Tag Archives: xp

error 0x000000c2 bad_pool_caller on windows XP

Computer Aid Posted on by

My main workshop PC (windows XP, Intel dual-core CPU, 2GB DDR3 RAM, WD HDD, Gigabyte mobo, etc… nothing fancy) has been quiet for a few days (another quiet time in business 🙁 ).

So when I started it today, I was surprised to get a blue screen of death: error 0x000000c2 bad_pool_caller

I figured: maybe RAM, maybe the video card… but it was neither.

So, after pressing F8 at boot time, I selected “last known configuration that worked”

And this turned out to be one of the rare times that it actually worked.

As soon as the PC started, taskbar icon for Microsoft security essentials appeared in red… It really wanted to update the software (not just a signature update, it was completely new software.

So I figure: sure, its always best to be safe to keep the AV up to date.

But part way through the update, the computer did another BSOD.

I fixed it again (last known configuration that worked).

Now, when I cast my mind back a few days, to when I last used the PC, I remember doing a windows update, and I got a BSOD. Because I was in a hurry, I just left it, and then forgot to get back to fixing it.

So now:

  • I uninstall MSE
  • I restart the PC
  • I download the latest MSE from the microsoft website
  • I install the latest MSE and…
  • BSOD !

Wow, that proves that the latest MSE either doesn’t like my PC, or it doesn’t like XP in general.

I have another XP PC, but it has the latest MSE, and I get no BSOD from it…

Its a mystery. Next chance I get, I’ll be installing another anvivirus program & see what difference that makes.

repair install of xp: Windows cannot load the users profile

Computer Aid Posted on by

Another repair install of XP (due to a motherboard failure)

But once windows starts, I get:

Windows cannot load the users profile.
Windows logged you in with the default profile.

And after I’m logged in, I get a few error messages like:

Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

I can already guess that this is a file permission problem with the original user account.

So I restart in safe mode, see that the permissions and owner settings don’t look right. So I change them, and apply the change to the whole c:Programs and Settingsuser folder structure

But after restating in normal mode, things are not quite right… so as the normal user, I start windows explorer, go to c:Programs and Settingsuser, then go to properties, and change ownership of the whole folder structure (again).

After that, I’m still getting errors.

So I figure a restart is worth trying.

Sure enough, after a restart, everything is back to normal.

android usb tether driver for Windows XP

Computer Aid Posted on by

Having recently gotten an Android mobile phone (and since I have a mobile phone plan with 1Gb of downloads), I decided that I might need to occasionally use the phone as a broadband modem (although a wifi “wireless” tether is nice, its also nice to charge my battery-hungry Desire while surfing the net via my laptop).

The laptop is XP, so I thought it should be easy to setup… but XP just didn’t seem to recognise the phone.

I can connect it to my linux-based (easy peasy) laptop, with no issues.

Even Windows 7 worked nicely.

So whats the problem with XP?

It turns out that XP doesn’t know how to handle the “USB” internet without proper drivers (which microsoft seem to be refusing to make available via its update system… how childish).

So I eventually found the solution in an android forum:

  • First, download the driver file: android tether xp
  • Make sure you save someplace (like your desktop)
  • Plug your android phone to the PC via a USB cable
  • When the phone prompts you for the connection type (or by flicking down from the top bar of the phone), select: usb tethering
  • When XP says: “i don’t have a driver for this”… just say you will select the driver maually, and then point it at the “tetherxp.inf” file that you downloaded.
  • After that, you will have a tethered android internet connection (just remember that it can sometimes take up to 1 minute before XP realises that the phone has changed USB connection type.

xp security center says automatic updates not enabled (yet they are)

Computer Aid Posted on by

After removing yet another “typical” fake antivirus, I notice that the XP security center says that automatic updates are not enabled.

It sounds simple enough to fix: just go into control panel -> system -> automatic updates -> and then make sure they are set to automatic.

Once I did that, Security Center is still reporting that automatic updates are not enabled.

Restarting the PC should fix that…

Uh… no.

Strangely, Security Center is still reporting that automatic updates are not enabled… yet the settings in control panel are actually set to automatic… how strange.

But it doesn’t take me long to find the solution:

Start -> Run -> cmd

At the black command window, enter the following (waiting for each line to complete):

regsvr32 wuapi.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 atl.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll

I then restart the PC, just to be sure everything is working correctly.

xp stops at isapnp.sys

Computer Aid Posted on by

This large Dell PC (running one of the first Xeons that became the core2 duos), wasn’t starting.

