BSOD on Windows XP Startup

[Hercomputers]

Well i can tell you that the HD is error free, ill do those diagnostics right now just be to sure.


H-m-m-m, if you're convinced that the drive is fine but yet you're getting a immediate blue when it boots up.....did you check the bios settings on the machine?

 

[B Trevathan]

First thing you need to do now is check the SMART its a quick and easy thing to do, go ahead and get that done.

Second unplug the hard drive and boot the machine with UBCD not UBCD4Win, this will tell you if any hardware other than the hard drive maybe damaged.

Was "Disable automatic restart on system failure" not available or just didn't work?

After you ran chkdsk /r and it fixed the problems did you run Fixboot and Fixmbr?

 

[14049752]

I just didn't get alot of Hard Drive Problems like these before.

I'm not asking this to be a smart aleck, though everyone will probably read it that way...but...whatever. How long have you been doing this? Hard drive problems are very commonplace. Each and every system that we check-in to our shop for diagnosis always has a general hardware diagnostic ran on it, before we start messing with software. Hardware problems are frequently the cause of blue screens.

You really need to start using, and be aware of when to use, hardware tests. Chkdsk is *NOT* a hardware diagnostic. It's a filesystem utility...anybody that would tell you to use chkdsk to verify the hard drive is misinformed. If the hard drive is failing and you reload windows and got it up and running, that's very much only a temporary fix. You could have only "fixed it" for a matter of weeks, days or hours.

 

[iptech]

did you run Fixboot and Fixmbr?

Be careful with those, soem OEMs such as Dell use non-standard MBR and you can make things worse, besides if it's blue-screening the MBR will not be at fault.

 

[GotaPC]

Well i can tell you that the HD is error free, ill do those diagnostics right now just be to sure.


H-m-m-m, if you're convinced that the drive is fine but yet you're getting a immediate blue when it boots up.....did you check the bios settings on the machine?

First thing you need to do now is check the SMART its a quick and easy thing to do, go ahead and get that done.

Second unplug the hard drive and boot the machine with UBCD not UBCD4Win, this will tell you if any hardware other than the hard drive maybe damaged.

Was "Disable automatic restart on system failure" not available or just didn't work?

After you ran chkdsk /r and it fixed the problems did you run Fixboot and Fixmbr?

I ran a SMART Diagnostics(took about 2 minutes) and a Full HD Diagnostics ( 28 minutes) from UBCD and they both gave me No Errors. That covers why i was so sure about this.Bios Settings are the same , i even reseted them to default and still nothing.

And all the F8 Menu options are there including "Disable automatic restart on system failure" , i tried them but non of them work.

I'm not asking this to be a smart aleck, though everyone will probably read it that way...but...whatever. How long have you been doing this? Hard drive problems are very commonplace. Each and every system that we check-in to our shop for diagnosis always has a general hardware diagnostic ran on it, before we start messing with software. Hardware problems are frequently the cause of blue screens.

You really need to start using, and be aware of when to use, hardware tests. Chkdsk is *NOT* a hardware diagnostic. It's a filesystem utility...anybody that would tell you to use chkdsk to verify the hard drive is misinformed. If the hard drive is failing and you reload windows and got it up and running, that's very much only a temporary fix. You could have only "fixed it" for a matter of weeks, days or hours.

Its all good , your just asking a question. I did this on the side for almost 5 years , i worked as computer tech over seas for almost a year. But i made it as a primary job a few months back , i operate from home and %99 of my customers come through referrals , my work is just perfect and people always recommend me, im planning on moving into a store front soon. Personally i haven't seen a lot of HD Problems , mostly regular errors but thats easy but nothing this bad.I know that Chkdsk is not a diagnostic, i just ran that to see if it would fix the problem.

Thanks to iptech for mentioning that some of the Dell systems use a non-standard MBR because this system is an old Dell so good thing i didn't use the fixmbr.

 

[drewster]

Have you also ran a full RAM diagnostic?

You may also want to run http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

 

[iptech]

Right, now you've finally established that the hard disk is not faulty (at least I think we've got that far), now's the time to start looking for file system errors. Slave the drive onto another machine and start having a poke around, start with Autoruns to see what's trying to load on startup. Given the machine's past history of viruses, I'd be looking for rootkit activity, although it may be something as simple as a badly fragmented drive.

 

[PCERTtimh]

What make and model is this machine?

I have seen this happen to several machines that the bios changes settings from ahci vs ide (sometimes referred to as Native Mode). Oddly enough the BIOS can be automatically changed sporatically if the driver is not native to a particular OS or a certain revision.

I have seen this on both HPs and Dells and it can be fixed a bumber of ways. It may be worth looking into looking in the bios screen of the computer you are working on and seeing if this is the issue.

If the option exist select ahci save config then restart screen, blue screen appears machine restarts. Go back into bios then select ide restart system if BSOD goes away thats the issue.

If able to then get into windows, go under my computer - properties - hardare - device manager - click view - show hidden devices

You can then proceed to the system manufactor's website and see what they advise.

Some say to remove (delete the ahci control) others have an updated driver that can be applied.

May not be the issue this time but something to remember to look into for future BSOD on boot.

 

[GotaPC]

Right, now you've finally established that the hard disk is not faulty (at least I think we've got that far), now's the time to start looking for file system errors. Slave the drive onto another machine and start having a poke around, start with Autoruns to see what's trying to load on startup. Given the machine's past history of viruses, I'd be looking for rootkit activity, although it may be something as simple as a badly fragmented drive.

