i am hoping someone will be able to help me with a pc problem i have.
3 days ago when booting my pc i got the blue screen of death just after
the windows xp home logo comes up. The system then continually reboots
itself but windows won't start.

The error was driver_irql not equal and it mentioned physical dump and
the file viamraid.sys. I cannot get to the event viewer to attach the dump unless someone can advise how to get to it from my 2nd install of windows?

Since the error Windows will not boot in any mode (i.e. any of the safe
modes, normally or using last good configuration).

My pc is windows xp - the motherboard is a asus KV8-MX, there is 2 gig of
ram. Its a 160GB Sata Hard drive.

Things i have tried but still have the problem :
cleaning inside the pcputting the hard drive on the other sata connection - it is recognised
but still windows does not boot.

Removed 1 ram stick and then the other - still same error.

Running windows recovery options to repair windows.

Tried to install new via drivers after downloading from website - used
windows xp boot disc and the f6 option.I installed windows in a separate folder c:\windows2 - when i boot this install of windows the pc works fine and i have been able to access all my files on the hard drive (thankfully i have been able to back
everything up).

From the working install of windows i have run chkdsk, disk defrag and
also tried installing various via drivers. When running chkdsk it got to
14% and just hung. When running disk defrag the computer just rebooted
once it got to a certain point. Note that when trying to install via
drivers one of these the computer just hung and i had to reboot
subsequently this 2nd version of windows would also not boot. Has my hard
drive broken?

I tried renaming the file viamraid.sys to oldviamraid.sys.

Does anyone have any ideas of what might be causing the error and how to
resolve it? Anything else i can try? I am almost at the stage of
considering formatting the hard drive and reinstalling windows - i have
everything backed up but i would prefer it if i could fix it without
doing this as i don't want to have to reinstall and set up all my
software.

Thanks.

Hi there grif456 and welcome to PCHF , Unfortunatly this isnt my area of expertise, but we have a staff of techs, with a wide variety of skills and someone should be along to help you out soon.

Welcome to the PCHF grif.

To be honest, since you've installed Windows twice on the same hard drive now - trying to fix the original install will be all but pointless
I'd recommend doing a completel format and reinstall everything (as long as your positive that all your data is backed up) and then reinstall Windows again.

The viamraid.sys file is just that, the VIA chipset file that controlls the raid. For this to get corrupt...could be a virus, could be a bad driver...could be alot of things Trying to figure out what it is would be a pain.

If you haven't already tried it, are you able to boot into Safe Mode? Fro there you'd be able to reinstall the drivers. But you'd still have 2 windows installs

well i ended up formatting the hard drive and reinstalling everything. Took me all day but system all appears to be working ok (touch wood). Thanks.

Ok thanks for letting us know

Marked as resolved