IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
STOP: 0×1000000a (0×49df8170, 0×00000002, 0×00000000, 0×804d9afa)

In most cases, “IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL” either means an incompatible or corrupt driver or bad RAM. I know this from past experience but don’t be afraid to Google it because you cant remember everything.
I was obviously unable to do anything further now that the computer had BSOD’d so I rebooted it and tried to see whether I could get into safe mode and luckily for me, I could. This strengthened the argument that this blue screen is probably due to a corrupt or incompatible driver since Windows doesn’t load many drivers in Safe Mode and bad RAM would probably continue to cause problems even in Safe Mode.

This job was made a little tougher because due to the maximum resolution of the screen I was working on, the information that tells me what driver caused the blue screen was either cut off or simply not there.

So, I loaded the tool BlueScreenView which we have featured as a Repair Tool of the Week in the past and it showed me all of the previous Windows crash dumps this computer has generated and the information they contain.

I chose the most recent crash dump and in the lower pane the application had highlighted the two files that caused the crash. One was “ntoskrnl.exe” which is a key system file. The other one was “w22n51.sys” which is an Intel wireless network driver and is most likely the cause of our problem.

Armed with this new knowledge, I closed BlueScreenView and opened up another tool we have featured here called Autoruns. Autoruns will show the operator all of the files that will start with Windows such as services, applications and of course – drivers.
I went to the “Drivers” tab and scrolled down until found the offending wireless driver and deselected it. This way, it will no longer load when Windows starts and hopefully not cause a blue screen of death.

I actually tried to uninstall these Intel wireless drivers from within safe mode using the “Add/Remove Programs” section. However, the uninstaller makes use of the “Windows Installer” service which doesn’t run in safe mode and while you can do a little registry tweak to get it running (which I tried), it still wouldn’t uninstall.

I rebooted into normal Windows and it powered up to the desktop without any problems now that the offending driver no longer loads up. I went back into “Add/Remove Programs” and removed the old drivers in the proper manner (now that I could) and rebooted the computer.

I then visited the laptop manufacturers site using its wired connection and downloaded the latest wireless drivers for the computer which were about 3 years newer than the previous drivers. My guess was that either the driver had become corrupted or a new Windows update was incompatible with it. In either case, reinstalling the drivers should fix the corruption or perhaps the manufacturer has fixed the compatibly problem in the last 3 years..

Once I installed the new drivers, I connected the laptop to the clients wireless network and browsed around a few websites. Everything seemed to work and I rebooted again for good measure (should the current drivers also cause a BSOD) and everything seems to be working fine. I rebooted the computer once more and ran Memtest86 (which is on UBCD) for about 5 minutes to be certain it wasn’t caused by bad RAM. Memtest86+ will read and write to the RAM to find problems and while a proper test should be run for hours, I have found that most RAM that is bad enough to stop Windows from booting will fail the test within the first 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, I was confident that the issue was definitely the wireless driver and not the RAM.
I was happy, the client was happy, so I got paid and went back to the office. The End.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

In The Trenches – Troubleshooting a Blue Screen of Death

It’s not secret that business customers bring in more money than residential. But, in order to win over some businesses, you need to be familiar with some of the operating systems they use. For larger shops and those with Enterprise level experience, this is second nature. For those stating out, however, it can be something that scares even the most seasoned small-time business owner.


What Is A Server?
A lot of people hear “Server” and instantly freeze. They see it as some scary thing that’s super-expensive and something to stay away from. Most servers that small shop owners will work on will be of the Small Business Server (SBS) variety. While small, these stinkers are powerful by having a handful of applications pre-installed. For the purpose of being modern and updated, I’ll focus on SBS 2008. Here are the two (2) versions of SBS 2008 and their default software packages:

• SBS 2008 Standard Edition: Contains the following software packages as a pre-installation, 1 wizard, install: Exchange, SharePoint WSS & IIS, Forefront Security for Exchange and Office Live Small Biz.
• SBS 2008 Premium Edition: Contains everything from above, but also has SQL Server 2008, Standard Edition for small businesses.

