[RESOLVED] ASUS a8n sli UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME/BAD POOL CALLER errors

[A31Chris]

I think my motherboard has died. I began getting these errors recently. First I got the BAD POOL CALLER error and system crashed.

After fiddling with it with no luck I attributed it to a bad IDE drive. Went out and bought a SATA and put it in. Even with just the NEW SATA drive and trying to install Windows XP on it I was getting 'Unmountable Boot Volume' when the the XP setup went to run. I looked around on the net and it seems to be a Windows error but like after Windows is installed? Other than that appears to be a BIOS error but my BIOS is updated and has worked fine for years.

Well I guess I have not tried everything. It seems in restoring my backup PC that my Windows XP disc itself is failing. My backup PC wouldn't read it. Lucky the copy of it I made the PC reads fine.

Also it appears damaged/crimped cables can cause it.

If the original XP disk itself is failing I'm sure it can cause a 'unmountable boot volume' error.
I got more investigating to do it seems.

Also this is the SECOND original, new Windows CD that has failed on me in a short period of time. First was my Windows 98se disk and now my Windows XP disk.

[SpywareDr]

Windows 98SE is 15 years old, XP 12.

[A31Chris]

ok fair enough. But the disks are brand new. Like only maybe two years old. Do you think they are old prints?

[Train]

Clean the cd and use a laser cleaning cd.

I use dish soap and rub it in with my finger tips. I let the disk air dry. Takes a dash more to mess up a cd than a dvd to where they can not be read.

[A31Chris]

I ordered a new cd/dvd player. These ones are all old and long in the tooth. You just rub straight dish soap on it and let it air dry? No wiping or anything? Thats interesting.

I usually just use windex and a paper towel.

[SpywareDr]

Paper towels (and napkins) scratch plastic.

[Train]

I ordered a new cd/dvd player. These ones are all old and long in the tooth. You just rub straight dish soap on it and let it air dry? No wiping or anything? Thats interesting.

I usually just use windex and a paper towel.

I failed to say rince real good. Or take the disk to one of those dvd rental places that has a cleaning machine. Yes, I have had to do that too, until I bought a machine.

[A31Chris]

I think I found the cause for my Bad_spool_caller error. It appears I got a memory stick dying somewhere. I'm using SuperTalent. Two of them brand new and two I got used. I'm going to take a wild guess that the two used ones are the problem. I probably got them from some overclocker who strained the hell out of them.

I burned a memtestx86 CD and ran it. It went through the first test fine but I went to work and let it run. From the results the error did not show up until after the fourth pass on the eighth test if I'm reading that right? And the error bit mask kept incrementing while I watched. So it seems to be a huge error. I'll have to yank out all other sticks this week and isolate and test every stick. 4 sticks, 4 days assuming I only I hit the jackpot on the last one.

This sucks. I don't think I'll be able to get away with just replacing the bad memory stick without having to replace/reinstall windows. In my experience stuff like this corrupts files.

[SpywareDr]

... bad memory stick ... corrupts files.

Because software cannot produce the desired outcome when running on hardware with a serious cognitive impairment.

[A31Chris]

How effective do you guys think System File checker is?

I'll give that a try first see how that goes. If Windows starts acting weird I'll figure it didnt work.

[SpywareDr]

System File Checker (sfc) scans and verifies all protected system files critical to restart Windows. If sfc discovers that a protected file has been overwritten, it retrieves the correct version of the file from the %systemroot%\system32\dllcache folder, and then replaces the incorrect file. If the %systemroot%\system32\dllcache folder becomes corrupt or unusable, use sfc /scannow, sfc /scanonce, or sfc /scanboot to repair the contents of the Dllcache directory. If a file is repaired, the corresponding registry data is also repaired. Protected files not critical to restart Windows are not repaired.

[A31Chris]

System File Checker (sfc) scans and verifies all protected system files critical to restart Windows. If sfc discovers that a protected file has been overwritten, it retrieves the correct version of the file from the %systemroot%\system32\dllcache folder, and then replaces the incorrect file. If the %systemroot%\system32\dllcache folder becomes corrupt or unusable, use sfc /scannow, sfc /scanonce, or sfc /scanboot to repair the contents of the Dllcache directory. If a file is repaired, the corresponding registry data is also repaired. Protected files not critical to restart Windows are not repaired.

Thank you, though I'm already aware of all that. My curiosity was more about how effective it is in situations like this? Have any of you guys used it effectively when critical files may have been sneezed on?

[SpywareDr]

Many times, and it does what it was designed to do.

[A31Chris]

Got to the bottom of the problem. It appears to have been a dirty DIMM slot. A_2. It would BIOS beep and refuse to boot when a memory stick was stuck in there individually. I cleaned the memory sticks then I took a mix of 50/50 rubbing alcohol and water. Wrapped an old credit card in a strip of old clean t-shirt and dipped it in the solution and cleaned out the slot throughly and let dry overnight. Luckily that did the trick. Memtest86 is now on its fourth pass with a memory stick stuck only in that slot and reading all is well so far.

I noticed something. My SuperTalent Memory sticks have the SAME part number-D32PB1GJ. Which is what I looked for when I ordered them. They are an excellent brand of mid range memory sticks. However the latency is different on one of them and another has no latency listed on its label whatsoever. 2 of them are CL3 and one is labeled CL 2.5. Another is not labeled at all. Could this latency difference have caused some sort of mild arcing inside the slot to account for the minute bit of darkening I noticed on one part of the CL 2.5 memory sticks pins that I cleaned off?

[madtj]

… i am looking for hours and nothing seems to help and then I found this
How To Fix BSOD Unmountable Boot Volume STOP: 0x000000ed ?


with me i just reinstall my os