Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
I was informed by a customer of mine that the computer would not load windows. It shows the windows "loading" screen, then reboots after screen turns black. I re-formatted and re-installed Windows XP Pro. One problem I encountered during this process was the error message: "File\i386nt krnlmp.exe could not be loaded. The error code is 7. Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit." I encountered many "i386" error message variations, not just the "krnlmp.exe". I was later able to install Win XP pro, and continued updating by service packs. Everything seemed to be fine despite the numerous error messages ( Thinking it was a bad RAM chip )When I finished installing SP2, ( after reboot ), the display resolution reverted to 2 color! It didn't recognize the video card, sound card, among others. I went to the eMachines website to download the chipset for the appropriate model. When I tried installing them, the windows installer started, but abruptly terminated ( without installing ). By this time, Microsoft Auto Update had finished downloading/installing after service pack 2, and asked for the restart. After restarting, the same original problem arose! ( It shows the windows "loading" screen, then reboots after screen turns black. ) I proceeded to try loading in safe mode, among other options ( by hitting the F8 key ). Nothing worked. I tried using my XP Pro disk, and the same error message ( i386 ) arose. Is it a RAM problem or what? Please help. Thanks.
Lep
http://memtest86.com/
There is a version to create a bootable floppy diskette and/or an ISO for creating a CD.
0 
In reply to Jam: Not sure if it's a hardware problem. I was thinking that the/a RAM chip was defective. Reason I'm thinking that is it loaded windows ( before updating to SP2 )without lowering the resolution to such a low setting. After loading SP2 is when it lowered the resolution. Maybe it found a better driver to take up more RAM/memory because of a higher resolution setting, causing more strain on the RAM, thus windows not being able to load up afterwards? If I'm WAY off base, someone please correct me :P Just thinking logically. I then tried to load the chipset from the eMachines website, ( and windows update was installing the updates after SP2 ) but the installer never finished the task. Windows updater then required the reboot after the installation of the updates, and it was then it no longer loaded windows after the logo screen. To OtheHill: could you give me an example of what it could be if it's a defective media or reader?
Lep
0
As OtheHill and jam have pointed out, when you get errors like you got when running Setup, it is almost always an indication of only two things:
- Setup is having problems with the reading of the CD (the media)
e.g. - the CD is dirty or too scratched or is a copy on a CD-RW or other than a CD-R disk (clean it or try another one of the same version and use your Product Key) - the laser lens inside the drive is dirty (use a laser lens cleaning CD) or the laser is defective or the CD drive is defective (try another optical drive).- or Setup is having problems reading the ram.
Bad ram is RARE! If you were not having problems with the SAME ram before, most commonly if you are having a problem it's because the ram is not properly seated in it's slot(s) and/or has a poor connection with the contacts in it's slot(s).
See response 2 in this - try cleaning the contacts on the ram modules, and making sure the modules are properly seated:
http://www.computing.net/hardware/w...If you run a ram test, do it AFTER having cleaned the ram contacts and making sure the ram is properly seated, otherwise any errors the program finds may be invalid.
If you DO get ram errors after doing those things, it's STILL extremely unlikely the ram is bad. Did you change or add to the ram in the mboard since it last worked properly? If you did, the ram must be compatible with the mboard, particularly it's chipset - if it isn't you can have all sorts of problems, including no boot. If there is more than one module, run the ram test on one module at a time. If you know which modules were in it when the mboard last worked properly, install them again if you can, and/or remove the ones you added, then run the ram test.
Windows Setup is very sensitive to both of those things, and you can have problems with Setup even if the problems weren't bad enough for you to notice there was a problem in Windows previous to that.If you skipped loading a lot of files during Setup, of course Windows is not going to work correctly. Loading drivers is extremely unlikely to fix that.
Your fastest fix is to pin down what caused Setup to not find the files from one of those causes, then run Setup again and you will not get all those errors.
.....A side note.
If this customer's computer is an emachines, they are well known to have power supplies in them that are a lot more likely to become defective and/or eventually fail, and if they do fail, they are a lot more likely to damage something other than themselves - often they fry the mboard - particularly likely if the PS brand is Bestec.
That probably has nothing to do with your problems, but it wouldn't hurt to check in the bios to see if the current voltages are within 10% of specs.
0
To Tubesandwires: I thought about the cd rom being a problem at first, only because the post screen at startup took longer than usual when the cd rom was reading the Xp disk. The light on the cd rom would blink extremely fast when it was trying to access data, and then would either resume spinning, or stop and it would bring up another ( but normally different ) error message. Even the door on the cd rom wouldn't completely open without a little "tug" on the door when ejecting. I told the customers they'd probably need to replace it soon. I'll definitely check on that as far as booting/installing Windows. What about the problems with the resolution changing after installing SP 2? What could that possibly be? ( refer to previous statement above for details ) Thank everyone for their input and advice :)
( response to side note ): Will do, agreed on not thinking that's the problem, but thanks for the added advice, couldn't hurt :) )
Lep
0
Sounds like a crappy optical drive.
Try a known good optical drive and cleaning/checking the seating of the ram.
If you have no problems with Setup, optical drives are extremely cheap to replace these days.As far as the resolution change problem, you're dealing with the original Windows having a lot of files missing - installing SP2 updates doesn't replace everything in Windows.
