Please Help!!

My Computer specs:
Athlon xp3200+,
1GB DDR400 Dual Channel,
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo,
Western Digital 120GB HDD IDE,
IBM 120GB HDD IDE,
Western Digital 160GB HDD SATA,
Pioneer A107D DVD-RW,
Dual DVD 8x DVD+/-RW,
Geforce FX5200 128MB,
450Watt PSU,
Nventiv Phase-change cpu cooling.

Now for the problem. I have been running Windows XP Pro sp2 rc2 for 2 weeks now. Allwas working great till i tried to use my computer today. The mobo posts fine and then i get the list:
safe mode
safe mode with networking
safe mode command prompt
last known good
start windows normally.
No matter what option i use the computer just restarts (doesn't even show the loading screen) and goes through the same thing over and over. I had this problem last week but i managed to fix it by booting from the cd and pressing r. I ran chkdsk, chkdsk /p, and fixboot. This fixed the problem. I tried doing the same this time but when it loads the setup files it comes up with a message pciide.sys is corrupted press any key to restart. Can anyone help?

I had a similar problem and it was caused by a faulty memory module. The solution was replacing the RAM and formatting the HDD.
My suggestion is to check your ram with memtest (http://www.memtest86.com/).

Lorand said:

I had a similar problem and it was caused by a faulty memory module. The solution was replacing the RAM and formatting the HDD.
My suggestion is to check your ram with memtest (http://www.memtest86.com/).

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extreme possibility, as I have many times mentioned in my post, that system stability is very much dependent on RAM Modules, I had somewhat similar system like you have once, I was on Geil, never gave me any problem, and Asus are too much into QVL of DDR's, so this time I made myself with Kingston DDR's, as still I am usng Asus. not a problem at any stage.

Better is to sell your Memory Modules if they are cheaper type:

and here I was givena link to a new software, which tells about your system (itsin Beta)


Astra32 this is name of software, click the name to download. see what emmory module it tells.

also try startign ur system with 1 Module, rather than 2.

I had a similar problem and it was caused by a faulty memory module. The solution was replacing the RAM and formatting the HDD.

Click to expand...

Shouldn't have to format the HDD if the fault lies with the memory

Trust me on this one. Running XP with faulty memory can mess up the HDD file system very badly...

What make of memory should i buy? Also is there any way of not formating my HDD as i've got a load of info i need to keep and cant access on another computer because of NTFS permissions. Also when i install xp using my microsoft action pack subscription discs i have to use a new serial as it wont register the same one on the same computer. I've used all 10 serials and got none left. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What make of memory should i buy?

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I've had outstanding results with Mushkin, very good stuff

Also you can't go wrong with the likes of Corsair.

Honestly though, unless you're forking out for the best of the best of the best, just as with the AMD/Intel, ATI/NVIDIA debates, virtually any brandname memory is good enough

You don't have to activate xp after reinstalling it. Use the following trick: make a copy of the file wpa.dbl (located in windows/system32 folder) and after installing xp copy wpa.dbl back to that folder.