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Question

BSOD 0x0A During Boot

by May 31, 2011 3:17AM PDT

I'm running WinXp Home 32-bit. (Specs at the bottom). I'm getting the
following bluescreen during boot (while at the black Windows XP splash
screen):


IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
*** STOP: 0x0000000A (0x00000038, 0x0000001C, 0x00000000, 0x804FAF71)

I have my OS configured to do a full memory dump and kernel dump on
every BSOD, but it does not do that with this one. I guess it's not far
enough in the boot process to be able to do a dump.


Also, there is one bulging capacitor below the RAM slots on the
motherboard that I'm planning on replacing, if it has any bearing on
this error.


Is there any way to boot this disk in a Virtual Machine on another
system and scan the memory to see what is at those addresses in the
error?

Anybody have any other suggestions?


Thanks, everybody!


SPECS:
HP Pavilion A1730N
Running WinXP Home, NOT Vista
A8M2N-LA (NodusM3) Motherboard
nVidia 430 chipset with integrated GeForce 6150LE (DISABLED)
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (Dual Core 2.6ghz)
RAM 2gb DDR2-533Mhz RAM (1.8V)
GPU XFX GeForce GT240 in a PCIe v1.0 x16 slot
HDD ST3320820AS Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 320gb
ODD Samsung SH-S183L / TS-H653L DVD-RW/CDROM-RW
PSU Corsair CX430 V2
PCI Nec USB 2.0 Card (using default Windows drivers)
1 CPU fan
1 Case fan

Discussion is locked

6 Posts
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Answer
Good clues!
by Forum moderator May 31, 2011 3:59AM PDT

1. bulging capacitor. (google BAD CAPS for the full story)
2. That SATA HDD.

Your post did not reveal how you gave XP the ability to use SATA. I can't guess if it was the BIOS IDE EMULATION or with drivers. Think back to how you did that.
Bob

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SATA Support
by Obsidian_ShadowHawk May 31, 2011 6:24AM PDT

As I recall, I have a Windows XP Service Pack 2 cd and it worked out of the box. This BSOD doesn't come up every time, but sometimes. Normally, the black splash screen just freezes and I have to hold the power button. It takes about four tries before it will boot successfully.

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That's even better clues!
by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 31, 2011 6:34AM PDT

The four tries agrees with the problem of BAD CAPS.

Forget what I wrote about XP SATA and do your google about BAD CAPS.

I consider this one "case closed."
Bob

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Ordered New Cap
by Obsidian_ShadowHawk May 31, 2011 9:51AM PDT

I ordered a new capacitor from digikey. Should be here by the end of the week. What's curious is that it never fails while the computer is running, but only during boot. Even if I stress the computer for 4 hours with gaming and AutoCAD, it's totally fine.

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Which is exactly how those bad caps behave.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 31, 2011 10:05AM PDT

As the machine warms up, the bad cap works. The story is well told and stressing as you put it would not reveal the bad cap issue.
Bob

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[SOLVED]
by Obsidian_ShadowHawk Jun 3, 2011 5:43AM PDT

Problem solved! I replaced a bad capacitor. It fixed the boot issue, made my USB ports and card reader work again, fixed the audio skipping issues in VLC, and even made my computer a little cooler and quieter! Happy

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