Loretta:
It's practically impossible (from a practical point-of-view in our
experience) to diagnose precisely what's causing the BAD_POOL_CALLER error
message and why the system isn't properly booting. It can be either
software- or hardware-related and even sometimes a combination of both!
Hopefully you've purged your system of viruses, but it's impossible to tell
whether there's any remaining debris caused by this or that virus that may
be having an effect on the problem you're experiencing.
But your initial course of action to undertake a Repair install of the OS is
a sensible approach in my opinion. You're fortunate to be able to do so
seeing as you have an OEM (Dell) XP OS installation CD which at least allows
you to undertake a Repair install (even if it's been unsuccessful up to this
point!).
Take a look at the following sites that contain info re this 34-minute
problem...
http://techtracer.com/2007/03/12/xp-installation-the-34-minute-hiccup/
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;828267
and see if there's any help there...
You probably already know this but it's always a good idea to ensure that
before installing or repairing the XP OS all data storage devices are
disconnected from the system. That includes any external hard drives, flash
drives, etc.
We've also found that assuming no defective hardware is causing the
34-minute problem, sometimes it's just a simple matter to repeat the install
or repair process a second, third, or even fourth time before it "catches".
Seems at times that when this problem arises, the installation process
"thinks" a defective component frequently a graphics card in our experience)
is defective although in reality it's not, and that aborts the installation
process. Repeating the installation process will sometimes do the job and
even reseating the graphics card has worked for us at times.
Of course, on the other hand it may very well be a defective piece of
hardware that's causing the problem - both with regard to the
BAD_POOL_CALLER error message and the subsequent 34-minute glitch during the
Repair install.
Assuming it's not hardware-related and the Repair install fails, you may
very well need to fresh-install the OS. Naturally that will result in a
complete loss of data so other options may have to be explored before you
fresh-install the OS.
Just one final thought...
If there is any data on the HDD that is absolutely crucial to you, i.e., you
could not tolerate its loss, I would suggest that you go no further at this
point and have the machine looked at by (hopefully!) a competent & reliable
local computer shop. If you do go that route make it absolutely clear to the
shop that you *must* retrieve the data you desire, not merely return the
system to a functional state through a *fresh-install* of the OS. Obviously
you may be able to do this on your own through installing the HDD as a
secondary drive on another machine in order to extract your personal data.
This assumes, of course, that the HDD is non-defective.
Anna
