Stuck in an infinite Windows logo loop

Factual Questions
1

I have a fairly new computer running WinXP SP2 and last night as I was merrily typing along, it froze up. This wasn’t unusual, especially over the last few days. Thinking nothing of it, I restarted. That’s when the trouble began.

The computer loads but it can’t seem to get past the Windows logo screen. The second it comes up, the computer reboots. Loading in safe mode and all the other modes has the same result. I tried to reinstall Windows, but got the blue screen of death and a “driver corrupted mmpool” error, whenever I tried to repair or install a fresh copy. I made up a bootdisk and tried it out, hoping to get to the point where I could try to maybe reformat, but all I got was another long error message (a different one this time)

I’m completely out of ideas on how to fix it (aside from taking it to a professional). I tried googling, but nothing seems to be what I need. Any suggestions?

2

Do you have the original install CD (i.e. not a ‘factory restore’ disk)? If so, I would recommend using that to boot into the recovery console (details here), then run chkdsk /p/r

3

Yeah I do have the original disk, but when I get to the first screen and hit the R for recovery, I get the blue screen and the driver_corrupted_mmpool error.

It’s very odd.

4

Apparently that error can be caused by bad or mismatched RAM - removing and reseating the memory modules might be all that is required, alternatively (or additionally), you could download MemTest86 - it comes as an ISO file that you can burn to a CD using pretty much any CD writing program, then you boot from the CD and it performs a number of tests on your memory.

5

Interesting. I’ll give it a try. Thanks.

6

No dice on reseating the memory,Mangetout Still the same problem. I tried the memory test, but my computer is still giving me the same error as it did when I tried to bootdisk it earlier. Guess I’m gonna have to have it looked at. Thanks for your help.

7

Do you have your BIOS set to try to boot from CD before the hard drive? If not, that could explain why boot disks and memtest86 media aren’t working for you.

8

Yeah, its booting from the cd-drive

9

Hmmm… I’m inclined to think it must be an actual hardware fault - it seems to be kicking in very early on everything.

10

I get a “The system memory manager (EMM386.exe) has detected an error caused by a fault in one of the device drivers or programs loaded in the system.” message

11

Are you getting that when you boot from CD? You shouldn’t be - it might be worth checking all your drive cables are plugged in tight at both ends.

12

Everything seems nice and tight at both ends.

13

When you try booting from the CD, does it actually seem to be doing it? Do you get a prompt that tells you to press a key to confirm OK to boot from CD? Do you hear the CD spin up? EMM386 isn’t part of MemTest86, so you shouldn’t be seeing any message related to that at all, at least not when you boot the Memtest CD.

14

Nah, I’d say it doesn’t even seem like it was reading at all from the disk. It gave me the same error message earlier when I tried using a boot disk.

15

I’ve experienced this problem a few times on Windows 2000. It was in all cases bad RAM. You should really try to run Memtest if you can, it wil make it extremely clear for you whether or not that is your problem (which with your symptoms it almost certainly is).

16

Yeah I agree its probably the RAM. I just hope its just that and not the memory modules that are the problem.

17

Ah… that’s significant; it could be (amongst other things):

-CD drive faulty
-CD Drive ribbon cable faulty or misconnected
-CD Drive power cable not connected (long shot)
-BIOS not set to detect CD drive
-Some other BIOS problem… restoring the defaults might work, although it might cause problems if something else has been tweaked for your system (such as processor clock speed)

Once you’ve got a working CD drive, I think you’ll be able to boot into recovery console and run ChkDsk, plus possibly a repair install and I think your problem will be fixed.

18

Huh? I thought “memory module” was just the fancy name for a stick of RAM, hence “Dual Inline Memory Module” (DIMM) meaning a particular type of RAM. If the RAM’s bad, then it can only be the RAM on the memory modules that is bad*. Am I completely wrong here?

Perhaps you mean that you’d prefer the problem to be in the RAM and not the motherboard’s memory controller? Sorry to be nitpicky, but I’m not well-versed in troubleshooting RAM, so I’m trying to follow this thread carefully.

  • Unless you’re referring to your CPU cache as RAM, which I guess it is, but then your preference (“I’d rather my CPU were bad than my RAM”) doesn’t make much sense.
19

I don’t think it’s RAM anymore - or at least that’s not the problem we’re hard up against at the moment - the OP is getting an EMM386.exe problem even when trying to boot from a CD that doesn’t contain or attempt to load that program.

Booting from CD isn’t working - that’s the crux of the problem right now.

20

Yeah thats what I was shooting for. It’s been a long night. I’m guess I’m gonna have to tinker around with it this afternoon.