In my experience, nearly all small businesses will use SBS 2008, Standard Edition (at least those that use SBS). Although, there are a few companies here and there that use database driven applications or custom-coded applications inside MSFT Access, you typically won’t see Premium.

SBS is typically not used by the larger end of mid-sized businesses since it will only support up to 75 users. With that many users on one SBS Server, you’ll probably receive complaints of the server being slow.

Requirements
The requirements for SBS 2008 are pretty cut and dry:

• Processor: x64 Single-Core 2GHz or higher OR a Dual-Core 1.5GHz or faster.
• Memory: 4GB, at the minimum
• Disk Space: 60GB in whatever configuration you like.

For actual business use, I’ve learned over the years that the best thing to do is build up an 80GB (or so) partition for the OS to use, in a RAID 1 configuration. All the storage for applications and such should be stored some type of redundant drive configuration like RAID 5 or 10. Your primary goal in this type of configuration is to ensure that the OS has no problems. Your secondary goal is to ensure that your data and storage remains in-tact, but in a faster RAID set for better access. It is always recommended to use Hardware RAID with a battery backup, if you’re custom-building a server for a client.

To test out installs, if you’d like to practice on a decent, but inexpensive server, I’d recommend going with a barebone server off one of the online retailer websites. I put together a dual, Quad-Core XEON server with one 80GB array for the OS and 1 300GB RAID 10 array for data and 12GB of memory for about $1200, a year ago. But, a decent 64-bit home computer will work as well.

Installing SBS 2008
So, now we know what SBS 2008 can do, we know what hardware it runs on, but what about installing it? Some may think that it’s just like installing Server 2008 Standard, which is a bit like installing Vista. It’s not…

SBS 2008 does something out of the box that other Server installs doesn’t. It’s sets up all the programs and Active Directory, all during the initial install. There are two methods to this:

• Attended install. This means that you walk your way through the install process, answering all the questions and prompts, all while clicking “Next” over and over again while it installs.
• Unattended install, with answer file. If you install these servers often, you may want to use this option. It allows you to create the responses to the prompts so that you don’t have to click Next over and over again. You can mix the Unattended, but keep the prompts as well – this is called creating an Answer File. You are required to create an Answer File if you are joining the SBS server to an existing Domain.

There is a downfall to the “install everything at once” option. It’s VERY hard to change the domain name, computer name and other options after you have set the server up, due to the amount of programs installed. It is highly recommended that you have your client think of what they want the domain and computer name to be before you start the install since clients can be picky about what to name the domain and computer. It is also recommended that you print off the screen with the domain and computer name so you can have the client sign off on the options since it’s so hard to change the info. It’s so hard to change these options, in fact, that Microsoft pretty much says it can’t be done.

The other thing is, after everything is installed, be prepared for that smokin’ fast server to turn into a slow-as-molasses server. You’ve got to remember that all those applications need to start-up and initialize when Windows starts up. I’ve seen some servers take as long as 20 minutes to do a full restart. This can be very painful when you’re troubleshooting and need to perform many restarts. Fortunately, Windows 2008 requires less restarts than Server 2003 – in most instances. But, at the same time, you need to let your client know why the server can seem slow at times otherwise they can assume that it’s broke and you broke it.

But Wait, There’s More
I could go on to show you each step and each program, but are other stories for later. If you’re interested in working on servers, I’d recommend that you at least get yourself a cheaper Enterprise Class server to get familiar with the hardware aspect. For software, look into the Microsoft Technet subscription where you can get licensed programs for testing and learning. These two options can help you fill the downtime in your shop to enhance your offerings to clients.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

Working With Small Business Server 2008

“They’ve [Microsoft] created a new site to support Windows 7 and are offering IT professionals a candid look into the product decisions they’ve made, as well as genuine insight from the engineers themselves. The site will serve as an entirely new forum for Microsoft to interact with the community and actively join the conversation surrounding Windows 7. They’re looking to hear any opinions, answer any questions, and get some real insight from their users on how to make Windows 7 as good as possible. “

At the moment, the website is mostly being used as an advertising tool for Windows 7 where IT Professionals and Microsoft developers talk about how great Windows 7 is. Personally, I am not interested in seeing the commercials but what I am interested in is giving Technicians like ourselves who have seen the worst of Windows, the ability to give the Microsoft developers some feedback on Windows 7 and help make it a better product.


