Help! BSOD on XP Startup after repair!..

Basq

Hello all,

Hope someone can help me here.. i was having real hassle with my USB drivers yesterday. My USB Mouse / Memory Stick wasn't being identified.. then i looked in my Device Manager and i saw that the drivers that my USB devices rely on were missing. I could get all but one of the drivers off the Web (usbohci.sys) so after seeking further advice, i was told to do a repair of XP using the installation disk.

So, i let it repair. Now when it starts up, it flashes up with a BSOD after the XP logo (too fast to identify error codes or anything like that) and restarts and continues doing that in a loop.

Cannot boot into Safe Mode or Last Known Configuration that works.

Any suggestions on stuff i can do in Recovery Console that may help me? I really can't afford to format my drive, and don't wanna install a fresh OS.

Any help much appreciated.

Chad ghostal

Would there be any point in re-trying repair install (a couple of times) ? i mean it cant get any worse ...

If that fails, you could always put the disk in someone elses computer and getting your files off it..

or using a linux live cd, to create a partition and put your stuff there.. .
im not sure of any non-destructive partitioning tools in linux, but im sure there must be one..
or use the live cd to burn your files onto dvd's (if you have a dvd burner)

sorry couldnt be more help, that sucks
good luck.

Basq

Cheers for that mate!

Tried a repair a couple of times now but still the same result. I can't understand how a repair from an XP disc would lead to a BSOD.

I found a useful page online which i'm gonna try: http://www.digitalwebcast.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=8658-0

Will let ye know if i get it sorted. Keep any suggestions coming in though!

EDIT: Nope.. that didn't work! Even after inputting the following commands in Recovery Manager (which after should allow a boot into XP successfully).

md tmp
copy C:\windows\system32\config\system C:\windows\tmp\system.bak
copy C:\windows\system32\config\software C:\windows\tmp\software.bak
copy C:\windows\system32\config\sam C:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
copy C:\windows\system32\config\security C:\windows\tmp\security.bak
copy C:\windows\system32\config\default C:\windows\tmp\default.bak
delete C:\windows\system32\config\system
delete C:\windows\system32\config\software
delete C:\windows\system32\config\Sam
delete C:\windows\system32\config\security
delete C:\windows\system32\config\default
copy C:\windows\repair\system C:\windows\system32\config\system
copy C:\windows\repair\software C:\windows\system32\config\software
copy C:\windows\repair\sam C:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy C:\windows\repair\security C:\windows\system32\config\security
copy C:\windows\repair\default C:\windows\system32\config\default

Keep any suggestions coming in anyways!

Goldstein

Gonna be hard for you without knowing exactly what the error is. This happened me a few weeks ago with a computer I was fixing - BSOD flashing up too fast to read. I got a digital camera and took a picture of the monitor during the brief instant it was on the screen, took a few attempts but eventually got it and read it off the camera's LCD. Might you be able to do something like that?

Basq

Goldstein wrote:

I got a digital camera and took a picture of the monitor during the brief instant it was on the screen, took a few attempts but eventually got it and read it off the camera's LCD. Might you be able to do something like that?

Will give it a go and be back here ASAP.

gobby

If all else fails you can always put your disk in another machine as a slave or use knoppix to back up you important data. Then just wipe and re-install xp.

Ive had to do this a number of times and tbh its never that bad. It has always been possible for me to get back any programs that I may have lost in the process and theres nothing better than a fresh install of xp. Boots mega fast and shuts down even quicker!

I would also advise making a partition on the drive if you do reinstall. Put all of your docs into one partition and that way if you ever have to reinstall again you will only lose your programs. I did this and I had to reinstall a couple of weeks ago. Made the job much handier!

Hopefully it wont come to this but if it does, partitioning the drive will be a godsend, especially if you ever need to reinstall again!

Basq

Cheers for the advice, Gobby!

The swapping of drives could be a nightmare, as it's a laptop.

Unfortunately, i have all but 8MB of unpartitioned space on my current drive. I really don't wanna lose any data, so any chance i could re-install XP on the existing partition it's installed on? Probably not the best way to go about doing things! Not too sure about creating partitions and backing stuff up onto them! Got an online guide to doing it handy?

As for trying to get a picture of the error: i tried my hardest and it was an absolute nightmare. Here (2.7MB) is a Quicktime Movie of the computer starting up and going into the BSOD. Pretty much impossible to get anything from that quick flash but i'll keep trying!

Chad ghostal

Ok,
i know this sucks but its the best i could do with limited resources.. .


from what i can make out it says

" [*] has been detected and windows has been shut down to [*] [*] [*] your computer"

"If this is the first time you've seen this error [*] [*] [restart your]? computer
[********]"

"[*****} on your computer, remove any newly installed [*] hard drives or hard drive installers"
... .......



thats about all i could figure out...

so i figure windows seems to think its a hardware error and you should check nothing came loose during your reinstall (as unlikely as it may be)
make sure you have hard drive drivers installed (e.g. special sata drivers or something..?)..
remove any h/w you dont need ??
replace any basic h/w ...
try booting up with another hard drive??