I tried safe mode, and it would run through various drivers, and just suddenly stop at isapnp.sys

After a few minutes, I decide to try booting from my UBCD4Win CD, and run a chkdsk… but it finds no fault with the disk.

Next, I take a bit of a look around the internet, and I soon find that the problem isn’t with isapnp.sys, but with the file thats loaded after isapnp.sys…

So how do I find out the file thats next.

It seems there is no simple answer.

However, I did manage to find a simple solution:

After booting from UBCD4Win (again), I go to windowssystem32drivers

I then view the files in “detail mode” (ie each file is shown on a seperate line, with a size and date for each).

I then sort the whole folder by size (usually by clicking on the word “size” of the size column

I then notice that there is 1 file (sgeqcx.sys) that has a size of 0 bytes.

Since there is no was that this folder should have zero length files, I know that thats the problem.

I delete sgeqcx.sys, knowing the “good” version will be copied into place by system resore.

Sure enough, the PC boots normally, and everything is back to normal.

PS: a few days later, the same customer calls again, saying he has a very similar problem.

At this point, we both agree that the computer is dying, and needs to be replaced before any serious damage is done to the data.

So: if you have this problem happen more than once, within a week or two, then I suggest you stop using the computer, and get a new one ASAP.

XP downgrade for Acer Extensa 5632Z

Computer Aid Posted on by

atsivI was asked to downgrade another laptop from Vista to XP.

I’ve done a few so far, so once I made sure it had Vista Business and some XP downgrade disks, I figured: this should be simple enough.

The supplied Disks are a bit odd: 2 XP disks, plus a “System disk”.

Oh well, ignore that for now.

I boot Vista, run acers “recovery” system, and create 2 recovery DVDs for Vista.

I see there is also the option to create a driver backup disk, so I make one of those too.

Then I put the first XP disk in the drive and restart the PC.

I expect the XP disk to boot, and give me the option to wipe out Vista and install XP… but Vista boots (from the hard drive) instead…

Hmmm: an XP downgrade disks that won’t boot… maybe the boot order is wrong (boot from HDD before the DVD drive… I check, but it is set to boot the DVD drive first…

Are the XP disks faulty somehow? I can copy the whole contents without a problem… but neither look like bootable disks… whats going on here?

I eventually realise what Acer have done. Rather that save themselves a few cents by not shipping any disks, they decided to ship an extra disk (now thats totally unexpected… I’m sure the accountants don’t know this is happening!), and make the whole process more complicated…

This is what needs to happen:

  • you boot from the recovery partition, or from the “system” disk first.
  • You say you want to recover the system back to factory defaults (you assume they mean Vista, don’t you?)
  • You get asked to insert the OS disk
  • So you put the XP OS disk in the drive (you could insert the newly-created Vista recovery disks instead)
  • The Acer recovery software knows how to unpack the disk and puts XP (or Vista) onto the hard drive.

So there you go… regardless of installing XP or Vista, you need to boot the system disk first.

I’m sure this system was either created by a committee, or by someone who doesn’t deal with real customers every day.

Mouse stops working (code 32)

Computer Aid Posted on by

After a PC restart, the mouse stopped working.

My first though was: faulty mouse

It was a USB mouse, so I replace it with another USB mouse… but that wouldn’t work either…

OK, lets assume its a failed USB port.

Plug the mouse into a different USB port: same problem.

And a USB drive works in the same port… so it isn’t a USB hardware failure.

Next step: Plug in a PS2 mouse, and restart the PC… but that also fails!

OK, lets look at device manager… Its a good thing that I can navigate Windows XP using just the keyboard… Its a good skill to develop 🙂

Sure enough, looking at the properties of the mouse in device manages shows an error message:

This device has been disabled. An alternative driver may be providing this functionality (Code 32).

And the solution?

Just delete the mouse entry in device manager, then restart the PC.

The mouse driver entry should get automatically reinstalled once XP restarts.

ipconfig: an internal error occurred: the request is not supported

Computer Aid Posted on by

This XP PC was very confused.

It seems it had run out of disk space while updating to SP3.