There are a handful of videos on the site you can watch and once you select the “Watch Video” link of a certain person, you are able to post a comment directly to that person. I have been looking at the past comments are they are responding to them.

The people you would want to listen to and leave feedback for are:

Gabriel Aui – Microsoft, Director of Program Management
Sharif Farag – Microsoft, Senior Lead Program Manager
Jon Deveau – Microsoft, Senior VP Core Operating System
Mark Russinovich – Microsoft, Technical Fellow.

So, if you have tried Windows 7 (and if you haven’t, you can download the release candidate from here), watch their videos and leave some feedback. The whole intention of this site and the reason why I was contacted is for them to “hear any opinions, answer any questions, and get some real insight from their users on how to make Windows 7 as good as possible.”. So lets give them just that.

Of course, post intelligently and respectfully as if they were paying you to professionally consult for them.

The sites URL is: http://www.TalkingAboutWindows.com

The site requires the Microsoft Silverlight plugin to run (Microsoft’s equivalent to Flash)

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

Technibble Readers, Lets Talk to the Microsoft Developers

The question was raised in the Technibble forums about how should we deal with computers that have pirate software on them and there were many different answers. Some said they will flat out refuse to work on a computer that has pirate software on it. Others said its none of our business what a client does with their own machine and will work on it anyway.

Some said they will tell the client that they have pirated software to make them aware of it, but not lecture. Others will recommend freeware alternatives in their place.

Another issue is, what if your competitor is installing pirate copies of Windows on the computers he is selling? Should you report them since they have the price advantage and leave yourself open to revenge tactics? or just let them kill themselves off as more customers find out their copies of Windows are pirate and cannot use them once Windows Genuine Advantage is installed?

What would you do? Would you flat out refuse to work on the machine? Turn a blind eye? Tell them and work on it anyway? Is it our responsibility to tell the client?

How would you deal with a competitor who was selling computers with pirated copies of Windows? Drop us a comment.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

Clients with Pirate Software: Should We Do Anything About It?

I touched on the topic a little bit in an old article about how to determine what type of license key/cd you have but didn’t go into it very deeply. In this article, I will tell you the differences between each Windows XP license in greater detail.

OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)
OEM licenses for Windows XP are generally cheaper to buy than the retail version but OEM’s must be sold in conjunction with internal computer hardware. Typically, you will see OEM copies of Windows XP sold with new computers.
OEM copies usually come in a flat, shrink wrapped paper CD holder with a cardboard backing and will say something like “Only for distribution with a new PC” on it. Additionally, OEM versions are intended to be supported by the system manufacturer rather than Microsoft.

Do not sell OEM copies of XP without internal hardware like a motherboard or hard drive. Microsoft do pursue this and often bait computer businesses so they can fine them.

A OEM copy of Windows XP will only accept OEM Windows license keys.

Branded
If the disk is branded with a brand name like HP, Compaq or Dell it is most likely a OEM copy. The Windows XP case will say something like “For use on new (brand name) computers only” and the license sticker will usually have the brand name of the manufacturer on it. Other than the visual differences on the CD, license sticker and the “System Properties” area of the computer; They are identical to OEM copies.

Retail
There are two licences for Retail versions of Windows XP. One is “Upgrade” and the other is “Full Purchase Product (FPP)”.
Retail versions of Windows XP are often sold at big box computer stores where anyone can buy one off the shelf. The Full Purchase Product usually cost more than OEM versions and you usually don’t get a sticker to put on the computer case. Instead, they provide a sticker remains on the Windows XP CD case. Microsoft only provides 90 days of support for the retail version.

To use the “Upgrade” version, you must have a working version of Windows to upgrade from. For XP Home it can only be Windows 98, 98 Second Edition or Millennium Edition. For XP Professional it can only be Windows 98, 98 SE, ME, NT or 2000 Professional.

