Blue Screen of Death Too Quick

[Guest]

Yes we all know how to make the BSOD pause instead of rebooting the PC
in a nano second, but only if the PC will still start and let you in
to the System tab . How can we read the BSOD if its too late and the
PC will not start?
Apparently the event is written to the system log. If I plug the PCs
hard disk slaved into a working PC can I find this log and read the
contents of the BSOD error?

 

[Alias]

Yes we all know how to make the BSOD pause instead of rebooting the PC
in a nano second, but only if the PC will still start and let you in
to the System tab . How can we read the BSOD if its too late and the
PC will not start?
Apparently the event is written to the system log. If I plug the PCs
hard disk slaved into a working PC can I find this log and read the
contents of the BSOD error?

Can you get into Safe Mode?

 

[Daave]

Yes we all know how to make the BSOD pause instead of rebooting the PC
in a nano second, but only if the PC will still start and let you in
to the System tab .

Do you perhaps mean the BOOT.INI tab in the System Configuration Utility
(msconfig)?

That isn't the only way. You can also press F8 before Windows has a
chance to load in Normal Mode and select the menu option that says
"Disable automatic restart on system failure." The screen looks like
this one:

http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/Disable Automatic Restart.jpg

How can we read the BSOD if its too late and the
PC will not start?

If the PC won't even start, you obviously have a hardware problem.
Deciphering BSOD codes probably won't help you too much. Better to start
here:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html

Also:

http://www.fonerbooks.com/poster.pdf

I'd start with power issues first. Make sure the PC is plugged in! Maybe
you need to use another power cord or plug it into another outlet. Or
maybe you need a new power supply.

What is this PC's history? Were there any recent power surges or
outages?

 

[SC Tom]

"Disable automatic restart on system failure"
I have never seen this over years experience of XP in the OS Choices
and many PCs, how on earth did it appear, did yr PC manufacturer insert
it there? I have only seen it in the GUI of System Recovery options.
There have been no power issues, I have tried another PSU

It's been in the boot menu since at least WinME. I'm surprised you've never
seen it towards the bottom of the screen.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Yes we all know how to make the BSOD pause instead of rebooting the PC
in a nano second, but only if the PC will still start and let you in
to the System tab . How can we read the BSOD if its too late and the
PC will not start?

Well, you should as a minimum always have the kernel minidumps enabled
on your system, so you can read the details right out of the kernel
itself rather than from a logfile.

Apparently the event is written to the system log. If I plug the PCs
hard disk slaved into a working PC can I find this log and read the
contents of the BSOD error?

Search for *.evt files under the Windows directory.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Daave]

"Disable automatic restart on system failure"
I have never seen this over years experience of XP in the OS Choices
and many PCs, how on earth did it appear, did yr PC manufacturer
insert it there? I have only seen it in the GUI of System Recovery
options.

I will assume that you and OP are one and the same.

It's been there ever since SP2. Again, it looks like this:

http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/Disable Automatic Restart.jpg

What SP level is your XP installation at?

 

[Daave]

Thanks everyone, PC is SP3, i've found the evt files via Recovery
Console, and on one PC, but not all, I've actually seen the
"Disable automatic restart on system failure"

Glad you found the info. Hope you're able to solve your BSOD.

There are two menus. One comes up automatically if there is a problem
(that's not the one I'm talking about; it has fewer options). The other
comes up only if you invoke it by pressing F8. As long as SP2 or SP3 is
installed, that option should _always_ come up.

If SP2 or SP3 is installed *and* if the actual F8 menu appears *and* if
that choice is not available, I would suspect malware is responsible for
its absence.

 

[Daave]

Thanks Daave I had not noticed the difference between the automatic F8
and the one produced by us pressing F8

YW.