American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Hi all,

I am sorry for the off-topic post but I really need some help. I was uninstalling System Mechanic 6 Pro yesterday because I found the firewall to be of no earthly good (though I did like the diagnostic tools). Anyway, the uninstall seemed to go fine and after I finished getting rid of the AV, firewall, and sys mech itself I rebooted my computer as directed. When the reboot finished my screen resolution, for about ten seconds, looked like it was set below 800x600. I have mine set to 1024x780 so this was quite strange. I tried to log but all I got was a black screen. So I finally rebooted again. This time I was told I had a corrupted config/system file? Something like that and was prompted to reboot with the XP disk and run the repair option, which I tried to do. The thing is just before getting to the blue screen where you have the option to press the "r" button to repair windows I get the blue screen of death saying "bad pool call". I cannot boot at all now, even in safe mode. Can someone help me figure this out? Thanks in advance.

Maj.Gen. Mike Smith
Smith's Brigade
Smith's Division
Carroll's Corps
Army of Georgia
[url="http://blog.notso.org"]ConvolutedMuse[/url]

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father

You are not going to like what I have to say but here goes anyway.

From what I can learn, the bad pool call is a program call to a memory address pool that is corrupted. This could be a physical memory location or a virtual memory location. When any system software loads, it sets up memory addresses as pointers to key files that the kernel needs. Since you cannot boot, even to safe mode, I suspect that the kernel or one or more Windows files that are essential to the load process are corrupted.

This being the case the only correct way to fix this would be to reformat and reload your system. If the kernel has been corrupted then you will not be able to repair it.

I am not familiar with SMP 6, but am curious if the uninstall was done using the Windows add/remove programs feature, an uninstall program that came with the software, or something else?


Lt. Richard Meuleveld
"The Old First"
3/1/XIV/AoC

Richard,

Thanks for the reply and information.

I used the add/remove feature in wondows via the control panel to remove sys mech. I hate to lose the data I have stored on my hard drive but mch of it has already been backed so its not that big a loss all things considered. I usually do a backup of important, to me, data once or twice a month. It has been about a month since I last did a backup so there's a bit more to lose than I might normally have.

I guess my next question for you then is how can I reformat the drive if I cannot seem to get to that screen due to the bad pool call? I am wondering if resetting my bios to factory defaults might at least let me be able to reformat the drive? What do you think? Thanks again Richard I really appreciate your help!

Maj.Gen. Mike Smith
Smith's Brigade
Smith's Division
Carroll's Corps
Army of Georgia
[url="http://blog.notso.org"]ConvolutedMuse[/url]

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father

Off topic somewhat, but if you're looking for a good (functional) software firewall you might look into Zone Alarm. I've used it for five years now and know it to be a solid product.

All in all, though, I think your best bet is to get a standalone hardware firewall. Most of the experts out there seem to agree that that's the ticket.

Sorry I can't help you with your actual problem re memory. I'm an idiot in that area.

Mike,

It is a wise man who backs up his data. Good for you.

As far as reformatting you will need a bootable Windows CD. If you have that you may need to go into the system settings to change the system to boot from CD instead of the hard drive. I am guessing you are either running XP or Windows 2000. When the machine boots, you should be able to press the F8 (could be different on your machine) to get to the settings).

If you have any problems send me an email and I will help as much as I can. rpmeule@hotmail.com

Good luck.

Lt. Richard Meuleveld
"The Old First"
3/1/XIV/AoC

Richard,

Yes, I am running xp pro and have the disk. I will give your suggestion a try tomorrow.

John, yeah I have been debating whether to go with McAfee or ZA to replace the Kapersky(sp)but haven't made a final decision yet. I have a NAT/Router I use for wireless which I think acts as a firewall, does it not?

In any event I thank ya'll for making suggestions and being willing to help.

Maj.Gen. Mike Smith
Smith's Brigade
Smith's Division
Carroll's Corps
Army of Georgia
[url="http://blog.notso.org"]ConvolutedMuse[/url]

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father