Wierd behavior XP Pro Corp

This is a warezed copy of XP so Im not expecting sympathy :P

Old install of XP Pro became corrupted following virus.

Re-install of XP Corp (downloaded from a trusted friend) on old HD unstable (Im thinking devious virus installing itself other than the WIndows folder).

Remove old HD and install new WD 160GB HD and install XP Corp fresh, with partitions for OS, Apps etc...

New install of XP Corp gives me DEP errors ("Data Execution Prevention has terminated this program...") with XP native apps like User Accounts, Help etc..,

Reformat/reinstall 3 times using 3 different CDs of same copy of XP Pro Corp,

Same DEP errors,

IE missing a runtime file, IE cant load.

Hookup old HD (with Windows XP install) as slave, am able to load FF off old XP and connect to Interweb, can surf/download,


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Ok, so these are the issues with this copy of XP Pro Corp:

DEP errors on XP system apps (Services, User Accounts, Help etc..)
IE missing needed runtime dll,
Cannot open any type of WinRar install, get "Application has experienced errors, will terminate.." Ive tried legal and not legal Installs of WinRar.exe from a dozen different sources. Had to use another RAR app. This is the most confusing as I can open other install.exe apps (FF, Leechftp..etc..) but nothing associated with WinRar.

The friend I downloaded this copy of XP swears its a working copy and has installed it numerous times without any problems. He suggested I do a RAM test from a bootable RAM Test App (CD burner also kaput so no go there) as he has seen this behaviour with bad RAM (faulty OS installs).

Im not looking for solutions really, just curious if any of this makes sense. RAM is 2 sticks of 512 PC100 not 6 months old.

Thius is on an older P4 3gig HP Pavillion with a new MB (also not 6 months old)

Bueler?

so try the memory test like he said. and i really don't think you're using pc100 on a p4.

This is the memory I have installed:

512MB DDR-SDRAM 3.0-4-4-5

2 sticks.

Does this tell me what it actually is i.e PC133 etc?

Im on my way out to get some floppies so I can do the memory test. Is it really possible the memory is screwing up the XP install? I do remember I had the memory installed after I had allready installed XP the first time.

Thanks for your help!


SiSoftware Sandra

Mainboard
Manufacturer : Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
MP Support : 2 Processor(s)
MPS Version : 1.40
Model : GA-8S661FXM-775
Version : x.x
System BIOS : 10/14/2005-SiS-661FX-6A7I4G0DC-00
Chipset : SiS 661/FX

System Memory Controller
Location : Mainboard
Error Correction Capability : None
Number of Memory Slots : 2
Maximum Installable Memory : 2GB
Bank0/1 - A0 : DIMM 512MB/64 @ 400Mt/s
Bank2/3 - A1 : DIMM 512MB/64 @ 400Mt/s




Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 512MB DDR-SDRAM 3.0-4-4-5 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR2
Bank 1 : 512MB DDR-SDRAM 3.0-4-4-5 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR2
All I know from that is that you have DDR memory. What speed it's rated at I have no idea. But that's not really relevant; I was just pointing out that it's definitely not PC100 or PC133. ;)

You shouldn't need a floppy to run the memory test. memtest86 is burnable as a bootable CD.