A Windows XP OEM CD key will not work with a Retail CD and vice versa.

Volume License
Volume License versions of Windows XP are provided to businesses under a purchase agreement with Microsoft. Volume Licenses use “Volume License Keys (VLK)” and provide the ability to use a single key for multiple systems and it does not require activation for each computer.

Of course, this lead to mass piracy and most pirate versions you will find are most likely be a Volume License version. However, when installing Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2, it checks your license against a known database of pirate Volume License keys and will not install the service pack if it detects the key to be pirate.

There are three Volume License flavors: Open License, Select License and Enterprise Agreement. You can be an Open License customer with as few as 5 licenses. Select and Enterprise require at least 250 desktops each.

There are versions of Windows XP that are known as a “Corporate Licenses”. These still fall under the same rules as a Volume License.
I have heard that Corporate Licenses needs to be activated once, but only once. Meaning you must activate it on the first computer you install it on, but you can then install it on hundreds more without activation. However, I haven’t been able to confirm this.

Volume License keys are not interchangeable with Retail or OEM versions of Windows XP.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

Understanding the Different Windows XP Licenses

In this article, I’ll show you an easy way to create your own virtual machine.

A Virtual machine software is an application that emulates real hardware. A software based test PC if you will. This allows me to install Windows XP as I normally would on a real PC, but within the virtual machine software. Basically, I could run a copy of Windows XP inside my main Windows XP install that I use day to day.

To create a virtual machine, we need to install a Virtual Machine Player. There is a great free one called “VM Ware Player” which you can download here (or here if you want to skip the survey stuff, but it may be an older version).

Once you have downloaded and installed the player we need to create a virtual machine environment. You can easily do this by visiting EasyVMX.com.

Once at the Easy VMX site, we need to fill in some options. For this example I am going to create a Windows Vista virtual machine that I can run within my Windows XP.

Step 1 – Virtual Machine Name
I am going to set my virtual machine name as “Vista”. You can call it whatever you want but for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to just call mine Vista.

Step 2 – Choose an Operating System
Now I need to choose what operating system I am going to install from the list. As you can see there are many different operating systems that you can install. In this case, I will choose the 32bit version of Vista.

Step 3 – Virtual Machine Memory Size
Now we need to choose the Virtual machines memory size. This is basically setting how much RAM your emulated hardware has. This setting will use up your real RAM so since my real machine has 2 gigs of RAM, I’m going to allocate 1 gig to my virtual machine.
Keep in mind, although this virtual machine is emulating hardware, the fake hardware must meet the system requirements of what you are installing. In this example, 1 gig should still be enough for Vista.

Step 4 – Virtual Machine Disk Size
Now we need to choose the virtual machine disk size. This is how big the emulated operating system’s hard drive will be. If I set this to 12 gig and I installed Vista, Vista will show a 12 gig harddrive in the “My Computer” area. As I said before, the emulated machine must meet the system requirements of what you are installing. Vista requires 7 gig or more so I am going to choose 12 gig which will be enough to install Vista and also give us a little breathing room. Remember, if you use 12gig of space in your virtual machine, it will use 12gig of space on your real machine.

Step 5 – Mount ISO (optional)
This part is optional. It allows you to make the virtual machine think you have a CD in the drive when it is really just an ISO. If you want to run an ISO, put the ISO file in the same location the files you are about to download are going to be and put in the files name like “VistaCD.iso”

If you don’t fill in this part, the Virtual Machine will use your real CD rom as a boot device to check for a bootable CD and if you have a real Vista CD in there, it’ll start the installation process.

Step 6 – Create Virtual Machine
Your setup should look something like this:

Once your done, click the “Create Virtual Machine” button and it’ll take you to the next page where there is a download link for your virtual machine. Save it somewhere you’ll remember and extract the file.

Step 7 – Launch Your Virtual Machine
Double click on the .VMX file and your virtual machine environment will launch. You can also open VMWare Player, go to Open and navigate to the VMX file. If you have a CD in your drive or if you specified an ISO file earlier it’ll try to launch off that. In this example, I’m using a physical Vista CD.