Basq

Chad ghostal wrote:

" [*] has been detected and windows has been shut down to [*] [*] [*] your computer"

"If this is the first time you've seen this error [*] [*] [restart your]? computer
[********]"

"[*****} on your computer, remove any newly installed [*] hard drives or hard drive installers"
... .......



thats about all i could figure out...

so i figure windows seems to think its a hardware error and you should check nothing came loose during your reinstall (as unlikely as it may be)
make sure you have hard drive drivers installed (e.g. special sata drivers or something..?)..
remove any h/w you dont need ??
replace any basic h/w ...
try booting up with another hard drive??

Cheers for that... much appreciated! That flash of the BSOD is impossible to take a photo of... it almost looks like in the MOV that it doesn't get time to display the bottom half of it, it just restarts instantly.

Doubtful anything came loose... as the laptop was securely positioned on top of a desk.

I took out the USB mouse (the only real piece of external h/w) before i performed the second repair.

And booting from another drive? Got no laptop / external drives lying around.

I am pretty stumped as what to do right now! Cheers for the suggestions chad anyways.

Chad ghostal

For the sake of just suggesting everything..

you could order ->
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=103373&cks=PRL
and connect it to your/someone elses pc..
if the files are really important.

Basq

Chad ghostal wrote:

For the sake of just suggesting everything..

you could order ->
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=103373&cks=PRL
and connect it to your/someone elses pc..
if the files are really important.

Possibly... but what about performing a re-installation of XP onto the same partition should only overwrite the Windows folder (and not anything else contained elsewhere on the C:\).

If i perform a re-installation of the OS onto the same partition (for example, in 'C:\Win' instead of 'C:\Windows') and edit the boot.ini file to only prompt for the newly installed version in 'C:\Win' and then delete 'C:\Windows' folder... things should be alright providing no essential files are stored in anywhere in 'C:\Windows'

And if that re-installation doesn't work.. i should go about investigating into some sort of Data Recovery (using Chad Ghostal's advice more than likely) and format my hard drive.

Anyone think this is a feasible option?

Goldstein

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again follow these steps.

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers...

Technical information:

STOP: ???????????

---

That's the bit you need (After "STOP:")

Longshots but there's a few things you could try from the recovery console:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/r_c_cmds.htm

CHKDSK C: /r, FIXBOOT C: and FIXMBR might be worth a try.

Basq

Goldstein wrote:

That's the bit you need (After "STOP:")

Longshots but there's a few things you could try from the recovery console:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/r_c_cmds.htm

CHKDSK C: /r, FIXBOOT C: and FIXMBR might be worth a try.

Thanks for that.

Yeah... as i said above, the bit below "STOP" is near impossible to get. Looking at the JPEG's and MOV's i've tried to capture, it's almost like it doesn't get time to show the full message!

Attempted to use FIXBOOT C: already and it didn't do anything to help!

Will try a CHKDSK C: and if i get no errors after that, will try FIXMBR.

weeder

Chad ghostal wrote:

Would there be any point in re-trying repair install (a couple of times) ? i mean it cant get any worse ...

If that fails, you could always put the disk in someone elses computer and getting your files off it..

or using a linux live cd, to create a partition and put your stuff there.. .
im not sure of any non-destructive partitioning tools in linux, but im sure there must be one..
or use the live cd to burn your files onto dvd's (if you have a dvd burner)

sorry couldnt be more help, that sucks
good luck.

using the partition manager built into mandrake live cd resiz C:\ and make a new fat partition(ntfs and linux dont mix to well(read only))then move all your files onto new partition and now you can boot with xp cd and formatC:\ and install windows to C:\

Basq

Cheers for the help everyone!

Got it pretty much sorted now though...

Installed a second version of XP onto the same partition under 'C:\WIN' . I installed it to a new folder as overwriting my previous version of the OS in 'C:\Windows' would overwrite the 'My Documents' folder which is where a lot of my essential stuff was located. After that, i logged onto XP successfully under this new version of the OS.

Am now in the process of transferring all my important stuff to another computer. After that is complete, will format the drive on the laptop completely. Then reinstall a fresh version of XP and then transfer all my important stuff back over to the newly formatted drive.

Last time i ever do a repair on XP again!! :rolleyes:

Cheers again for the help all!

gobby

Thats great.

Dont forget what I said about partitioning when you are reinstalling xp! Could save you from future headaches.

Basq

gobby wrote:

Thats great.

Dont forget what I said about partitioning when you are reinstalling xp! Could save you from future headaches.

Yeah... will definantly take your advice about putting my important files into one partition. Makes sense, to be honest!

It was madness to see one massive partition and a whole 8MB of unpartitioned space when i went about re-installing XP.

Anyways, thanks again all for the advice! What an absolute nightmare!