So apparently after all i did the "Disable automatic restart on system failure" is now working and this is the error code that popped up:

STOP: 0x0000007e (0xc0000005,0xBA248756,0XBA4C342C,0XBA4C3128)

Im pretty sure its a driver issue , the BSOD happens in the middle of the XP Loading screen as soon as the keyboard/mouse lights turn on. I also found an old log that was created back in May and Malicious Software Removal Tool detected a virus inside the system32/driver Folder but it says it was partially cleaned, i took it out of the folder and backed it up , tried running the computer but still nothing. im gonna remove all of the drivers right now and back them up and then repair using the XP CD to replace the needed drivers.

UPDATE: That didn't fix the problem.

 

[iptech]

Time to put into practice your rootkit removal skills.

 

[GotaPC]

Time to put into practice your rootkit removal skills.

I used the following and came up with nothing:

GMER
UnHackME
Hitman Pro

I have also been scanning with the following:
SAS
MSE
Malwarebytes


Im searching with Sophos Anti-Rootkit right now hoping to at least catch something. I know there are more Anti-Rootkit apps but im running Windows 7 64-Bit and they mostly do not support 64-Bit OS.

I just have a feeling that its either an infection is preventing the Windows to fully boot up or it might be SP3 package that ruined everything , i've seen a few computer that went to hell after installing SP3 so im gonna go ahead and take it off via the recovery console after Sophos Finishes scanning.

 

[iptech]

I just have a feeling that its either an infection is preventing the Windows to fully boot up or it might be SP3 package that ruined everything

Random assumption FTW

 

[Elemdee]

This has gone on for so many pages now that I've lost track of the story even though I was following along...so I need to ask..did you completely rule out hardware problems? I thought this started out with BSOD? Maybe I missed something along the way but that's where I would have started...

 

[GotaPC]

Random assumption FTW

haha, oh comon ive had a few assumptions before and i was right

This has gone on for so many pages now that I've lost track of the story even though I was following along...so I need to ask..did you completely rule out hardware problems? I thought this started out with BSOD? Maybe I missed something along the way but that's where I would have started...

Yeah i know.. We ruled out hardware problems, i did a full hard drive diagnostics and a SMART test and everything was error free. iptech suggested that it might be rootkits but so far i got nothing.

 

[red12049]

haha, oh comon ive had a few assumptions before and i was right



Yeah i know.. We ruled out hardware problems, i did a full hard drive diagnostics and a SMART test and everything was error free. iptech suggested that it might be rootkits but so far i got nothing.

Do yourself a favor. First, throw in some known good ram. Doesn't matter how much, just see if the thing will boot. If not, throw in a used hard drive with a fresh install of Windows. If it boots, you've narrowed your problem down to hard drive or the customer's installation of Windows. You can proceed from there.

Alternate: If the system boots from a UBCD4WIN cd, you can pretty much rule out hardware, and concentrate on Windows. From that CD, you can run Registry Restore Wizard which will let you roll the registry back, and see i that fixes the trouble.

Rick

 

[MobileTechie]

This thread is depressing.

I don't get how professional technicians don't know about automatic restart. I don't get how people can call trying one random fix after another troubleshooting. No wonder people pay plumbers more.

 

[red12049]

This thread is depressing.

I don't get how professional technicians don't know about automatic restart. I don't get how people can call trying one random fix after another troubleshooting. No wonder people pay plumbers more.

Knowledge of the basics, and logical thinking are what's missing here. With the two procedures above, I shortcut most of that, and made it relatively simple or the OP.

Rick

 

[iptech]

This thread is depressing.

I don't get how professional technicians don't know about automatic restart. I don't get how people can call trying one random fix after another troubleshooting. No wonder people pay plumbers more.

All too common. Far too many 'Techs' jump into this business thinking they can blag they way through without even bothering to learn the basics before taking on paid work. I've seen many of these clowns come and go locally, thankfully most move on to something else once they realise that this job actually requires a bit of application. I suspect even when they have to work for hours to diagnose a basic problem they still learn little as it's not in their psyche to do so.

 

[Elemdee]

Knowledge of the basics, and logical thinking are what's missing here. With the two procedures above, I shortcut most of that, and made it relatively simple or the OP.

Rick

+1 Makes one wonder why advice is asked for if in the first place one is not going to follow through with the answers provided.

 

[Asrial]

I just have a feeling that its either an infection is preventing the Windows to fully boot up or it might be SP3 package that ruined everything , i've seen a few computer that went to hell after installing SP3 so im gonna go ahead and take it off via the recovery console after Sophos Finishes scanning.

The biggest "computer died after SP3 installation" issue is with Hewlett Packard computers that have AMD processors (they come shipped with Intel drivers and SP3 goes haywire when it encounters this situation as it's trying to load Intel drivers on an AMD chispet).

Once SP3 has been installed, as far as I know, the only option is to do a destructive restore.

However, if it's prior to a SP3 install you do the following (from the command prompt) before installing the update...

.

reg add HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Intelppm /v Start /d 4 /t REG_DWORD

sc config intelppm start= disabled

.

TLDR: Is the computer an HP with an AMD processor and was SP3 installed just prior to this issue?