Windows XP Blue Screen Problem

jasonb

Hi there,

I've been banging my head against this problem all day, and I'm looking for suggestions on how to fix it.

I've got a Dell Inspiron 9400 Laptop running Windows XP that belongs to a friend. When it boots it gets to the Windows XP splash screen and then Blue Screens with the following :

An attempt was made to execute non-executable memory
Stop : 0x000000FC ( 0xF88DB8E8, 0X032C0963, 0XF88DB848, 0X00000001 )

I've pressed F8 during boot and tried all the options ( Safe Mode, VGA Mode, Last Known Good Config etc. ) but I still get the Blue Screen.

If I boot off a Windows XP CD, I can get into the Recovery Console and see all the files / data etc. I've edited the Boot.ini file to disable DEP, but I still get a Bluescreen, except it leaves out the line about 'non-executable memory' and has a slightly different Stop Code.

I've tried pressing F8 and Enabling Logging Mode, but then when I boot from the CD and check the Windows directory there's no log file there.

I've swapped out the DIMM ( one 512Mb DDR2 ) with another one and it still BlueScreens, and I've also tried the other DIMM slot with no luck.

My friend says it was working fine and then she installed 'Media One Gallery' which came with a Camera she bought. She didn't install the Camera Driver, only the software ( which also installs Google Toolbar etc. ). Then she rebooted and got the Blue Screen.

I can't tell what Service Pack it is ( as I don't know how to do that in Recovery Console ) but it is pretty much fully patched judging by the Uninstall Directories in the Windows Directory, and there's a Service Pack uninstall directory from December just gone, so I'm guessing it's probably Service Pack 3?

I have used listsvc in the Recovery Console to look at what Drivers and Services are there ( and therefore could be causing the problem ) but I can't see anything obvious and with no Boot Log I can't tell where the issue is.

So that's where I am. I can't boot the laptop, and I can't even take out the hard disk and copy the data onto another disk, as it's a laptop disk, not a PC disk ( which I'm more used to dealing with ).

Any ideas what to try next?

J.

snappieT

I'm not entirely sure what the problem is, but you always have the option of booting a live OS from CD (knoppix, for example), and copying any files that you need off onto a USB hard drive or over the network.

You may have seen it, but KB878474 looks promising.

stick-dan

snappieT wrote: »

I'm not entirely sure what the problem is, but you always have the option of booting a live OS from CD (knoppix, for example), and copying any files that you need off onto a USB hard drive or over the network.

You may have seen it, but KB878474 looks promising.

Yeah i'd be inclined to agree here, knoppix, berry, ubuntu, fedora, are just some of the different linux OS's that you could mount the troublesome hard-drives to and extract all your valuable data, then reinsert your hd into the troublesome laptop, boot and install from the reinstallation xp cd and then your problems should be gone and you can usb over all your data again.:)

Maximus_Laggus

Could be a RAM problem. I had random BSOD's after bootup which turned out to be a dodgey RAM stick. I took out the dodgey stick and no more probs. Use memtest to test your ram. I know you can't boot up the laptop but if you can take the RAM out and test on another laptop thats the route I'd go. Also, remove any USB memory sticks which may be attached on boot up.

jasonb

Thanks for the replies!

I've actually tried different RAM in the laptop and that didn't fix the problem. I also tried the original RAM in a different laptop and it had no problems. So I'm leaning away from it being a RAM problem.

I did see KB878474, but from what I can see I'm not using mpegport.sys and I tried disabling DEP but it made no difference.

When you say booting a live OS from CD, do you mean getting a CD with, say, knoppix or whatever on it, botting the laptop off it, and using that OS to access the data on the hard drive and copy it to a memory stick / usb drive etc? Pardon my ignorance, but where would I get knoppix or similar, can I just download it and make a bootable CD?

J.

jasonb

Replying to my own post I know, but I've found and I'm currently downloading knoppix, I'll see how I get on. Thanks for the advice, and if anyone else has any ideas other than rebuilding the laptop please let me know!

J.

stick-dan

jasonb wrote: »

Replying to my own post I know, but I've found and I'm currently downloading knoppix, I'll see how I get on. Thanks for the advice, and if anyone else has any ideas other than rebuilding the laptop please let me know!

J.

Now when you download it just burn the iso using a program like say achocol 120% and make the cd. Boot from the cd and then access the harddrive, insert and mount a usb key and start extracting your data off it. If your not familiar with linux a simple google will solve all your problems.

jasonb

Thanks for that. I have it up and running, and slowly copying over approx. 20Gb of data, so it's going to take a while.

As a techie I hate not solving a problem, but instead removing it by reinstalling. But there's only so much time I can spend on this. I'll definitely be keeping my Knoppix CD, very handy to have.

Thanks for all the advice...

J.