Hello
I am not sure if this should be at hardware or software since to be honest no idea if it is a hardware or software related. Most likely software tho.
My computer is: 1600+ XP Athlon, Sis chipset mobo, 512 ram, 2 HDD's WD, Gf4 Ti4400.
My problem:
My computer was playing Winamp and as far as I knew was pretty much idle since I had no idea what should I work/play with. It was conected over the internet since I was streaming on my Winamp. When all of the sudden a blue screen came up, and in less than a second computer went blank (HDD was still active).
I shut it down, waited a few minutes and powered it on. It loads fine the ram, bios, makes it checks, and at the time when Windows XP has to start up I get again the blue screen.
It said something like:
"Problem has occured and windows shut down to prevent damage"
Then it said something about:
Check adequate DISK space [..] Try change your video adapter [..] Disable bios memory.
And
Technical info: ***Stop 0x000007E (0xc000005, 0xF84F101D, 0xF89514D0, 0xF895110C)
***ACPI.Sys Adress F84F101D base at F84c8000, Date Stamp 41107D27.
I RESTARTED and then Windows told me if I want to start windows normaly or safemode.
I started normaly and I GOT a error message (on the normal black dos screen) that NTFS.SYS is missing or corrupted. I restarted again and started on Safe mode, then a bunch of files started to apear in lines and went up up til it reached NTFS.SYS angain and gave me the error.
After a few hours I try to open it again and I get again the blue error screen with the details I mentioned above. I restart, same blue screen.
I shut down the computer for about 5 minutes, and when I open it I got blue screen error but "another" message:
"Bios in this system is not fully ACPI configured. Turn off ACPI mode," etc. and some other numbers at Technical info.
After this I just shut it down and went to work.
I have changed the CMOS Battery (quite old and it gave me some problems) and I no longer recive blue screen error, but right now I no longer can boot from anything. I could boot from win xp first 2 times then afterwards it will either freeze, or give an error, or not even start. Afterwards I could boot from my image CD made with Norton Ghost tried 2 times to image but still no succes. Right now I can not do anything.
I changed the IDE cables everything else checks ok at startup. I recived a P2 from a friend to use it for internet and if I switch the HDD's between them it will just restart.
Bottom line is right now I just cannot load windows, or boot from any CD's. If I leave my original HDD with my O/S it will give me the NTFS error. If trying to boot from Windows CD I get different error depends which HDD I have in, one of them sounds like unexpected 16777227 at line 1768 in d:\xpsp1\base\boot\setup\arcdisp.c
I am completly out of ideas. Why as you progress and try different ways it ends up from working to freezing and directly to error.
I don't think it's software. I had a feeling when I read this, and a quick Google seems to confirm it...

From the horse's mouth...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316400

Quote

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to install Windows XP, the INSTALLATION process may not complete successfully. Setup may stop at the beginning of the process or immediately after the first required restart, and then you receive an error message similar to the following:

An unexpected error has occurred. (536821760) occurred at line 1768 in D:\xpclient\base\boot\setup\arcdisp.c

CAUSE

This behavior can occur because of damaged random access memory (RAM) modules or a damaged RAM slot.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, use one or more of the following methods, as necessary:

•Remove one or more of the RAM modules in your computer, leaving at least the minimum amount of RAM required for Windows XP installation. If this resolves the issue, either replace these modules with new RAM modules or reinsert them after Setup is completed.

NOTE: Verify that your computer's performance is not affected when you reinsert the old RAM modules.

-or-

•Install the RAM modules into different (unused) RAM slots in your computer.

-or-

•If you still experience problems before or after Setup, replace all of your computer's RAM modules with new RAM modules.

Error Message:
Error Message: An unexpected error has occurred. (536821760) occurred at line 1768 in D:\xpclient\base\boot\setup\arcdisp.c.
Solution:
What’s triggering this error message is a problem with our computer’s memory, specifically a damaged memory module or a damaged memory slot (the physical area in the motherboard where memory modules are inserted.)

Does it even worth it to just try plug again the other dim module and hopefully it will keep running?

Remove one or more of the RAM modules in your computer, leaving at least the minimum amount of RAM required for Windows XP installation. If this resolves the issue, either replace these modules with new RAM modules or reinsert them after Setup is completed.

NOTE: Verify that your computer's performance is not affected when you reinsert the old RAM modules.