"General Protection fault" error

[draggar]

I've seen this with another computer before and a reset of the BIOS solved it but with my system now, it's not working. I am pretty sure it's a setting somewhere in the BIOS. I even unplugged the PC and took out the battery for an hour - no help.

Dell E520 - I can only install the OS that came with the rescue disc - if I try my own disc or a different OS (Say Windows XP Professional as opposed to Home) I get this:

TRAP 0000000D ==== General Protection Fault======
tr=0028 cr0=00000013 cr2=00000000 cr3=00000000
gdt limit=03FF base 00017000 idt limit=07FF base 00017400

cs:eip=0008:00318A90 ss:esp=0010:00061FEC errcode=0000
flags=00010002 NoCy NoZr IntDis Down TrapDis
eax=0000110C ebx=00301329 exc=00001618 edx=534D0030 ds=0010 es=0010
edi=0037164F esi=00051D68 ebp=00061FF0 cr0=00000013 ds=0030 fs=0000

I've Googled it and it all points to corrupt hard drives, corrupt OS, or bad boot discs.

None of these are the case - the disk works fine, I've used it in the past and tested it on another PC.

The HDD is good (and new) and Scandisc shows nothing. (Plus I'm booting off of CD)

OS is good because, well, I can use it and I'm not trying to boot off of the OS.

It seems that the computer has something in it (BIOS?) that is preventing any other OS from being installed on it.

This is really worrying me because now - will I have to go though Dell if I want to upgrade the OS? Am I locked into XP Home. This is extremely scary if it becomes a general practice with the computer manufacturers - even if it is legal (remember the memory class action lawsuit?) - forced to purchase the OS through the manufacturer of your computer as opposed to buying it yourself.

 

[Johnn]

Try to swap the memory.

 

[south]

Try to swap the memory.

Agreed. I would try that first.

Also you might have a boot sector virus/rootkit. Maybe try a fixmbr from windows recovery console. Can you pull the drive & plug it into another system to do a chkdks, scan for virii?

Another thought - if it has / if you have installed an add on video card, try changing that as well.

 

[Johnn]

Just want to clarify: The system memory not Your Memory.

 

[south]

Just want to clarify: The system memory not Your Memory.

Been trying to upgrade mine for years. But it keeps failing even more.

 

[Johnn]

If you want to replace your memory - replace your wife memory first.
It has to be done in that order.

 

[south]

Damn! Been doing it backwards all this time..

 

[draggar]

Try to swap the memory.

The system works fine - I'm just trying to figure out what I can't install a non-Dell supplied OS to it.

I did swap the memory before and it didn't help.

Agreed. I would try that first.

Also you might have a boot sector virus/rootkit. Maybe try a fixmbr from windows recovery console. Can you pull the drive & plug it into another system to do a chkdks, scan for virii?

Another thought - if it has / if you have installed an add on video card, try changing that as well.

This happened when I tried to reinstall the OS onto a blank / new drive. Unless the manufacturer (Seagate) put it on there, the drive should be clean.

Don't forget I mentioned that I've seen this exact thing before and a reset of the BIOS resolved it but ti's not helping now.

 

[Dale Hubbard]

A corrupt stack can give a GPF - are you running any games regularly? Some of them don't behave well at all.

 

[draggar]

This was happening with a fresh OS install on a blank HDD.

I fixed the issue, though. The HDD controller was set up as AHTC (or something like that) and I had to change it to ATA, plus a couple of other tweaks in the BIOS. It's working now.

 

[Dale Hubbard]

Sorry Ed - I should have read your post more carefully.

 

[draggar]

NP - I actually posted it on a few support areas (some with more information) and I got the same suggestions. :S

 

[JuniperPark]

This really could be anything... including defective motherboard (or it just warping or corroding with age.

With the low price of computers these days, I wouldn't put a huge amount of time in fixing it, just replace it. You can spend months on something like this and get nowhere.