BSOD

[Les]

I get a blue screen of death shortly after inputting my password, it reboots
my PC way too fast for me to read the text. How can I determine the cause of
the BSOD and fix it?

TIA...Les

 

[Chris K.]

Can you boot into safe mode?

Press the F8 key (repeatedly sometimes) right after the BIOS finishes
posting (when the motherboard manufactures logo or POST information goes
away)

Then you should be greated with a DOS-like menu with options for booting
into Safe-Mode as well as other stuff...

Chris K.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Turn off automatic restarts so you have time to read the error codes. Press
WinKey+Pause/Bread, select the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery
click the Settings button, and under System Failure uncheck "Automatically
Restart."

Post back with the stop error code and error message (the program or driver
that caused the blue screen).

 

[PD43]

I get a blue screen of death shortly after inputting my password, it reboots
my PC way too fast for me to read the text. How can I determine the cause of
the BSOD and fix it?

First step would be to disable the restart on such an error so that
you can read it:

Control Panel | Switch to Classic View (left column, top) | SYSTEM |
ADVANCE tab |STARTUP AND RECOVERY

Uncheck the box

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Correction: "Pause/Break" (not "Pause/Bread", which sounds vaguely like the
Last Supper). Sorry.

 

[Les]

The PC doesn't get to the point where I can disable the auto-reboot feature.
As soon as I input the password it displays the Blue Screen.
It hangs when attempting to go into safe mode or the Last Known good
configuration.

 

[Chris K.]

As mentioned before, try Safe Mode...

Chris K.

The PC doesn't get to the point where I can disable the auto-reboot
feature.
As soon as I input the password it displays the Blue Screen.
It hangs when attempting to go into safe mode or the Last Known good
configuration.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Then it is time to restore your backup if you are using an image backup
program like Acronis. Otherwise you need to go into the BIOS, make sure the
cd is ahead of the hdd in the boot order, and run either a repair install of
Windows or a clean install. You at least have an XP installation cd, don't
you?

 

[Bill in Co.]

And this again seems to imply that the best boot order probably would be 1)
floppy, 2 ) CD, and 3) hard drive (keep it last). (IMO)

 

[PD43]

And this again seems to imply that the best boot order probably would be 1)
floppy, 2 ) CD, and 3) hard drive (keep it last). (IMO)

Floppy? What's that? Haven't seen one in YEARS.

 

[Bill in Co.]

Floppy? What's that? Haven't seen one in YEARS.

Works wonders when you have to get under the hood. In fact, in some cases,
it's almost a necessity, thinking of some BIOS flashes, bootup system access
utilities (like some DOS-based ones, or as yet another example, BootItNG,
for low-level partition work), and a few other goodies.

 

[PD43]

Works wonders when you have to get under the hood.

So does a bootable CD

 

[PD43]

Works wonders when you have to get under the hood. In fact, in some cases,
it's almost a necessity, thinking of some BIOS flashes, bootup system access
utilities (like some DOS-based ones, or as yet another example, BootItNG,
for low-level partition work), and a few other goodies.

BTW... a bootable CD works fine for bios flashing as well as for
BootInNG.

Low-level partition work?

You still have hard drives that might be useful with? It certainly is
of no use on today's drives.

 

[Bill in Co.]

BTW... a bootable CD works fine for bios flashing as well as for
BootInNG.

A bootable CD is a bit overkill for some of these operations. A floppy is
much easier to create and change at will. Translation: it's called using
the appropriate tool for the appropriate job.

Low-level partition work?

You still have hard drives that might be useful with? It certainly is
of no use on today's drives.

Wrong. I mean basic partition copy, resize, or whatever, operations.
Low level in the sense that windows is nowhere to be found, nor is it even
accessible, in many cases. Under the hood, as I said. (I take it you've
never used NTFSDOS, or BartPE, or any such utilities. That's ok, I
understand. Most haven't).

 

[PD43]

A bootable CD is a bit overkill for some of these operations. A floppy is
much easier to create and change at will. Translation: it's called using
the appropriate tool for the appropriate job.

Computer manufacturers are strangely unaware of that.

I'm quite adept at booting to DOS and doing all that... but when I
built this computer 18 months ago, I decided to leave out the floppy.

Guess what? Don't miss it.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

And this again seems to imply that the best boot order probably would be 1)
floppy, 2 ) CD, and 3) hard drive (keep it last). (IMO)

My opinion is very different. My view is that the hard drive should be
kept as first in the boot order.

Boot sector viruses aren't as common as they used to be, but they are
still around. If the floppy is set to boot first, and you happen to
have left a floppy in the drive, and that floppy happens to have a
boot sector virus on it, you're infected.

The risk may be small, but there's no reason to run it at all. The
hard drive should be kept as the first boot device, and it should be
changed to another device *only* when you need it.

 

[Les]

Hey everyone;
Thanks for your time and all of your input, it is greatly appreciated. I
tried everything and still no joy. I've had to replace the OS. Oh well, if
that's the worst thing today it's still not a bad day!

Thanks again...Les