[Error] - My PC has crashed with some stupid paging error

[VWIMaster]

There are two PCs in my house. Recently I have had lots of problems with the computers, and need some help fixing them.

The first is a Tiny computer that originally ran just Windows 98. For the past six months I have multibooted Windows 98 SE with Windows XP Pro, after reading about multibooting on the MS website. Just after I installed XP, I put in my NVidia Geforce 2 graphics card which I had previously taken out. I had problems with XP after that, where it would not boot, and eventually realised that it was because XP was trying to read the old graphics card (which is attached to the motherboard). I updated XP in safe mode and disabled the old built in graphics. Since then it has run OK (until now...)

The second is a HP Pavilion 7925, which we had for about four years, which is running Windows XP Home Edition. It has run reasonably well until now.

Both computers were working fine until last week, when the HP computer suddenly started crashing to a blue screen upon startup, with the error message KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR. It wouldn't start in safe mode, either. It just kept restarting itself. It had got into a loop... so I tried a factory restore, but it froze before it could even get to the message which is supposed to read 'press any key to start the restore'. Sadly, I dont have an XP Home Edition CD, as no disc came with the machine. So I tried to boot recovery console from my XP Pro CD, but all I get after going into recovery console is the error 'an error occurred during directory enumeration' when I try to access the Hard disk.

I decided to back up the data manually, and used a floppy disk to boot into DOS. I found that it had an NTFS hard disk, and so I copied ntfs4dos to the floppy, and also a driver to make my pen drive work in DOS. I stupidly began copying all my photos from the HP (my main computer) to the Tiny machine. Mainly I did this cuz theres around 4 years of pics on there that arent backed up. (well, some are. but only about a third of them.)

Four days later (the Thursday thats just gone) I turned on the Tiny and continued copying. As XP is my main O/S, I booted into XP again and carried on copying the photos to the folder in my pictures which I had made.

Today, I turn my Tiny PC on to discover that XP won't boot. Same error (KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR) making me think I had transmitted a virus from the HP to the Tiny. I scanned using the Norton Internet Security 2004 CD I bought last year. No viruses found on either 98 or XP partitions. So I reckoned I was up against a strong virus, only recently discovered.

I put the XP disc back in the Tiny, and found I was able to access the recovery console. I got into my hard disk but couldnt see the cause of the problem, so I decided to format the drive and reinstall. After finding out that I could erase the partition during Setup, I went into the XP Setup. A message came up saying that Windows could attempt to repair the installation instead. So I decided to go ahead with it.

My XP disc was badly scratched and every now and again, a box came up saying it couldnt read the CD, and that I should clean it. Which I did. And Setup seemed to work right, fixing the computer.

Upon reboot I noticed that I lost the service pack 2, due to the fact the **** Professional word was back underneath the XP logo on startup.

The computer still wont boot, however. I just get an error message saying 'Not enough memory or paging quota is left to complete this operation' with an OK button just after the XP Pro logo with the scrolling blue bar. Before I can click OK the PC reboots itself again. That box is up less than a second.

I don't mind formatting the Tiny, but couldn't stand losing all my pictures on the HP computer. Can anyone help me out here??? By the way, the 98 partition on Tiny still works, I can still start 98 ok, otherwise I wouldnt be able to post this message.

VWIMaster (rjd123 / ELITE FOUR ROBERT / tinytimrob)

[jaclaz]

What I would do:

1) take the HD out of the HP PC and mount it as slave on the tiny machine

2) make a copy of EVERYTHING you need from the HP HD to the Tiny one

3) put the HD back on the HP machine and try repairing it

4) once you have somehow managed to make the HP work, if you needed to format first thing copy back to it EVERYTHING you copied in step 2) + anything you care about in the Tiny to the HP HD by reversing said step 2)

5) Troubleshoot the Tiny XP install

jaclaz

[JRosenfeld]

KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...md_stp_fvlq.asp

[cluberti]

VWIMaster, what was the second parameter of those BSOD's? That parameter will tell whether it is a disk issue, a driver issue, a resource exhaustion issue, or a hardware issue...

[VWIMaster]

OK I'll have to get back to you on that one. Give me a few hours to find the paper and Ill give u the whole error message I read on the blue screen.

[cluberti]

Good. I'll keep an eye out for your posting.

[VWIMaster]

yeah also i already looked at that microsoft page.

[VWIMaster]

OK. Here is exactly what happens on the HP at the moment:

(turn on computer)

HP Invent Logo, saying in small print underneath 'to run System Restore Utility, press F10.'

Error message:

We apologise for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start correctly. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this... (bla bla bla)

- Safe Mode

- Safe Mode with Networking

- Safe Mode with Command Prompt

- Last Known Good Configuration (the most recent settings that worked)

- Start Windows Normally (default option)

No matter which option I choose, the XP logo goes past, then following error message appears. It is a blue screen with white text:

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this appears again, follow these steps. Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If problems continue, disable or remove any new 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:

xxx STOP; 0x0000007A (0xE11D1974, 0xC400003C, 0xBF933C1E, 0x09020860)

xxx WIN32K; SYS-ADDRESS: BF933C1E

Base at BE800000; Date Stamp 365ee2e6

Then it restarts itself after about half a second.

Here is exactly what happens on the Tiny at the moment:

(turn on computer)

AMIBIOS screen, with things like 'to enter setup press DEL', and a list of hard disks

Choose OS Screen: Microsoft Windows XP Professional / Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition

I pick Windows XP.