Something may be missing that something else needs in the files SP2 updates added or changed.
0
Might also be bad spots on the hard drive. Setup will write a lot of files to the hard drive and then attempt to execute them. The error messages may be coming from its inability to do that.
The changing of the screen resolution may not be related to the installation errors.
0
In reply to Tubesandwires: I was given a copy of Windows XP from a college I used to work at by a professor, so I know the copy is good and not missing files. I've re-formatted/installed numerous copies of XP using this cd. Thanks for the advice on the optical drive. I'll try troubleshooting that tomorrow when I resume my work. You've been a great help thus far. ( why do I think of the complicated problems instead of the simple ones!? :P ) In response to DAVEINCAPS: Maybe that was one problem as to why the correct files weren't loading, because of the optical drive malfunctioning. It's bed time for me guys. I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow. Thanks again.
Lep
0
That's possible but his descriptions don't point to that - the customer would have had a lot of problems in Windows previously.
Check the hard drive.
See the latter part of response 1 in this:
http://www.computing.net/windows95/...
0
Just letting everyone know, I found that the IDE cable was bad... go figure! I switched the cd rom out, still didn't work. Had another cable and it worked. The rest of the resolution problems were because of no driver. The intel 845g chipset series ( even went to the website ) drivers are almost impossible to install! Finally found some that worked for the sm bus controller and video. Still having a hard time trying to find the modem, sound, and usb drivers.. but I'll get there. Thank you all for your info and advice!!
Lep
0
Be sure to use an 80 wire cable. (with blue end)
You install new drivers when existing drivers are already in place by updating the drivers. That can be done thru Device manager.
0
I know how, but actually FINDING them has been a pain! STILL can't find the driver for the above stated. It's an eMachine series D2266. Chipset is intel 845g ( NOT ge, gv, etc. ) Anyways, still looking. Thanks :)
Lep
0
Check your hard drive as I pointed to in response 10. There's no point in trying to fix Windows if your drive is defective. As long as the drive passes it's self tests, data organization errors if found by the diagnostics can always be fixed, but you probably are best off time and trouble wise to re-install XP from scratch again to fix the problem of so many files being missing.
The main chipset drivers are always on the CD that comes with a mboard, but there may be nothing that comes with a brand name system that has that. There are probably programs put there by the brand name system builder in the Programs list in the software that came with the system that allow you to re-load man chipset drivers and other software components.
Mboard manufacturers and system builders often don't have the main chipset drivers on their web sites in the downloads for your model. In that case you get them from the main chipset maker's web site, in this case Intel. All the 845 chipsets are covered at the link OtheHill pointed you to.
The one you want for the main chipset is the INF Update utility.
To allow your computer to run as fast as it can, for Intel chipsets you also need to download the IAA (Intel Application Accelerator) and install it after the INF Update utility has been run.
If the mboard has onboard video (built in; not on a card) and you are using it you also need to download the video drivers for the chipset from there and install them.This alternate link shows all the drivers available for all the 845 chipsets:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/fil...Whether you need to install SATA drivers depends on settings in your bios for the SATA drive(s) and whether or not the SATA controller has RAID support and whether you want to use that RAID support (you can't use RAID if there is only one SATA drive).
If the bios settings for the SATA drive have it running in IDE compatible mode, you never need to load SATA controller drivers.
If the bios settings for the SATA drive have it running in SATA mode (can have various labels) or RAID mode, you often have to install SATA controller drivers when you run Windows Setup, otherwise Setup can't see the drive, but there are exceptions, especially for some older Intel main chipsets such as yours.
If you run Windows Setup and Setup is able to see your SATA drive fine without you loading drivers, you don't need to start Setup over again and install drivers early in Setup, because either XP recognizes the SATA controller because it has the drivers for that Intel controller built in no matter what mode the SATA controller is in in the bios Setup, or bios settings have the SATA controller in IDE compatible mode.In this case there are NO SATA drive controller drivers or RAID drivers listed at this alternative link I pointed to. This means the Intel SATA controller on your mboard is already supported by XP and it DOES NOT have RAID support.
All the other drivers you want to install should be on the emachines website in the downloads for your model for the components that came with the system, probably including the drivers for the onboard video if applicable but they may be older than those on the Intel web site.
0
I finally found all the drivers I needed, but separately ( downloading each driver from different websites ). I knew to search the intel website, but the chipset from the intel site was either corrupt, or there was something wrong with the installer in windows because it would terminate before completing the installation. Anyhow, again, thanks everyone for your advice. I have the computer up and running ( also downloaded the accelerator before checking this message ;) ) and the customer is happy! Good luck to all of you out there, in computers.. and in life !
Lep
0
Did you minimize the number of programs you have running, like you are often cautioned to do whenever you install software?
E.g. make sure anti-virus and anti-adware/trojan software is not running, and disable programs in msconfig - startup?
Most anti-virus and some anti-spyware/trojan software is still running even if you disable everything in msconfig - startup. You have to go into the program itself and disable it's real-time scanner, or whatever it calls a scanner that is constanly checking for unusual activity. Some (e.g. Norton/Symantec) also have an anti-script feature you must turn off.The Intel web site also lists previous software releases below the current ones. If the current one doesn't work, try the next older one, etc.
0  |
 Cooling Solution
|
Computer Shutting automat...
|
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
