Plumes of smoke

[VCDHunter]

I've been messing about with the PC for a few weeks now trying to get a stable system running XP Pro. I removed all my additional hardware yesterday, formatted the HD and installed a CDROM. I insert my XP disc jump into the BIOS to turn it to Boot from CD, save settings and restart. XP boots into setup and away we go. 20 mins into install BSOD stop 0x24. Bastard. Reboot, into BIOS, load fail safe defaults. Reboot. Windows starts the setup again. BSOD stop 0x24. Bastard. Back ino BIOS. I find my MB manual and manually check all settings, adjusting where the manual suggests. Reboot. Windows starts setup again and flies through the whole lot. Sucess !!!!

I shut down windows to connect all my remaining hardware. Remaing two Optical Drives, HD and floppy. The floppy is above the HD with the power lead needing to be connected the other side of the floppy cable, which I can't really see but I feel around and clip the power supply in place.

I leave the PC on its side with the case of whilst I check to see if its running etc, turn it on and shit ! I'm chocking on smoke ! The power cable to the floppy drive has melted ! Seems I didn't have the power lead plugged in correctly to the floppy.

If its not one thing its another . . . . . .

[gitreel]

Stop 0x00000024 or NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM

The Stop 0x24 message indicates that a problem occurred within Ntfs.sys, the driver file that allows the system to read and write to NTFS file system drives. A similar Stop message, 0x23, exists for the file allocation table (FAT16 or FAT32) file systems.

Possible Resolutions:

* Malfunctioning SCSI and Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) hardware or drivers can also adversely affect the system's ability to read and write to disk, causing errors. If using SCSI hard disks, check for cabling and termination problems between the SCSI controller and the disks. Periodically check Event Viewer for error messages related to SCSI or FASTFAT in the System log or Autochk in the Application log.
* Verify that the tools you use to continually monitor your system, such as virus scanners, backup programs, or disk defragmenters are compatible with Windows XP. Some disks and adapters come packaged with diagnostic software that you can use to run hardware tests.

To test hard disk or volume integrity

Method 1:
1. In the Run dialog box, in the Open box type:

cmd
2. Start the Chkdsk tool, which detects and attempts to resolve file system structural corruption. At the command prompt type:

chkdsk drive: /f

Method 2:
1. Double-click My Computer, and then select the hard disk you want to check.
2. On the File menu, click Properties.
3. Click the Tools tab.
4. In the Error-checking box, click Check Now.
5. In Check disk options, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box. You can also select the Automatically fix file system errors check box.

If the volume you are checking is in use, a message asks whether you want to delay disk error checking until the next time you restart your computer. After you restart, disk error checking runs and the volume chosen is not available to run other tasks during this process. If you cannot restart the computer due to the error, use safe mode or Recovery Console.

If you are not using the NTFS file system, and the system partition is formatted with the file allocation table (FAT16 or FAT32) file system, long file name (LFN) information can be lost if hard disk tools are started from an MS-DOS command prompt. A command prompt appears when using a startup floppy disk or when using the command prompt startup option on multiple boot systems that use FAT16 or FAT32 partitions with Microsoft® Windows® 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2), Microsoft® Windows® 98, or Microsoft® Windows® Millennium Edition (Me) installed. Do not use tools meant for other operating systems on Windows XP partitions!
* Nonpaged pool memory might be depleted, which can cause the system to stop. You can resolve this situation by adding more RAM, which increases the quantity of nonpaged pool memory available to the kernel.

[VCDHunter]

Stop 0x00000024 or NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM

The Stop 0x24 message indicates that a problem occurred within Ntfs.sys, the driver file that allows the system to read and write to NTFS file system drives. A similar Stop message, 0x23, exists for the file allocation table (FAT16 or FAT32) file systems.

Possible Resolutions:

* Malfunctioning SCSI and Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) hardware or drivers can also adversely affect the system's ability to read and write to disk, causing errors. If using SCSI hard disks, check for cabling and termination problems between the SCSI controller and the disks. Periodically check Event Viewer for error messages related to SCSI or FASTFAT in the System log or Autochk in the Application log.
* Verify that the tools you use to continually monitor your system, such as virus scanners, backup programs, or disk defragmenters are compatible with Windows XP. Some disks and adapters come packaged with diagnostic software that you can use to run hardware tests.

To test hard disk or volume integrity

Method 1:
1. In the Run dialog box, in the Open box type:

cmd
2. Start the Chkdsk tool, which detects and attempts to resolve file system structural corruption. At the command prompt type:

chkdsk drive: /f

Method 2:
1. Double-click My Computer, and then select the hard disk you want to check.
2. On the File menu, click Properties.
3. Click the Tools tab.
4. In the Error-checking box, click Check Now.
5. In Check disk options, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box. You can also select the Automatically fix file system errors check box.

If the volume you are checking is in use, a message asks whether you want to delay disk error checking until the next time you restart your computer. After you restart, disk error checking runs and the volume chosen is not available to run other tasks during this process. If you cannot restart the computer due to the error, use safe mode or Recovery Console.

If you are not using the NTFS file system, and the system partition is formatted with the file allocation table (FAT16 or FAT32) file system, long file name (LFN) information can be lost if hard disk tools are started from an MS-DOS command prompt. A command prompt appears when using a startup floppy disk or when using the command prompt startup option on multiple boot systems that use FAT16 or FAT32 partitions with Microsoft® Windows® 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2), Microsoft® Windows® 98, or Microsoft® Windows® Millennium Edition (Me) installed. Do not use tools meant for other operating systems on Windows XP partitions!
* Nonpaged pool memory might be depleted, which can cause the system to stop. You can resolve this situation by adding more RAM, which increases the quantity of nonpaged pool memory available to the kernel.

Thanks Gitreel, but I've seen this page a few times now - it's a clean install on a fresh formated partition. No hardware monitoring software installed. I've run chkdsk which assures me the HD is fine. I'm out of ideas but I'm thinking it must be something to do with the BIOS, but I'm clutching at straws to be honest. I'm awaiting a return of a month old 80gb Maxtor that went tits up recently. If I get a replacement that'll be the first thing I check.

[gitreel]

I had a situation like that before and it was a bad stick of ram.

[VCDHunter]

I had the system running fine last night for about an hour with just a clean OS install and sound drivers. When I came to install drivers for my ATI 9800 it was a different matter. The latest drivers from ATI caused problems upon loading XP, one of those little grey boxes with the message that the display driver for the vid card has caused an error. After much flapping about I deleted the latest version and tried the previous version. Seemed to install ok so I left the system on using chkdsk whilst I was out. When I returned BSOD - 0x000000C IIRC.