[RESOLVED] The story of....ntoskrnl, win2k, and PC133 RAM

[archonix]

System:
Win2k Prof
PIII700
Abit BE6-II
1, 256MB PC133 Micron Memory,
AGP Geforce 256 32DDR
Maxtor 20gb 7200 UDMA 66

Ok here we go. I had 2 sticks of 128MB PC133 Micron RAM. I felt like consolidating slots for future upgrade, so I sold my 2 128 PC133 sticks for 1 256 PC133 stick. Both the new and old RAM was PC133. Now when I put in the 256 stick of ram and booted at my FSB of 133 I got an error with
ntoskrnl.exe corrupted, please reinstall, etc.

The confusion is I've had this system running fine at all speeds between 100 and 140 FSB. The day before I installed the RAM it was running at 7*138 with out problem. Then I put this new RAM in and Kabloooy. I was thinking about Reinstalling win2k and that might help. The other kicker is I put the OLD RAM back in...and SAME PROBLEM. So I don't think the 256 (new) stick is Bad and I checked its serial # with Micron's website to make sure its PC133 and it is. Now I'm stuck. I searched on the MS knowledge base, it said a possible problem with boot.ini causing a ntoskrnl.exe corrupt error. I looked @ the boot.ini and it looked fine however, don't discount the idea that it could still be a problem.

[thirdfey]

How far can you get into the OS? could you get into any of the safe modes? Do you have recovery console installed? The reason I ask is because you could delete the ntoskrnl.exe and let 2k's file protection bring it back if it is actually corrupted, or in recovery console delete it. The funny thing about recovery console is that if you delete it from there it doesn't get replaced by 2k's file protection. Its just not there anymore.

For fun(yes, for fun) one night, a couple guys and I were testing the file protection of 2k and deleted the ntoskrnl.exe everyway possible with no problems. Then, we deleted it while in the recovery console and we never saw it again. We searched the hard drive and all that good stuff and it was no longer there. But, there are some files you can delete in the recovery console that won't come back and will keep the OS from loading ever again, just not the ntoskrnl.exe.

[tha 4NiK8R]

obviously your hardware config changed drastically(ie you added mem that was, while pc133, not the same as your old stuff)enough to piss off Win2k. Find out what brand your old stuff was and replace the stick you have now...

tip: all pc133 memory isn't the same...always buy the stuff that is "guaranteed to work with all systems" it will cost you ~$20 more but is worth the lack of headache in the end

[archonix]

after some tinkering and a few good leads I ended up reinstalling Win2k. Not 100% if its working but it seems to have fixed the problem for now. If anyone else comes across this message a good lead for fixing this is resinstallign your ACPI driver in the device manager. I thought it was a good idea but it didn't work for me. Its located in the Dev manager under the first item called Computer. Right click-->properties-->reinstall drivers...
just a possible tip.

For a conclusion I've found that 2k in all its goodness does not like low end hardware. If you wanna run 2k on a budget system forget about it.

[archonix]

Nope. No working. I tried to install 2k at the right speed but it gave me a CD rom error so I put it back to the default (no oced) speed and installed. I'm thinkin I'll try slowing ramping up the clock speed on the system so the ram gets used to it.
A real crappy ending though.