Blue Screen Of Death - repair installation?

[zurch1818]

Once again, I am looking to get some computer advice. My brother's girlfriend's computer will go to the blue screen of death each time it starts up. Booting up in safe mode results in the same problem. I'm not sure when it was backed up last either. Because of this, I am kind of hesitant to do anything with it (I have totaled a fair share of computers in my day). Now my first recommendation was to do a system restore, but it is impossible to get to a point where you can run this. To make things worse, the computer was bought at best buy, so it did not come with a cd of vista.

 

So anyways, I was looking online to see what her options were and I found this site. I'm pretty sure her computer has a recovery partition on it, so this should work. I made the cd and I partially tested it out on my computer. After booting from this disc, running a repair installation was an option for me, so this cd looks legitimate, but I just don't 100% trust it. Has anyone had or heard about this cd successfully working? Also, so I don't mess anything up, does doing a "repair installation" just fix the windows directory and keep all other files intact? I pretty sure it does, but I want to be confident. Thanks for the help.

[Baldkin]

Choosing the repair option won't delete any additional files or installs that you put on the PC.

 

It will only mess with Windows files.

[Nottso]

Try clearing the CMOS. Usually done with a jumper. You should be able to find the appropriate instructions for her specific mb on the net somewhere.

[1992casey]

I'd tend to worry about the integrity of the recovery disk simply because I'd wonder if the cause of the blue screen did anything to the recovery partition. I recently advised one of my friends to see about ordering a recovery disk from her computer's manufacturer because her machine was so loaded with malware that one of her gurus recommended reformatting and reinstalling everything.

 

The lesson: make your recovery disks right after taking the computer out of the box (like the directions tell you to do http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif).

[zurch1818]

Thanks for the advice all. Next weekend I will try some of these suggestions out. Good point Casey about the partition being affected. My computer is just about identical to hers. Both of them are Gateways and have Vista 64 bit. My copy of the os is working just fine...never had any troubles. Will the recovery disc I burned for my computer work on hers?

[DSFastball55]

With Windows XP, you can use any recovery disk as long as it's the same version. As long as you have the cd-key that is on the license sticker you should be fine. I believe it's the same with Vista. As for a repair installation, I've done this many times and all it does is replace system files, it doesnt mess with anything else so you shouldnt lose any data.

However it is possible to do a manual system restore (not reinstallation) by booting up you machine with Knoppix or any other bootable cd/dvd. AVG has a free one at http://www.avg.com/ie-en/avg-rescue-cd. All you have to do is replace the registry files with the backed up files in system restore and the machine should then boot (unless it's a hardware problem, what's the exact bluescreen error?). I've done it many times with XP, never yet with Vista but it should work. This link tells you how to do it in XP, can't find a link for Vista. However I think it's much easier to use the linux gui rather than command line as this instructs. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545. This process does exactly what Sytem Restore does, without having to boot up.

[zurch1818]

After looking at her computer, I have come to the conclusion that her computer is extremely messed up. I don't remember what the blue screen error when it tries to boot up normally. I think it might have been something winlog, but I'm not sure. But when you try to boot up in safe mode, it freezes when it lists the files that are starting up.

 

As opposed to what I thought earlier, a vista CD did come with the computer. But when I tried to load that cd upon boot up, it would load some of the windows files before going back into the blue screen of death. Now I did take a screen shot of this. It says something about mismanaging PTEs, something way beyond my expertise. I think it might be a hardware problem now rather than a vista problem. http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk3/weshelmsfan/IMG_4109.jpg

 

Now I did put her hard drive in my computer and we did back up all of the files that needed to get backed up. I should have taken my hard drive out to see if it would boot off my computer's hardware, but I didn't. Unless there is some magical quick fix, I am recommending to just format the hard drive and starting over. Does anyone else have any better options?

[Baldkin]

Did she recently install a new video card? The error that you posted quite often is an issue with nvidia graphics cards & conflicting drivers that, for some reason comes up as a PTE error in Vista.

 

Honestly, a full reinstall may solve the problem, but if you can't even load the vista CD....

[zurch1818]

She said it was fine when she went to class and when she came back...it was looping. Her best guess is it happened during a Windows update, but I have a tough time believing that. I am near 100 percent certain that she doesn't even have a graphics card. She is just using the onboard one on her mb. If it wasn't clear enough, that blue screen that I took a picture of only came up when the vista cd was in the drive. Otherwise it was something like winlog. I really wish I remembered what it was.

 

Could clearing the CMOS fix this? I'm not sure what that is and really didn't have a whole lot of time this weekend to really get my hands dirty. The main thing was to get the files backed up.

[MadScientist]

Since the computer won't boot at all, pull the hard drive and put it in another machine to copy the files. Since you can't even boot from a DVD, it's likely a hardware problem. When you have the machine open, you can re-seat the ram and any cards, blow out the dust, etc. If the machine has more than one RAM module, you could try removing them one at a time to see if that gets it to boot.