BSOD Help

[xxsilk109xx]

I have a compaq lappy in here that I am having some issues with.
Customer brought it to me and told me he thinks there is a virus on it. I booted it up into safe mode, ran mbam, found 3 things, then ran SAS found nothing. Rebooted. It says its configuring updates 3 of 3 then BSOD comes 0x8E..

So I reboot, get into safe mode, run tdss killer, gmer, and then ran combofix just to be safe. reboot, same thing again.

Next I get back into safe mode, renamed the software distribution folder to .old and then rebooted, same BSOD.

I did a system restore 3 times to three very different restore points, and I still get the exact same BSOD. Funny thing is, when I use the bluescreenview tool it doesnt show ANYTHING at all.

I have tried everything I can think of and have spent hours on google checking things out. I have tested the hard drive and it is fine. And it runs boot disks very well, so I am ruling out the ram.

When the BSOD comes on it does not point to any drivers, it just says
0x0...8E (0xC0...05, 0x81e50759, 0xA666291C)

I am stumped...does anyone have any suggestions before I nuke and pave this damn thing??

oh wanted to add that I have also ran system file check and still have the same result.

 

[shamrin]

That 0x08E error code is useless isn't it?

Couple of shots in the dark here, could you have suddenly an AHCI/IDE problem? Don't know why this might suddenly occur but you might try fiddling the BIOS to compatibility or IDE mode. Since you're not getting anything in the error log, it means you're getting the error REALLY early in the boot.

Another thought is just backing out the last windows update. Can you uninstall it/them from Safe Mode?

sch

 

[xxsilk109xx]

well i have the Vista DART disk so I can remove hotfixes from there. Someone suggested that I do fixboot and fixmbr. Well this gets me into Vista in normal mode and everything looks great and then it BSOD's again..

 

[numnutz]

So it does not blue screen in safe mode? then I would pretty much agree its not hardware but if you have memory to swap and test I would try anyway. I dont believe restoring to a previous date will get rid of a software issue if the user installed something like a printer. I know they usually say no I didnt do anything but did you ask your client if they recall downloading or installing anything around the time the issue started?

 

[numnutz]

if it boots into normal mode now try disabling everything in the startup / msconfig and see if that helps it stay more stable, if so, slowly start turning things back on till u find the one that causes it to blue screen

 

[Tekguy]

if it boots into normal mode now try disabling everything in the startup / msconfig and see if that helps it stay more stable, if so, slowly start turning things back on till u find the one that causes it to blue screen

Also temporarily disable all non-microsoft services from msconfig.

 

[trapped]

Sounds like a failed Vista service pack install. Only solution in my experience is N&P.

 

[PaulRome]

Try uninstalling the 3 Vista updates. I saw one last week where an update screwed up/had compatibility issues with all the comps IR devices.

 

[xxsilk109xx]

I tried all of the suggestions listed above along with others and I did not come up with anything. So I backed up files and N&P'd it. So now its done. Not sure what it was but no matter what I did I could not get it to load into normal mode, only safe mode :/ I already spent to much time on it.

But thanks everyone for the help, it is much appreciated!!