WTF?

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

All right guys...  I never thought this would happen, but I'm calling in the favor.

My computer has a problem, and I can't think of how to fix it.  (Well, formatting works, but I'm trying to avoid that).

Here's the situation.  I was updating my AIM when suddenly I received a BSOD.  The error was BAD_POOL_HEADER.  When I reboot and attempt to start AIM, I receive:

"aim.exe - Bad Image

The application or DLL C:\Program Files\AIM95\Xprt.dll is not a valid Windows image.  Please check this against your installation diskette."

I've tried rebooting.  Doesn't work.  I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling.  I get the same BSOD when reinstalling.  Just for giggles, I ran chkdsk c: /r overnight and it didn't catch anything bad with the drive.

Thoughts?  Suggestions?

_MaH

Comments

[torkell]

Could try drivers and such - likely culprits would probably be video and any fancy sata/raid/scsi drivers. Also try redownloading the installer - maybe the webserver hiccuped and gave you a bad installer.

The installer probably died while copying Xprt.dll (which is why Windows doesn't like it). Make sure that file is deleted before you try a reinstall (else the software might look at it and go "oh, the file's already there so I don't need to update it")

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

Tried deleting it and reinstalling. The computer continues to crash during the installation with the same error message. I can't be certain, but it appears to crash at the same point in the install.

_MaH

[torkell]

Hmmm. Try redownloading the installer (clear your cache first).

[swwinchester.livejournal.com]

Bad pool headers usually indicate a corrupt driver or a corrupted system file.

Best bet : From run, type in "sfc /scannow" - and go get something to eat. That'll verify the integrity of all windows files, and advise you if any need to be rewritten.

Failing that, start updating / re-installing drivers, from most recently updated back.

Also, you might be wise to grab and burn an Ultimate Boot CD, and put your hard drive and RAM through an actual physical verification - your choice of drive tool, although at my bench we were partial to using both Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test and Seagate's Diag Tools, which will work on any hard drive. MemTest86 is the ram test we like to use.

[thecrazyfinn.livejournal.com]

Have you tried manually deleting the directory and then re-installing AIM?

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

Come on... Give me SOME credit :-P

_MaH

Running SP2?

[coyoteden.livejournal.com]

BAD_POOL_HEADER and BAD_POOL_CALLER can be caused by defective or improperly timed RAM.

But considering you're getting in when installing ONE app, I'm going to wager on an incompatibility with that application. AIM is pretty stable, but you might be seeing an interaction between the installer and your antivirus. Considering the AIM setup doesn't install any drivers or services, it's not possible for it alone to crash the system.

Did you recently update to SP2? I've know of two things that can cause a STOP 0x19 (BAD_POOL_HEADER) under XP SP2.

One is a corrupted folder, and chkdsk may not catch it. Delete the c:\Program files\AIM folder completely, empty the bin and try again.

The other is the indexing service. Start > run > services.msc and stop the Indexing service. Try installing AIM after it stops. If this fixes it, go to the properties for the Indexing Service and disable it. You don't need it anyway.

Re: Running SP2?

[coyoteden.livejournal.com]

I know you're not the kind to be clueless about spyware, but there are two variants of crap out there currently that WILL cause bluescreens. TV Media is one and VX2 is the other. Neither can be found or removed reliably by ad-aware or spybot.

TV media is known to break SP2, MS has a removal tool: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=886590 (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=886590)

VX2 will infect the winlogon process and cause all sorts of problems, remove it with VX2Finder (http://www.downloads.subratam.org/VX2Finder.exe). I've come across variants VX2Finder won't remove.

Re: Running SP2?

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

Well it is indeed a STOP 0x19 (BAD_POOL_HEADER) under XP SP2 problem. I'm begining to wonder if it's not just related to AIM as I'm starting to see it elsewhere.

Spyware scanner caught nothing.
Those EXE's caught nothing.
Antivirus caught nothing.
Indexing Service is disabled but i'm still having the problem.

I'm going to try the sfc /scannow as suggested above. I'm wondering if perhaps the .dll wasn't properly registered with windows. I seem to remember something about this, but off the top of my head, I can't accurately recall it.

Oh well.

I'll see what I can do from here. If you have any more suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate hearing them.

Thanks for all your help!

_MaH

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Gaim (http://gaim.sourceforge.net). I'm guessing you emptied all your temp files, d/l'ed the setup file again, and all that good stuff.

AIM help

[irishmasms.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sorry you are running a WinDoz box - can't help ya. ;)

[jacobine.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd vote for Trillian, instead, but I have nothing better to add than what people have already suggested :)