Windows Computer Errors #2

[Mesiah / haiseM]

Ok, since the windows xp blue screen doesn't tell you barely crap, I plugged in 6 different hard drives, and was unable to boot any of them. Of these were windows 98, 2 windows 95, windows xp home, windows xp pro, and windows 2k.

On the win95 computer it says:

Error while initializing device IOS:
Windows Protection Error, You need to restard your computer.

now im not sure what ios is, but if it means io's, then im assuming its a hardware problem... I don't understand what happened one bit... I had it running fine and dandy, then one day, nothing works. I never installed any new hardware, never changed anything, just turned it on, and got bad luck ever since then.

I have a 16 bit soundblaster card (ISA), a 4 mb video card (AGP), a kingston ethernet card (PCI), have nothing but the hard drive installed at this point (IDE-0, STANDALONE) and one 128 mb stick of ram (DIMM).

Also, i remember when i tried installing xp (several times), i would get the evil blue screen that said IRQ_LESS_OR_NOT_EQUAL. So i looked and noticed i had 2 com2 slots, i know this was never a problem ever before, but i tried unplugging one, and still the evil errors remain.

C'mon guys, help me with your leetness.

Yes, i unplugged everything i possibly could, etc etc, i fear my problem is well beyond this, but what caused it, how did it magically happen, why, and how can i find my problem to fix it?

[Raven]

Is your system plugged into a surge protector?

[Stealth]

Tried booting http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html? It's great for troubleshooting -- you'll know right away if your hardware is still viable.

If Knoppix fails to boot, I'd probably lay the blame initially on the motherboard or BIOS.. flash the BIOS?

Edit: Knoppix linked

[Adron]

It sounds like a motherboard/memory/cpu problem. You could try taking everything apart and putting it back together again, it could be just a bad connection somewhere.

[Mesiah / haiseM]

Boy did I have everybody thinking wrong (either that or you all just suck! ) The problem was, my mouse. Its an old serial mouse, the problem was, it cause conflictions in the vxd's, so i have to wait untill the os loads, before plugging the mouse in. Problem solved, everything works excellent.

[Hitmen]

You're still using a serial mouse why....?

[j0k3r]

Give me your paypal address, I'll send you 5$ to get an optical mouse.

[Mesiah / haiseM]

It's the only one i had at the time, my other 2 mouse's i had lended out, I have them back now