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Geek Culture / Absolute catastrophe on my PC

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Toasty Fresh
17
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Joined: 10th Jun 2007
Location: In my office, making poly-eating models.
Posted: 29th Aug 2009 16:24
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I recently found a mod to improve Fallout 3 performance and reduce crashes by enabling it to use more than 2gb of RAM. The readme of said mod (HERE) tells me to enable a 3gb switch.

Quote: "
c) At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVa 3072". You should see a message saying this was successful. "


I did this and now I'm getting BSoDs that last for about a fraction of a second and disappear. I've tried every flipping thing to my knowledge. Resetting BIOS to factory defaults, tried disabling it in command prompt via booting from a different hard drive...

If you can help I'd be very, VERY happy.

"You are not smart! You are very un-smart!"
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Lucifer
19
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Joined: 26th Dec 2005
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Posted: 29th Aug 2009 16:56
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Have you tried system restore?

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David R
21
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Joined: 9th Sep 2003
Location: 3.14
Posted: 29th Aug 2009 17:11
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Quote: "I'm getting BSoDs that last for about a fraction of a second and disappear."


As in, disappearing = restart? That means you have "Automatic restart on system failure" enabled.

Disable it, and you can read the code/message and decipher what's causing it.

XP:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstricks/ht/disautorestart.htm

Vista:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windowsvista/ht/arestartvista.htm

09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0
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Benjamin
22
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Joined: 24th Nov 2002
Location: France
Posted: 29th Aug 2009 19:05
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Sounds like you might have a faulty stick of memory (or a faulty slot for that matter). Try a memtest86.
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Toasty Fresh
17
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Joined: 10th Jun 2007
Location: In my office, making poly-eating models.
Posted: 30th Aug 2009 03:17
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Quote: "Have you tried system restore?"


How exactly do you do that? Keep in mind that I have Windows installed on both hard drives, and the one I am trying to fix BSoDs at boot. If I do anything it will have to be through BIOS. I can actually access D drive (D drive is the one that crashes) through C drive (C drive is the one that works but I have no internet access on), but attempts to run command prompt through D drive while running windows from C drive don't work.

Quote: "As in, disappearing = restart? That means you have "Automatic restart on system failure" enabled. "


Yeah, like that. I'll definately turn that off. Following those tutorial links, it seems I must go to control panel. I can't access D drive's control panel as it doesn't actually boot. If I boot from C drive and do it from there, will it affect the settings of both drives?

Quote: "Sounds like you might have a faulty stick of memory (or a faulty slot for that matter). Try a memtest86. "


I'll try that, but if it turns out that I have faulty RAM chips I will be pissed off big time.

"You are not smart! You are very un-smart!"
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Toasty Fresh
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Location: In my office, making poly-eating models.
Posted: 30th Aug 2009 10:36
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Bump. I REALLY need help with this.

"You are not smart! You are very un-smart!"
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Green Gandalf
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20
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Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 30th Aug 2009 14:38
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I dread something like this happening every time I click "Yes" to a dialogue box that says something like "Are you sure you wish to continue?".

I shall be even more wary in future.
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mm0zct
21
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Joined: 18th Nov 2003
Location: scotland-uk
Posted: 30th Aug 2009 16:24
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you need your xp install cd

put it in and let it boot the cd, then select the recovery console option and dry fixboot, and fixmbr, if this doesn't fix things then use the repair option which will basically reinstall windows but leave all your files and programs intact.

AMD AthlonX2 5000 black edition @2.8ghz, 2gb pc5400, AMD/ATi hd3850, creative xfi music, 24" hp widescreen 1920x1200, ECS KA3 MVP mobo
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Toasty Fresh
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Location: In my office, making poly-eating models.
Posted: 31st Aug 2009 01:39
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Done that. Nothing.

"You are not smart! You are very un-smart!"
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Benjamin
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Posted: 31st Aug 2009 02:19
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Done a memtest yet?
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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Location: The Fifth Plane of Oblivion
Posted: 31st Aug 2009 02:52
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It might be a damaged hard drive if a reinstall doesn't help.

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Toasty Fresh
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Joined: 10th Jun 2007
Location: In my office, making poly-eating models.
Posted: 31st Aug 2009 03:10
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Quote: "Done a memtest yet? "


I'll try that next. I can't access the net on C drive, so I'll have to DL it off of a different PC then move it over on a flash drive or something.

Quote: "It might be a damaged hard drive if a reinstall doesn't help.
"


I can't see how. It only stuffed up after the stuff I did in command prompt, and I can still access all of it's files via booting from C drive.

"You are not smart! You are very un-smart!"
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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 31st Aug 2009 14:42
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Quote: "I can't see how."


You did something in software which has damaged an installation. Reinstalling the installation had no effect. The other installation is fine so it's unlikely to be other hardware. The only thing I can think of is that the damaged installation's boot sector may be physically damaged.

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