What is a bad pool header and how do I fix it?

Question

What is a bad pool header and how do I fix it?

Windows has been taking 30 or so minutes to start.  I've tried repairing it but nothing seems to work and now I'm getting a blue screen that says "bad pool header".

Answer 1

Hi,

1. Have you made any changes to the computer prior to the issue?
2. Do you get any specific error codes?

A pool header issue is a problem with Windows memory allocation. Device driver issues are probably the most common, but this can have diverse causes including bad sectors or other disk write issues, and problems with some routers. (By theory, RAM problems would be suspect for memory pool issues).

Method 1:

Disconnect any external devices connected to the computer except the mouse and keyboard, check what happens.

With Windows 7, you can run a check disk from system recovery options using command prompt.

Refer the article mentioned below:

What are the system recovery options in Windows 7?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/What-are-the-system-recovery-options-in-Windows-7

Method 2:

If the above step fails follow the steps:

Step 1:

Restart computer in safe mode and check if the issue persists. Follow the steps in the link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Start-your-computer-in-safe-mode

Step 2:

If safe mode works restart computer in clean boot and check if the issue persists.Follow “step 1” in the link to enable to clean boot:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Follow the step 7 from the article to “Reset the computer to start as usual”, after performing the clean boot troubleshooting.

Method 3:

If the above step fails follow the steps in the link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Resolving-stop-blue-screen-errors-in-Windows-7

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

guys Google blue screen viewer download it, it will tell you what's causing the problem in my case its my OS now looking for a fix but im sure reinstalling it will do. also after ur pc gets the blue screen it makes a dump folder in ur c drive called mini dump witch has ur error's.

Answer 3

i use windows 8, but i did the method you said and it worked. thanks

Answer 4

I have this problem in windows 8.1. how fix this thing on win8.1?

Answer 5

On 5th June 2015, i started getting Bad Pool Header BSOD out of nowhere.

I started Windows in Safe mode, which was successful.  After a little research, i found an artcicle that had a solution.  THe person found that AVG was causing the BSOD Bad Pool Header.

I tried to uninstall it from Safe mode, but no success.  So i downloaded and installed AVG remover, direct from the AVG website.

ONce AVG was removed, the BSOD did not come back!!  I assumed it must have been a recent update to AVG 2015, as it has been working fine before then. 

Success!!