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    Sony Vaio PCG-Z600NE XP install problems

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by si2001, Nov 1, 2006.

  1. si2001

    si2001 Newbie

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    I have done a quick search on the forum and on Google search and nothing directly relates to the problems I am having. If anyone can help at all I would be very grateful.

    I bought the PCG-Z600NE from Ebay.

    Specification
    PIII 650Mhz
    128Meg Ram (although the ram slot is full with a 128MB simm and the laptop wont boot without it, yet the laptop is supposed to have 128MB of fixed memory onboard allowing for 256MB max although I am at a loss as to where I would upgrade to as only 1 slot is visible under the keyboard?!?)
    40GB Toshiba HD (upgraded by myself from the 12GB original)

    The laptop came with Windows 2000 installed and was working fine, no problems at all. Although this might be adequate for what I'm intending to use it for (internet, emails, MS office) I would prefer to have XP on it.

    This is where the problem arises. The harddrive i fitted had a preinstalled version of XP on from a previous laptop. Out of curiosity I booted the Vaio and after the initial XP startup screen I got the blue screen of death. I thought nothing of this and thought I'd just have to wipe the drive and put XP on fresh.

    I fully formatted the hard drive on a newly created 17GB partition on the drive. After running through the Preparing windows installation screen, again I got the blue screen of death saying BAD_POOL_CALLER.

    Initially I thought that perhaps it could of been bad memory so I purchased a Kingston 128 replacement memory simm, installed this. Attempted the XP installation again and got the BAD_POOL_CALLER error message once again.

    I've tried a different copy of XP as well but still the same error.

    One thing I have noticed is that both the video BIOS shadow and system BIOS shadow are both enabled but when I've checked the BIOS I cannot see any settings available to disable these and I have a feeling this might be causing the problems I'm having installing XP. I've reinstalled Win 2000 with no problems but I would prefer to have XP on as Sony supplies the drivers for the OS.

    Can anyone else point me in any direction as to what the problem might be? Or if there is a bios update available as there doesnt seem to be one listed on the Sony Vaio support site.

    I am also still confused as to the memory issue with the slot available under the keyboard being filled, yet only 128MB is available in windows, and removing this simm means nothing happens on the screen and the laptop doesnt boot. Does anyone know if this FIXED memory the laptop is suppost to have can be removed? And perhaps point me in the right direction as to it's location. I'm wondering if its possible if this has been damaged and therefore why it doesnt show in the system bootup or in Windows, and perhaps another reason why I am having unsuccessful XP installation attempts as I understand XP is memory sensitive.

    Any assistance I'd be very thankful for.
     
    si2001, Nov 1, 2006
    #1