Step 8 – Installing an OS
If the Operating Systems CD is bootable, it should have been detected during bootup. If you are installing XP you’ll need to click on the VMWare screen to bring it to focus and press a button on the keyboard when it says “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD..” (or something similar). On my Vista install, I didn’t need to click anything.

It started up and begun the installation process. As you can see, the installer sees a 12 gig drive that I specified earlier so I click Next and let it go though the install process.

Finished!
Now we have a Vista virtual machine. That’s all there is to it.
If you like, make a copy of the virtual machine folder to keep as a clean version. That way, you can install viruses and all sorts of things and then when you are done, delete the virus ridden one and make a copy of the clean one.

Be sure to shut down the virtual machine OS properly because if you just close VMWare Player, it leaves a massive hibernation file on the hard drive.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

An Easy Way to Create a Virtual Machine

I currently own an older edition and still refer to it regularly. The editions are updated every couple of years and the most recent edition has added the following:

• Deep coverage of the new Core 2 (8th gen or “886″) processors, featuring the new “Core Microarchitecture”
• Cutting edge coverage of quad-core desktop (Kentsfield) processor versions
• Detailed coverage of AMD’s Socket AM2 processors
• Coverage of evolutionary changes in chipsets, including new versions of Intel’s 9xx series chipsets and new 3x series Intel chipsets; coverage of new chipsets from Nvidia, VIA, and SiS has also been added
• Coverage of the new DTX and Mini-DTX motherboard form factors from the newly formed alliance between AMD and ATI
• Beefed-up coverage of Blu-ray and HD-DVD drives/players
• Extensive coverage of new GPUs in addition to heavy-duty coverage of SLI and Crossfire
• Building a PC from scratch–from assembling the hardware to BIOS setup and installing Microsoft Windows XP or Vista

If you are a computer technician you need this book. You can get it over at Amazon for $37.79.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

Almost Eliminate the Need To Google

• Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
• Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE
• Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate

In most cases, Safe mode wont work either. The uniform approach to fixing this is by getting into the Windows XP repair console and manually replacing the file with the copy that was created when the system was first installed. However, any software or drivers (depending on whether it was SOFTWARE or SYSTEM that failed) that was installed after that point may not work since the registries for them hadnt been installed back then.

Here is my method that I have been using to fix this. It reverts the registry to only a few days earlier rather than back to when Windows was first installed.

Note: You will need access to a working computer to create a boot CD. You will also need a fairly good knowledge of computers, BIOS and registry editing in order to do this. This article is aimed towards computer technicians.

1. If you don’t have it already, download UBCD4Win using one of the mirrors here. If you do already have it on a CD, skip to step 3.

To run it, create an ISO and burn it to CD you can read the instructions here. I wont write the instructions here because the ones on the previous link are better and this article is more targeted at computer technicians and most of them already have this CD.

2. Once the CD has been created, goto the BIOS and make sure your CDRom is set as the first boot device. Start up the computer with UBCD4Win in the CDRom and you will have some boot options. Choose the “Launch The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows” option.

It will take a few minutes to load fully, but when it does you should see a Windows XP like interface like in the picture below:

3. In the UBCD4Win interface, goto Start > Programs > Registry Tools > Registry Restore Wizard.

4.The program will then ask you which Windows registry you want to repair. In most cases, it’ll be C:\Windows. Choose the copy of Windows you want to repair and press Next.

5. Choose “Fix the system registry to that of a previous state” and Press Next.

6. You should now see a list registry restore points. Choose one with a date a few days before the issue first occured.

7. Wait a few seconds for it to restore the registry. Press Finish and restart the computer. The issue should now be fixed. If not, it may be a sign of a greater issue like hard drive damage.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

How To Fix The Windows Registry Hive Error

The new features are:

Product-Keyless Install Option – Similar to the Windows Vista installer, you now have the option to not enter the product key when installing the operating system.

“Black Hole” Router Detection Algorithm – XP gains the ability to detect and ignore network routers that incorrectly drop packets. This too, is a Vista feature.

Network Access Protection Compatibility – This feature allows Windows XP to interact with the NAP feature in Windows Server 2008.

