My PC has apparently bitten the dust, though I’ve been trying desperately to get it working again, as I can’t afford to replace it. I managed to iron out disk errors, get a working emergency startup floppy, and try to install Windows over a now-blank (pause here to mourn my MP3s…) hard drive…and I can’t get it to work, still.
I get a general protection fault in KRNL386 (?), and when the setup program closes, this is shown in the DOS environment:
STANDARD MODE: BAD FAULT IN MS-DOS EXTENDER.
FAULT: 000D STACK DUMP: 0000 0000 0070
RAW FAULT FRAME: EC=0000 IP=5EF7 CS=0367 FL=3087 SP=FFEE SS=02C7
I’m hoping that someone who speaks hexadecimal and Windows might be able to interpret this for me. I suspect that the CPU is going Alzheimer’s on me, but that’s just a slightly-computer-savvy guess.
It could be the CPU, but since you’ve already formatted, you could try fdisk. Fdisk sets the hard drive up as a DOS/ windows compatible drive.
You’d want to delete primary partition, and then create a new one. The stuff in your error message about “BAD FAULT IN MS-DOS EXTENDER” kinda makes me think Fdisk might help.
Other than that, IP=5EF7 is your instruction pointer, SP is stack pointer, and SS is stack segment. I forget what FL and EC are. And CS, too. These are used in assembly programming, and do pretty much directly reference the CPU instructions. But it’s still software.
It sounds like a memory problem, but those symptoms can manifest from several places.
Run scandisk to verify the hard drive. Since it’s already toast, you might skip straight to reformatting the hard drive. If you have only one partition, start from the beginning and delete/recreate it. It might be that the drive’s chaining is causing overlaps that affect the execution of some programs.
If that doesn’t help, try pulling the memory and reseating it. If possible, move it to another slot. If you have extended diagnostics, run them.
Pull the CPU and reseat it.
If none of this solves the problem, memory is the cheapest to replace and you can ALWAYS use it even if the problem turns out to be something else.
Thanks to all who answered so far. I did an FDISK and format on the HDD as tattva suggested, because I’d been using Maxtor’s proprietary partitioning tool before. It cleared up the obvious software errors.
I’m suspecting memory problems as well, now. My startup boots are all hanging at what appear to be random points (from what I can see by step-by-step booting), even the boots from the Win98 CD. I’m going to try reseating the memory modules. I hope I don’t have to replace them…they’re parity and I can’t seem to find those almost anywhere.
Again, thanks! I knew if anyone would be able to help, it would be the Dopers!
This error message occurs when the fault handler dispatcher in DOSX.EXE generates
another cascaded fault while trying to handle a protected-mode exception. This error is
usually caused by one of the following factors:
HIMEM.SYS is unable to control the A20 line.
DOS=HIGH is not functioning properly (related to HIMEM.SYS control).
The RAM, static RAM (SRAM), single in-line memory module (SIMM), or dynamic RAM (DRAM)
chips are not functioning properly.
You are running DR DOS.
The third-party memory manager is not configured correctly.
The EMM386.EXE NOEMS x=A000-EFFF line is missing from the Config.sys file.
You have an old, out-of-date ROM BIOS.
Your CMOS settings are incorrect.
Your Windows files are old or corrupted. To test this, create a new directory on the hard drive, and
install Windows in that directory.
Your disks are corrupted.
Your system is infected with the Form, Forms, Noint, or Yankee Doodle virus.
If only you had waited a little for me to write ya back.
At this point, I’m not sure what I"m going to do…if it’s the memory, it’s going to be tough to find new ones because they’re parity and nobody seems to have them. What I’d like to do, but I’m not sure I can afford, is to have a very barebones kit built for me locally. Most of the components I have in the old computer are still good and were upgraded well after I got the thing. All I need is a case, power supply, CPU and mobo.
I’ll probably bang my head against the wall a few more times before that happens, though. Hope springs eternal…
