dc5750 likes XP but nothing newer…..

[CreosoteChris]

I have an HP dc5750 which was purchased around April ’07, and since then I’ve been running it on Win XP with no issues, 100% stable, superb workstation. Along the way I added some extra RAM (definitely the same spec, PC5200 – 667, as the original) and another HDD.

Recently, I was provided with an MSDN subscription, and I decided it was time to start exploring some newer OS versions, so I got busy with my DVD burner and made cuts of Win7-32, Win7-64, Win2K8-32 and Win2K8 R2.

Every time I tried an install on my dc5750 it failed
– this was true for every one of the four OS variants I tried
– failed at various stages and with various errors, the most common of which was a blue-screen PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

Memory was the most obvious suspect, so I took out the 3GB of cheap aftermarket RAM I’d installed, and tried again using only HP’s original 1GB DIMM. No difference. In fact any combination of new and old modules, no difference

Eventually I managed (by pure persistence I’m sure, I just did it enough times until one ran to completion) to install W2K8 R2. This is actually the OS I want to run day-to-day, as we’re all aware of here. OK, I thought – progress at last.

However the installed OS crashes, just like the installation routine, maybe once every 20 mins on average. More frequently if worked hard, but even left doing nothing it will fall over within a couple of hours. More DIMM-juggling, more research, HP hardware diags (all tests ran successfully) Windows memory diags (ditto), lots of trawling around support forums and MS Knowledge Base, no progress. Crashes continued.

I have a big list of the crash reports I can provide if necessary, they are
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP

I then decided to eliminate the possibility of disk hardware. I went out and bought a new 1TB HDD, and stripped the system down to minimum config, i.e.
SATA 0 = shiny new Samsung 1TB HDD
SATA 1 = original HP read-only DVD drive
1GB original HP DIMM

The W2K8 R2 install ran waaay fast onto the new HDD, and actually completed first time. But the frequent crashes were still there. Note this was with absolutely no 3rd-party software installed, not a single device driver. I even tried each of the 3 other DIMMs individually, same results.

More research, and I really thought I’d found it – the HPET setting in the dc5750 BIOS was set to disabled. Extract from http://www.firingsquad.com/print_article.asp?current_section=Home&fs_article_id=2179 “I found that the HPET setting was disabled. HPET is a “high precision event timer” used in place of the core CPU clock to provide timing for advanced operating systems. This is particularly important when dealing with today’s multi-core CPUs which can arbitrarily increase and decrease CPU core speeds asynchronously. HPET is newly supported by Windows Vista and is a formal requirement for having the “Certified for Windows Vista” “

When I changed my dc5750 BIOS setting for HPET to Enabled, I started getting a new event in the log at each boot, HAL event 1 “Initialization of the High Precision Event Timer failed due to a BIOS configuration problem.
The operating system will use another available platform timer in lieu of the High Precision Event Timer.”

I noticed from various support forums that other motherboard manufacturers have BIOS settings for Disabled, 32-bit and 64-bit but the dc5750 BIOS (786E3 v02.35, the latest available) offers Disabled and Enabled only. I’ve also tried changing
– Integrated Graphics Memory Size (changed from Auto to 256M). This enables W2K8 to run the Aero interface so it looks nifty, but still crashes)
– PCI Resource Config – Standard Method / Optimised for large memory (makes no difference)
– Virtualisation Technology set from Disabled to Enabled (makes no difference though I’m wondering if I should have changed this before installing the W2K8 product)

Just in case I was getting bogged down in 64-bit-specific stuff, I then tried installing 32-bit Windows 7 onto my new big Samsung drive – blue-screened (BAD_POOL_CALLER) 2/3 of the way through the installation.

Anyway, that’s where I’m up to, and I’ve run out of things to try. My dc5750 is a great XP box, but every attempt to load and run later OS variants, turns it into a huge piece of pure flakiness.

Any advice of suggestions (short of buying a new PC) appreciated

Regards Chris

[CreosoteChris]

Just in case anyone is interested……

UPDATE – since sending the above I have

– located another dc5750 at work, and installed my Samsung 1TB SAT drive with crashing copy of W2K8. It ran fine for 5 hours with no signs of instability

– borrowed the RAM (2x Kingston 2GB DIMMS) form the work PC and installed them in the home machine – crashed after 5 mins

– tried resetting the dc5750 BIOS back to full default config – crashed as I logged in to W2K8

– tried running with an old PS/2-style mouse and keyboard, no USB devices attached at all – crashed after 3 mins

So that’s everything I can think of, I am down to faulty motherboard or CPU hardware, there’s nothing else to try short of exorcism

I’m told this machine has a 3-year warranty, so in the absence of any miracle cures, I’m looking for a replacement CPU / m/b assembly.

Regards

Chris

[Anonymous]

Just in case anyone is interested……

UPDATE – since sending the above I have

– located another dc5750 at work, and installed my Samsung 1TB SAT drive with crashing copy of W2K8. It ran fine for 5 hours with no signs of instability

– borrowed the RAM (2x Kingston 2GB DIMMS) form the work PC and installed them in the home machine – crashed after 5 mins

– tried resetting the dc5750 BIOS back to full default config – crashed as I logged in to W2K8

– tried running with an old PS/2-style mouse and keyboard, no USB devices attached at all – crashed after 3 mins

So that’s everything I can think of, I am down to faulty motherboard or CPU hardware, there’s nothing else to try short of exorcism

I’m told this machine has a 3-year warranty, so in the absence of any miracle cures, I’m looking for a replacement CPU / m/b assembly.

Regards

Chris

[CreosoteChris]

Er…. just stumbled across this thread, which I should have updated about three months ago…

I solved the problem eventually by substitution – after a considerable struggle and two sets of HP official build disks, got HP warranty support to agree to a motherboard swap. To my amazement it made no difference.

So I took the machine to work and borrowed a CPU from another dc5750, and that fixed it, at which point HP had to agree to a warranty on that as well.

So some subtle problem with the CPU. Now running W2K8 R2 just fine.

Regards Chris

[Anonymous]

Er…. just stumbled across this thread, which I should have updated about three months ago…

I solved the problem eventually by substitution – after a considerable struggle and two sets of HP official build disks, got HP warranty support to agree to a motherboard swap. To my amazement it made no difference.

So I took the machine to work and borrowed a CPU from another dc5750, and that fixed it, at which point HP had to agree to a warranty on that as well.

So some subtle problem with the CPU. Now running W2K8 R2 just fine.

Regards Chris

[Arris]

@CreosoteChris wrote:

Er…. just stumbled across this thread, which I should have updated about three months ago…

Thanks for posting your solution! This might also be useful to others. 🙂

[Anonymous]

@CreosoteChris wrote:

Er…. just stumbled across this thread, which I should have updated about three months ago…

Thanks for posting your solution! This might also be useful to others. 🙂

[systemERROR]

@CreosoteChris wrote:

– borrowed the RAM (2x Kingston 2GB DIMMS) form the work PC and installed them in the home machine

😆

[Anonymous]

@CreosoteChris wrote:

– borrowed the RAM (2x Kingston 2GB DIMMS) form the work PC and installed them in the home machine

😆

[Author]

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