I managed to free up some space, but the wifi connection was acting weird:

The XP wireless would say that it was connected normally, but an ipconfig /all from a CMD prompt would return with:

ipconfig: an internal error occurred: the request is not supported

OK, maybe the IP stack is corrupted (its a common problem), so I try:

netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

Now, an ipconfig returns with:

mswsock.dll not found

I copy mswsock.dll from another system, but then ipconfig complains about:

ifmon.dll cannot be loaded.

At this point, I try LSPfix, but that doesn’t help.

Next, I try to delete the registry entries:

HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetServices and remove winsock and winsock2

But the network still doesn’t work.

At one point, I was getting:

wuauserv.dll was loaded, but the dllregisterserver entry point was not found.

I couldn’t do sfc /scannow (customer didn’t have the original windoze XP CD)

At this stage all I could do is a repair install of windows (which finally did fix the problem).

repair install of XP (SP2 or SP3) without uninstalling IE7

Computer Aid Posted on by

This is a mistake that is so easy to do, that I have done it twice 🙁

It seems that the internet is littered with victims who have done a repair install of XP (SP2 or SP3), only to find that internet explorer 6 no longer works, and upgrading back to ie7 is nearly impossible. Thanks again, Microsoft.

I’ve found that ie 6 will usually load the home page, but any further browsing results in 2 blank ie6 windows appearing, and then ie6 stops responding.

Its easy enough to avoid this: uninstall ie7 BEFORE performing a repair install of XP.

Of course many of us find we cannot uninstall ie7 because XP is stuffed in some way (hence the need to do a repair install in the first place!)

Or if you are like me: oops, I just forgot to uninstall ie7

The reason is that after a repair install, you are left with system files that are a combination of ie6 and ie7

Anyway, microsoft have a page that explains what to do if you didn’t uninstall ie7 before the repair… but its only after you have read half way down the page, that you realise that the instructions are for fixing the ie6/ie7 problem with the repair install.

Basically, if you have XP SP2 or SP3, then you need to start the XP recovery console (you normally need an XP installation CD to boot from).

Boot from the XP CD. When prompted, press “R” to enter the recovery console

Enter the Administrator password when asked (for most people, its blank, so just press enter).

Now, enter the following commands:
CD ie7spuninst
batch Spuninst.txt

You might get a few errors (permission denied)

Once its all complete, enter:

exit

to restart the PC.

After this, I still had a damaged ie6, but I got around it like this:

– run the ie6 internet options (either from ie6->tools, or from the control panel)

– change the home page to microsoft.com

– start or re-start ie6 (so it goes to microsoft straight away

– on the MS website, go for the update option, and you will find all the MS updates will work (including ie7 !!!). Note: at first, I installed all the updates except ie7. I rebooted, then installed ie7.

– after a restart or two, the PC will finally be “fixed”.

I wonder if microsoft are trying to make XP worse, so that more people will consider “upgrading”…

Installing XP onto SATA hard drive

Computer Aid Posted on by

What sounds like a simple task can sometime end up being more complicated than you think.

In this case, a customer purchased a new PC, which had a new SATA2 hard drive and a SATA DVD-RW.

But he couldn’t install XP.

Either the XP CD would say “Setup did not find any disk drives installed in your computer” or:

Sometime XP would install, but after a reboot, XP would Generate a blue screen error (BSOD).

The first thing I did was to go into the BIOS and change the HDD SATA mode from enhanced to “compatible”. This makes the BIOS treat the SATA hard drive as an older IDE HDD.

But even after that, the BIOS would sometimes not detect the CD drive or the HDD or both (depending on which sata socket the devices were plugged into).

There were 4 SATA plugs on the motherboard… 2 red and 2 black

It seemed obvious that the SATA plugs were mapped as the old IDE master and slave setup. The red plugs were the primary drives, while the black plugs were the secondary drives.

After a while I noticed that the SATA drives were only detected if they were in the “master” plug.

After some careful thought, I realised the hard drive and/or the DVD-RW might be trying to run in “SATA2” mode (ie Sata 300), but the motherboard/BIOS might not work properly when it is set to compatibility/ATA mode.

So I pull out the HDD and DVD-RW drive, and I see that the HDD has a jumper to force it to work in SATA 150 mode. I install the jumper.

After that, XP installed without a hitch.

So remember: Don’t just change the BIOS SATA settings, you might also need to add a jumper to the HDD itself.