(no subject)

I have a desktop machine.  It is failing at mup.sys, which apparently means anything could be dying and who knows wtf is going on.

Things I've done:

* Booted into the recovery console off a WinXP CD I have.
* Expanded mup.sy_ into mup.sys.  Yeah, probably not it, but nice to be thorough.
* Ran chkdsk /p.  It found errors, so I ran chkdsk /r.
* Restarted, booted off the hard drive, watched it fail again at the same spot.

*grumbles loudly*

(no subject)

This is WinXP Pro SP2, or maybe SP3.  I can get to the command prompt when I use the CD and boot into the recovery console.  This happens with the same hard drive in two different machines, but I can't tell if it's bad luck, bad drivers, or a really bad hard drive.

Steps I've taken:

* Replace mup.sys.  I know that's probably not the issue, but I wanted to be thorough.
* Run chkdsk /r.

Steps to take:

* Check ntbtlog.txt for errors.
* Replace the memory that's there for other memory.  Do this one at a time, to see which one's bad.
* Test the RAM, apparently?  I hear one runs mem /debug for that.
* Do a WinXP repair install.

How frustrating.

Input is totally welcome, even if it sounds obvious.  I'm chugging along, but if it's hardware, I'm lost.

Talk obvious to me, baby.

So I finally got this thing going, yay.  I can't find the network card, and sound isn't playing, but at least I can access the files, thank gord.

Current steps:

* find the network card
* figure out sound issues or swap with another sound card
* except it's plugged into the motherboard but can't be found, wtf?
* "C-Media AC97b Audio Device: The device cannot start. (Code 10)"
* ??
* profit

In related news okay, this machine has two slots for memory sticks, and then two similar-looking slots next to them.  The normal ones have two notches in them; the ones next to them only have the one (slightly off-center).  What are they?

--

It's installing Windows Updates and syncing my shuffle, so I'm off to have been asleep.