Your XP disc looks legit, it shouldn't be the issue - unless it's physically damaged. I know it's basic - but give it a clean with some Windex or something like that.

I worked in a PC shop for a while, and I have to be honest - I didn't have the greatest experience with ECS motherboards. That could still be the issue ... You said that the hardware you have DID work on another system (another motherboard) ...

Well actually the XP disk does matter yes.

You say it's "orangeish" which means nothing to me and it could turn out to be some obscure Recovery disk rather than a Retail or OEM version.

The entire install depends on the quality and/or contents upon that disk.

Please read the whole thread, I already answered that question, it is retail not OEM.

I have fixed plenty of pc's, this one just has me stumped. Again, I don't mean to be ungrateful but I know what version my XP disk is, it's retail SP2. It's not pirated and it's not a recovery disk. The only way this could be an issue is if I couldn't tell the difference between an install disk and a recovery disk, which I can. This is exactly the reason I build my own pc's and don't buy premade pc's, because dealing with recovery disks sucks.

Now that we are past that... I have narrowed the issue down to RAM, MB, or BIOS. Pretty sure its not RAM cause I tried other chips from working systems. Had a friend who does web development come by and take a look, and he's pretty sure it's not BIOS either. That leaves me with MB.

Got a blue screen recently on one of the install reboots and it said, "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA". Not sure what that means, aren't page faults related to memory or video?

Also, tried something interesting. Took all of the hardware (except CPU) from the broken pc and installed it in a working pc I have here, and everything went smoothly. Got windows installed just fine, no reboots. So, just for kicks, I tried to put all of the original hardware back in the broken pc and boot it. Got to the option to boot into safe mode, and when the boot files are being displayed, it stalls out on the same file every time... agp440.sys. Now, I know that is a video system file. Could it be the video card/mobo interface that is messed up?

Any ideas on these two new developments? Thanks again for all of the help everyone!

Gotta agree that the board is shot Solid, make sure you tell MS that it was faulty on the new install of the retail XP.

"PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA" This error usually points to a RAM issue, have you run Memtest yet from something like Hiren's Boot CD?

As for stalling on the agp440.sys system driver, that is usually just the last driver loaded (or that you see loaded), it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the culprit.

I'd say trying running Memtest off of Hiren's Boot CD, and if it's all good - then I still stand by it being a motherboard problem. There's even a chance the RAM is good, but then there's a problem with the motherboard that's interfering with the RAM.

Hello solid74

Has the assistance provided at PC Help Forum assisted you in remedying your issue yet?

An update would be most appreciated.

Thank you.

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