type of Graphics Adaptor
Aslo check for BIOS update on Mainboard Website

 

[jonocainuk]

I actually have no other graphics cards to try in the system - but I have heard of quite a few people being able to install WinXP with a v3 3000 agp in the system. Also, the soundcard is just a basic Yamaha 16bit ISA... The same sound card is in me mums computer (also runnin WinXP).

Updating the BIOS above the 1.3 version installed ACPI. This caused the system to run at 200MHz (50MHz bus & 4x Multiplier). POST would say it was a 400MHz (as it is) but when Windows 2000 would boot, it says in the MSCONFIG that its 200MHz, it says its got a 50MHz bus & 4x Multiplier in WCPUID. And when I install Quake III Arena, it says the system is not good enough as its only a 65MHz CPU.

So its barely consistent really... and the PC runs kinda laggy too - as if it IS running at 200MHz. However, turning ACPI off caused the auto-shutdown of the PSU to be disabled making us have to press the power button for 4 seconds to turn it off when we're finished on it (Now safe to turn off your computer screen). But, if I use v1.3 BIOS, I can enable APM - I have no ACPI and system says 400MHz everywhere (100MHz bus & 4x Multiplier in WCPUID) and its not laggy to use and it auto-shutsdown the PSU.