XP BSOD on first boot after Vista

G

Gorsh

Member
Hi Everyone, this is my first post here.

I am new to dual boot procedures and have used EasyBCD only to change the OS name to Windows XP. This problem may belong in a different part of the forum - my apologies if it does, but it may be to do with something EasyBCD can fix so here goes.

I have a Vista64 Ultimate/XP Pro SP2 dual boot, it is a new build. I installed XP first on a new SATA HD in three primary partitions all formatted as NTFS, then installed Vista, used EasyBCD to change the OS name, all OK so far.
Now to my problem: I can boot into Vista anytime with no problems at all, but if I boot XP it almost gets to the welcome screen and then a very brief blue screen appears and it restarts, then if I boot XP again it shows the screen giving safe mode, etc, I select boot normally and it is perfect. There is a message saying it has recovered from a serious error and asks to send Microsoft a report, if I do it takes me to a web page saying it cannot determine what happened but to update my bios and check processor compatibility, etc. Subsequent boots into XP (without ever starting Vista) are absolutely normal, but if I have been back in Vista the next boot of XP repeats the above problem.

I hope I have explained this properly so you can understand, it seems to me that Vista must be changing something which XP doesn't like causing a crash on first boot of XP then it fixes itself. I am worried if I continue like this it will one day crash permanently so before I install and configure my programs I would like to get this issue fixed. I sincerely hope someone here can help me solve this as I am stumped at the moment.

For info my system is:
Abit IP35 Pro Motherboard with Bios 14 (latest)
Intel Q6600 processor
4x1GB crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Ram
Asus ATI Radion HD 3850 Pro Graphics card
Corsair HX 620w PSU

I do intend to overclock this (have already tried the CPU at 3.2Ghz), but is at stock settings at the moment while trying to sort this problem out.

Thanks in anticipation
 
It could be a problem with the RAM and not specifically with EasyBCD. Sicne you are usgin 32 Bit XP it doesnt like nor play nice with 4GB of RAM. that could be where your problem is starting.
 
Wow! what a quich response - thank you.

I will try removing 2GB ram to leave 2GB in dual channel slots, then I will report back on what happens.
 
Makaveli213 said:
It could be a problem with the RAM and not specifically with EasyBCD. Sicne you are usgin 32 Bit XP it doesnt like nor play nice with 4GB of RAM. that could be where your problem is starting.
Click to expand...

That wouldn't explain why it works the second time around.

The most logical guess is that XP is seeing something left over from Vista that makes it BSOD while it reads/re-creates it. Then on the second boot everything is OK.

At any rate, you are right, this isn't an EasyBCD-related problem.
Here's how to find out what's going wrong: if you choose safe mode the first time (by pressing F8 before boot-up), what is the last file that Windows XP loads before the boot process fails?
 
Not necessarily. ause it is at random intervals that i hear about XP 32 Bit failing with 4GB of RAM upon boot/install. They say it works soemtimes and fails others. While you are right it most likely isnt but at least it is a place to start. :wink:
 
Thank you both very much for your input.

I am very pleased to report that removing RAM has solved the problem, I firstly removed 2x 1GB and it worked so I put 1GB back (making3GB in total) and I have now tried the sequence several times without a problem so I'm as certain as I can be it is fixed because I could reproduce the BSOD every time before.

I am also puzzled though as to why XP was OK on second and successive boots, I can only assume it wrote something in the boot sector to overcome the 4GB issue then Vista reset it then the next XP boot failed?

Anyway, I am very happy a solution has been found - I will keep the other 1GB RAM for when I ditch XP altogether (if I ever do before my next rebuild).

Thanks again.
 
I think i know why it happens on the first crash and not any other. The first reboot after usign Vista is that you have Vista 64Bit installed.

Vista 64 Bit can handle and use all 4GB of RAM you have. So now when you reboot to XP it cant handle the 4GB because of the 32Bit limitation for 4GB of RAM. Causeing your system to crash. But a reboot directly back to XP causes the system to recognize that you have thaat amount of RAM and limits the ram to 3 or 3.5GB of RAM like it does on every other system.

I bet if you had XP X64 you would be able to dual boot between them easily. Since you already have Vista 64 Bit it would make more sense to have XP X64 as well just cause of the amount of RAM. Sadly this is a known limit in 32 Bit systems which is ue to the kernel and there is no known fix as far as i know.

Glad it works for you now. Will move this to the Legacy Windows area since this is a XP issue not EasyBCD. For a minute there i thought i was having a bad week with all the wrong answers i have had lately...
 
That is weird.... Vista shouldn't be telling XP how much RAM you have anyway :wtf:

Nice call there, Mak! - I would've never figured that one out.

Hmmmm.. I wonder if you had totally shut down the system then started Windows XP up, would that still have happened?
 
I know this sounds like a tootally strange issue. The only reason i even thought of it like this was because i have encountered this before doing support. It is a very strange issue indeed.

I do believe that a total shut down would not reproduce this issue. I beieve this is only a issue with a restart. But that is also a good point.
 
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