Kernal Mode Cryptographics Module – According to Microsoft, this is a new kernel module that “encapsulates several different cryptographic algorithms”.

CredSSP Security Service Provider – Enables an application to delegate the users credentials from the Client to target Server.

Descriptive Security Options User Interface- The Security Options control panel in SP3 now has more descriptive text to explain the settings and prevent incorrect configuration.

Enhanced Security for Administrator and Service policy entries- In System Center Essentials under SP3, Administrator and Service entries will be present by default on any new instance of policy.

What has been taken out:
Due to legal issues, the option for the address bar in the taskbar has been removed. However, there is a third party application to bring it back which you can download here.

What fixes are included in XP SP3:
Microsoft has posted a big list of all the fixes that are included in Service Pack 3 which you can see here.
However, SP3 does not contain any security updates for Windows Media Player 10.

Downloading Service Pack 3:

Windows XP Service Pack 3 stand-alone version
Windows XP Service Pack 3 Checked Build Network Installation Package
Windows XP Service Pack 3 MUI Pack Update
Windows XP Service Pack 3 CD Image (iso)

Important information you should know:

SP3 is for x86 editions of Windows XP only. The 64 bit versions of Windows XP were serviced by the Windows Server 2003 SP2 update which you can obtain here.

SP3 is cumulative, so you can install SP3 on top of Windows XP SP1 or SP2.

SP3 will run on any edition of Windows XP SP1 or SP2. This includes Media Center Edition. The only exceptions are embedded editions of Windows XP.

SP3 is deployable using Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 or many third party solutions since the process has not fundamentally changed.

SP3 is slipstream-able.

Windows XP Problems & Solutions

One of the members on the Technibble forums started a great thread for Service Pack 3 problems and solutions which you can check out here.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Resources for Computer Technicians

Anyway, most of the time this “automatically restart” option isn’t a problem for computer technicians because we can just log into Windows Safe Mode (F8) and turn it off by doing the following:

Right Click on “My Computer” and goto “Properties”. Then goto the “Advanced” tab and under the headline “Startup and Recovery”, press the “Settings” button. Untick the “Automatically Restart” box and press Ok.

However, in this instance Safe Mode wouldn’t start up either. In most cases if you press F8 after a BSOD crash you will have the option “Disable Automatic Restart”. I wasn’t getting that either. So here is my way to turn off Automatic Restart.

Note: You will need access to a working computer to do these steps. You will also need a fairly good knowledge of computers, BIOS and registry editing in order to do this. This article is aimed towards computer technicians.

1. If you don’t have it already, download UBCD4Win using one of the mirrors here. To run it, create an ISO and burn it to CD you can read the instructions here. I wont write the instructions here because the ones on the previous link are better and this article is more targeted at computer technicians and most of them already have this CD.

2. Once the CD has been created, goto the BIOS and make sure your CDRom is set as the first boot device. Start up the computer with UBCD4Win in the CDRom and you will have some boot options. Choose the “Launch The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows” option.

It will take a few minutes to load fully, but when it does you should see a Windows XP like interface like in the picture below:

3. In the UBCD4Win interface, goto Start > Programs > Registry Tools > RegEdit(Remote)

4. The program will then ask “Do you wish to load remote user profile(s) for scanning?”. Choose Yes.

5. It will then ask you to “Select User Profile”. Choose the main user account. It may be “Administrator” or some other username (but not Local Service, NetworkService or systemprofile). In the instance of the screenshot below, its “Julia”.

6. Now you should see a Window named “Registry Editor” which is identical to the usual “regedit” under Windows. Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CrashControl

7. In here you will find a key named “AutoReboot”. Double click on it to edit its DWORD Value and under “Value Data:” the current value should be 1, which means AutoReboot is turned on. Change this to 0 (which turns it off) and press OK.

8. Restart the machine and try and boot into the normal Windows mode. You should now see the blue screen of death. Write down the “STOP:” number and the error message. You can look for the solution up using Google or check out our article on common blue screen error messages.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

How To Disable Automatic Restart For BSOD If You Are Unable To Get Into Windows