(Windows XP logo)

(it thinks a lot)

(pointer appears)

(it thinks a lot)

A box appears with a round cross sign reading 'not enough memory or paging quota is left to complete this operation' with an OK button. Then it suddenly vanishes before I have time to do anything, and restarts itself.

Please help me out!!!

VWIMaster

[cluberti]

Ok - here's what's happening on your HP (I'll try to keep it in layman's terms as much as possible):

The stop 7a message in the blue screen indicates a kernel trap error - Windows went to load a memory page into physical memory (RAM) from the paging file (pagefile.sys) on the hard disk, but it was unable to access the page due to a failure (software or hardware).

The second value of your stop error, 0xC400003C, returns as "STATUS_DATA_OVERRUN". It's a filesystem, disk, or disk controller error - there's no way exactly of knowing which, so you will need to troubleshoot all three to determine which is the root cause. The problem could be one of three areas:

1. It could be a problem with the filesystem, in which case running chkdsk /f should help (although you may just have to copy your data off and do a complete reformat and reinstall to be sure the problem is gone).

2. It could be a problem with the hard disk itself, in which case you should get your data off and replace the drive.

3. It could be a disk controller error, in which case you'll have to replace the motherboard (and in an OEM machine, good luck). If it's the controller, putting a different hard disk in this PC should give you the same errors with XP installed.

My guess is that it's #1, but running a hardware test using a boot CD or floppy from the vendor of the hard disk in question should tell us if the problem is with the hard disk or disk controller. Most hard drive vendors have utilities you can download from their site to test the hard disk for errors.

On to your tiny machine, it sounds like you're running out of space in your pagefile, but without knowing what is in the pagefile itself, and how much physical RAM is in the machine, it'd be just a guess. It's complaining about running out of memory, but most likely it's complaining about having a problem with creating enough *virtual address space* to run your system, which could mean that your disk is full, the page file is too small, or both. Have you been able to reboot this machine in safe mode? If so, consider moving your pagefile to another hard disk or partition, and making it's size at least 3x the amount of physical RAM in your box. If you can't boot into safe mode, perhaps you could attempt to repair the OS using a repair installation. If that fails, you're out of luck and you will likely have to do a complete reformat and reinstall.

It wouldn't hurt to do a full hardware test on both of these machines as well, to see if you have any other hardware that may be failing. Windows 98 was much more forgiving with hardware errors than an NT-based system will be - the exact same error that 98 would happily ignore will cause a bluescreen in NT in most cases.

Edited November 28, 2005 by cluberti

[VWIMaster]

Sounds like I have a fair bit of work to do but I wont have much time to use the PCs during the week so I will try these out at the weekend and then let you know what happens.

Thanks

VWIMaster

[cluberti]

No problem - let me know what you come up with this weekend.

[PhillyGeek]

On to your tiny machine, it sounds like you're running out of space in your pagefile, but without knowing what is in the pagefile itself, and how much physical RAM is in the machine, it'd be just a guess. It's complaining about running out of memory, but most likely it's complaining about having a problem with creating enough *virtual address space* to run your system, which could mean that your disk is full, the page file is too small, or both.

I have run across alot of weird issues, some similair to this when the page file was set to a size larger then there was free space. IE you set to 3mb-3gb and its at say 1.5gb and you fill up the hard drive so there is only 500 megs left. Then it tries to use all 3gb for something and nastiness ensues.

If you can see from 98 that the HD or partition is nearly or totally full try to clean up some room. The server logs I went over this morning are good proof that Windows does not react well when the system drive runs out of space....

This should be rather simple and easy given you can access windows 98, and it can't hurt. I always like to try the easy fixes myself. You know that stuff you should do anyway like delete the 94gb of stuff you don't need and probably shouldn't have anyway.

[VWIMaster]

Both machines have quite a considerable amount of space left, definitely over 5gb left on each machine.

cluberti, I had another look at everything posted here so far, and noticed that both of the errors you explained were related to the pagefile, either that it can't be read or written by the computers, so I think: Is it possible that this virus has infected the pagefile, and somehow corrupted it?

And something strange happened. A friend of mine sent me some screensavers a few weeks ago, which I did not want, and immediately deleted. While on the phone to him today, I discovered that he had to take his computer into a shop to get it fixed, because his computer suddenly started to loop itself. He is running XP Professional. He had a BSOD too, and although he can't remember what the error was, I'm betting it was KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR.

This can't be a coincidence. It must be something like a virus. The HP and my friends PC both ran AVG Free, and the Tiny was running Norton Internet Security 2004. All three had the latest virus pattern files and definitions. So something weird is definitely going on.

This is a library PC so I don't get to use it often. I just came on the computers to let you know what was happening. As I said before, I will get back to you at the weekend when I am not loaded with work. But it can't all be a strange coincidence...

Thanks,

VWIMaster

[PhillyGeek]

If there is something with the page file, and since you can boot into safemode, simply remove it, then recreate it. That should get you back up and running. You need to remove it reboot then recreate. I assume you have run scandisk and or other programs that test the file structure of the drive? It may not be a "virus" but a rather horribly written screen saver, in which case most virus software wont pick it up. They tend to miss things that don't self propagate, hence effecting a fair number of people, or don't fit inside a set of rules on what behavoir they expect.

[VWIMaster]

OK I have fixed both machines.

The HP i managed 2 get into system restore and fixed it.

The Tiny I used a Win98 startup disk to repartition the disks. The reinstalled all the versions of windows that i wanted!!!!

Thanks to everyone who helped. In fact it was about half the pc was screwed. Say bye bye virus....

VWIMaster