Windows Error

I am having major troubles this week with my dell machines....

Anyone heard of bad_pool_cooler?

I get this error when I go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs.

When I restart in safe mode, it gets stuck on mup.sys

I unplugged my USB keyboard and mouse and it got through once.

I couldnt see anything in the Event Log.

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RobertKaucher

Do you know how to read minidump files?

What I would suggest is that you yank the hard drive and read the minidumps.

How to read the small memory **** files that Windows creates for debugging

If MUP.sys is showing on the screen it is probably a videocard driver issue. I believe the video card drivers load after the multi user profile drivers, but I am not sure. Is the video card onboard?

You won't see anything in the event log because the systems that right to it crash before anything can be written. That's why you need to look at the minidumps.

Here is what I would suggest for a full diag:
Run memtest86+ <if pass>
Run Hitachi DFT (no sense in going through all this to find out the HDD is bad as well) <if pass>
Pull every single card out and try to boot into safe mode.
Look at the minidump files.

MAC_Addy

memtest86? Is this the tool on the ultimate boot cd?

RobertKaucher

Probably, but you can download the ISO and burn it by itself.
Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

MAC_Addy

Ah ha!

Thanks!

skrpune

jamie.english wrote: »

I am having major troubles this week with my dell machines....

Anyone heard of bad_pool_cooler?

I get this error when I go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs.

When I restart in safe mode, it gets stuck on mup.sys

I unplugged my USB keyboard and mouse and it got through once.

I couldnt see anything in the Event Log.

are you sure it's not "bad_pool_caller" instead? That would be likely indicative of bad RAM.

And yes, you can run memtest off the ultimate boot CD, as well as some other memory tests. But unless you run memory tests for a prolonged period of time, you might not get accurate results. I've seen cases where bad RAM went unfound for several test cycles in memtest and Windows Memory Diagnostics...if RAM is just starting to fail, or if it only fails when it's heated up a bit, then it will take a prolonged memory test in order to weed out the problem. When you've got some spare time, test one memory stick at a time and let those tests run...

RobertKaucher

skrpune wrote: »

are you sure it's not "bad_pool_caller" instead? That would be likely indicative of bad RAM.
...

Crap, I thought this was about cooling libations near the swimming pool.....

Now I am going to have to reformulate my entire diagnostic strategy for this post.

skrpune wrote: »

... I've seen cases where bad RAM went unfound for several test cycles in memtest and Windows Memory Diagnostics...if RAM is just starting to fail, or if it only fails when it's heated up a bit, then it will take a prolonged memory test in order to weed out the problem. When you've got some spare time, test one memory stick at a time and let those tests run...

skrpune is correct to mention running the test for a while as I have seen those issues as well. However, since you are getting BSoD at boot time, I would expect this to fail before the final test on the first pass.

MAC_Addy

oops.

I had a dyslexic moment me thinks.

I totally meant "caller".

MAC_Addy

See the thing is...

It's not doing it on just one machine. I cloned the hard drive and re-imaged another GX755 to see if it would do the same problem.

Turns out it does the same thing on another GX755...

Bad software on the image? maybe?

MAC_Addy

I'm getting messages;

"bad_pool_caller"

&

"bad_pool_header"

RobertKaucher

jamie.english wrote: »

Ah ha!

Thanks!

Does this mean it failed memtest?

skrpune

jamie.english wrote: »

See the thing is...

It's not doing it on just one machine. I cloned the hard drive and re-imaged another GX755 to see if it would do the same problem.

Turns out it does the same thing on another GX755...

Bad software on the image? maybe?

Wait, how/where did you do the cloning? If you created the cloned HD on a machine with failing RAM, then I'd expect to see errors with the new HD too - maybe not the same errors though. It's also possible that the RAM is failing on the other machien too. I've seen stranger things happen...

MAC_Addy

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Does this mean it failed memtest?

Nah, just saying thanks for the link.

MAC_Addy

skrpune wrote: »

Wait, how/where did you do the cloning? If you created the cloned HD on a machine with failing RAM, then I'd expect to see errors with the new HD too - maybe not the same errors though. It's also possible that the RAM is failing on the other machien too. I've seen stranger things happen...

Thats what I'm starting to think.

I use Norton Ghost to create the image and deploy to my other machines.
I suppose the image that I setup to be deployed has / had bad ram and is showing the SAME error on each machine.

MAC_Addy

I think I may have figured it out.

I took off LiveUpdate by Symantec, it works fine now.

I also uninstalled Symantec anti-virus and I'm having no problems.

I suppose they released a bad update or something.

skrpune

jamie.english wrote: »

I think I may have figured it out.

I took off LiveUpdate by Symantec, it works fine now.

I also uninstalled Symantec anti-virus and I'm having no problems.

I suppose they released a bad update or something.

Weird! Glad to hear you figured it out.

...although I have to ask...did you install another AV program on there to replace Symantec?

MAC_Addy

skrpune wrote: »

Weird! Glad to hear you figured it out.

...although I have to ask...did you install another AV program on there to replace Symantec?

Yup. AVG for now.
I'm going to install Symantec again in a couple of weeks on a test machine.