A friend's laptop was working fine. She left it at home and her daughter or grandson installed something (such as a game or codec) on the machine.

Now the machine won't even boot up. It boots for a while, a BSOD, then it reboots. Doesn't matter if normal, safe mode, etc is used - the machine BSODs and reboots. A cursory search with Google turns up that the problem probably is a configuration/driver error.

I took the hard drive out, put it in an external enclosure, and scanned the drive. The drive physically seems fine.

Is there a program I can run on the drive that will scan the drive and fix any driver/configuration problems? The program would need to be able to look at the external drive, not the current boot drive.

Any help would be appreciated.

> A friend's laptop was working fine. She left it at home and her daughter or
> grandson installed something (such as a game or codec) on the machine.
>
> Now the machine won't even boot up. It boots for a while, a BSOD, then it
> reboots. Doesn't matter if normal, safe mode, etc is used - the machine BSODs
> and reboots. A cursory search with Google turns up that the problem probably is
> a configuration/driver error.
>
> I took the hard drive out, put it in an external enclosure, and scanned the
> drive. The drive physically seems fine.
>
> Is there a program I can run on the drive that will scan the drive and fix any
> driver/configuration problems? The program would need to be able to look at the
> external drive, not the current boot drive.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
What stop error is it? 0x0000007a? 0x0000007e?

Did you try Last Known Good config? Try booting into safe mode (if you can) and select NO which will take you to system restore. Pick a time before the F-up occurred.

> > A friend's laptop was working fine. She left it at home and her daughter or
> > grandson installed something (such as a game or codec) on the machine.
> >
> > Now the machine won't even boot up. It boots for a while, a BSOD, then it
> > reboots. Doesn't matter if normal, safe mode, etc is used - the machine BSODs
> > and reboots. A cursory search with Google turns up that the problem probably
> is
> > a configuration/driver error.
> >
> > I took the hard drive out, put it in an external enclosure, and scanned the
> > drive. The drive physically seems fine.
> >
> > Is there a program I can run on the drive that will scan the drive and fix any
> > driver/configuration problems? The program would need to be able to look at
> the
> > external drive, not the current boot drive.
> >
> > Any help would be appreciated.
> What stop error is it? 0x0000007a? 0x0000007e?
>
> Did you try Last Known Good config? Try booting into safe mode (if you can) and
> select NO which will take you to system restore. Pick a time before the F-up
> occurred.
>

I don't have physical access to the computer at the moment so I can't answer the error code question. I tried last known good config, safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt. A system restore was never performed so there is none to go back to.

...then something is wrong with the WinXP install.

The most radical approach would be to reinstall XP, which *should* keep some user settings but not all. So last resort only.

If you can get to Windows, you can use msconfig.exe to disable startup services.

I guess you could also try to fudge some of the INI files (win.ini, system.ini); but that's pretty dangerous as you risk breaking more thigns if you don't back them up.

It could maybe be the hardware too - you can try using the memtest liveCD (boot in Linux by itself, then scans the RAM for physical issues). If the machine has extension cards, you can remove them to see if it prevents the BSOD.

> ...then something is wrong with the WinXP install.
>
> The most radical approach would be to reinstall XP, which *should* keep some
> user settings but not all. So last resort only.
>
> If you can get to Windows, you can use msconfig.exe to disable startup services.
>
> I guess you could also try to fudge some of the INI files (win.ini, system.ini);
> but that's pretty dangerous as you risk breaking more thigns if you don't back
> them up.
>
> It could maybe be the hardware too - you can try using the memtest liveCD (boot
> in Linux by itself, then scans the RAM for physical issues). If the machine has
> extension cards, you can remove them to see if it prevents the BSOD.
>

Could be a dodgy memory module or CPU fan. Try booting into a LiveCD of Linux and playing around for a bit to see whether it stays on.

Hardware aside, there's also the option of re-installing Windows over the top of the existing installation. It might break a couple of programs, but should mostly work.

It's unlikely to be driver related if Safemode wont work. Googling the error code will usually give you gold.

Things to test for :
- Memory (it could be memory related)
- PSU (i have similar problems with a faulty PSU (if you can open the laptop, try to monitor the voltages with a multimeter)

If you can login into windows, try a SFC.
SFC /r iirc.
It will scan the system for changed files, and try to restore them from a Win CD (be sure to have one handy too).

If safe mode doesn't work, it probably ISN'T driver related.
What you can do, if you don't wish to re-install windows, is try a System Repare.
Boot into the Windows CD, then skip the "press F2 for Automatic System Restore", press F8 to confirm the EULA, after that, if there's a recognizable Windows install on any of the HDD's, it should give you the options to either : Press ENTER and install Windows anyway or Press R to perform a Restore.
Press R and perform a restore.
It is a VERY good idea to have a driver CD around at the time. But you can install-it without.
It doesn't break any programs at all. (at least it never did for me).

That's pretty much it.
Hopefully it will all go well for you.
Report back when you can.

Sorry for the lenghty post.


> A friend's laptop was working fine. She left it at home and her daughter or
> grandson installed something (such as a game or codec) on the machine.
>
> Now the machine won't even boot up. It boots for a while, a BSOD, then it
> reboots. Doesn't matter if normal, safe mode, etc is used - the machine BSODs
> and reboots. A cursory search with Google turns up that the problem probably is
> a configuration/driver error.
>
> I took the hard drive out, put it in an external enclosure, and scanned the
> drive. The drive physically seems fine.
>
> Is there a program I can run on the drive that will scan the drive and fix any
> driver/configuration problems? The program would need to be able to look at the
> external drive, not the current boot drive.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
>
>
>