Windows XP 'Blue Screen of Death'

PaulBoy

PaulBoy

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A mate is having problems with his Dell desktop which will not load XP & just displays a 'blue screen of death' - I talked him through several boot up options trying the 'last known good configuration' etc but it's not having any of it - Next I got him to try booting with XP CD in the drive & got him into the 'Setup' menu - When he tried to 'Repair' the existing XP configuration the procedure started but froze (tried a few times but froze every time) - He was reluctant to try a fresh installation of XP as he has data on the hard drive he does not want to lose (is this correct or is there a way to do a fresh install without losing existing files etc?)
So where can he go from here? - It sounds to me like his hard drive is failing or is it just a software issue? Can we check the integrity of his hard drive without having internet access? - Is an external hard drive (USB) any use in these circumstances?
Thanks in anticipation ... Paul
 
rather than get into anything overly technical, if you've got a 2nd hard drive, install xp on there and then use the current drive as a secondary to grab the files off
 
This is why you should never use 'my documents' folders to store any data - it's part of the OS and you loose everything there if you re-install the OS. In fact you shouldn't store any of your data on the C: drive - just keep it for programmes. Sorry I can't suggest what might help here.
 
Get a new HDD for the computer, install XP then use something like this to connect the old drive and get any files needed off of it. Or just plug it on to a secondary IDE/ sata once the new install is working.

I bought one of those devices to use a CD drive easily with my netbook and it is brilliant for temporary connection to any old drives that are laying around.
 
you can go alittle futher into the setup as well and when widnows gets to the "searching for previous versions on windows" it will pickup the installation (C:) if you repair from there it would iinstall a fresh copy over the top of whats already there and save any data without formatting

dont this at work a couple of times just to get the PC running again

sounds like the drive is on its way though, i would say get two drives, one for OS and one for storage
 
Pretty much agree with the above. I have rescued a dell laptop a few years ago by running the repair console from an XP disc, but you need to know the command lines used. Basically, I ran a check and repair disc and repaired MBR. This sorted it out long enough to get the data off it and get new HD in there, but frankly its easier and less risky with a desktop to fit a new HD and then plug in the old one as a slave or in a caddy to recover the data.
 
PaulBoy said:
A mate is having problems with his Dell desktop which will not load XP & just displays a 'blue screen of death' - I talked him through several boot up options trying the 'last known good configuration' etc but it's not having any of it - Next I got him to try booting with XP CD in the drive & got him into the 'Setup' menu - When he tried to 'Repair' the existing XP configuration the procedure started but froze (tried a few times but froze every time) - He was reluctant to try a fresh installation of XP as he has data on the hard drive he does not want to lose (is this correct or is there a way to do a fresh install without losing existing files etc?)
So where can he go from here? - It sounds to me like his hard drive is failing or is it just a software issue? Can we check the integrity of his hard drive without having internet access? - Is an external hard drive (USB) any use in these circumstances?
Thanks in anticipation ... Paul
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Will the PC bootup in SAFE MODE, also has he install anything new thats plugged into the PC ie Printer if so ask him to unplug everything but the monitor keyboard and mouse and then try to boot the PC.

Just a few other options for you to try if you havnt already. Good Luck
 
Thanks everyone :thumbs: - Pretty much what I expected to hear but I just wanted to check I wasn't missing something obvious :thinking:
The PC in question is 3 or 4 years old so he won't want to spend too much on it so a 80gb or 160gb cheapie hard drive will do nicely to sort him out
Cheers
Paul
 
What is the message on the BSOD?
 
Theres normally 2 codes on a BSOD message, its normally like 0x000blahblah - get them codes and bang em into google and see what the error code corresponds too - it could possibly be something like dodgy ram.
 
If it's software related a reinstall should do the trick.

You could always take out the HDD and connect it to another computer to allow any data files to be copied off.

The drive could then be put back in and windows safely reinstalled.
 
If a reinstall does not work it's most likely the memory or the graphics card causing the problems.

I'd check these are both fitted properly before reinstalling.
 
A bit of an update that might assist others in the future - I got my mate's Dell off him & decided to try & recover the data from it before replacing the hard drive - I configured his drive as a slave & hooked it up to my desktop PC - As soon as it booted up the system advised of some errors on the "E" drive (my mate's hard drive) and ran Chkdsk which found & repaired some errors - When XP loaded I was able to view all the files on his hard drive & copied them - I then set up his drive as master again & put it back into his Dell & the PC booted up straight away & Win XP runs perfectly! - Saved me a lot of time & my mate load of money :thumbs:
Cheers
Paul
 
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