HELP-- A computer has gotten a blue screen and doesn't work.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

A timeline:

1. A Windows update icon shows up on the bottom of the computer screen to show that a new update is available. It is the patch so that hackers don't use Windows updates to piggy-back onto the computer. Try to download and install patch.
2. The icon shows up repeatedly for several days, even though it states that it has been downloaded.
3. A BBC article about malware using a trojan to piggy-back on Windows update is put on the BBC site. Mentions the patch.
4. Download and install Avast anti-virus.
5. Next day, put in registration key for Avast.
6. Later, the Avast icon at the bottom menu of the computer disappears (both of them). And it doesn't work when the shortcut or going into Program Files is used. So uninstall and reinstall. And put in key again.
7. Download the patch directly from the website. Also downloaded and installed (because it was suggested) was some .NET service pack 1 thing. So, three things installed.
8. Restart computer.
9. During the restart, CHKDSK comes up and of four files changes things in file 2 and could have also changed things in 3.

   The computer and destop shows up and the computuer seems to work. So shut down computer. Only restarted instead of shutting down to see if it worked (i.e. the Windows update icon was gone and the two Avast icons were there--such was the case). The next day (yesterday) when booting up, the computer displays a blue screen, and now it doesn't work.

10. On the blue screen:
11. STOP: 0X0000007B (0X81857BD0,0xC0000032,0X00000000,0X00000000) INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE .
12. It suggests to look for viruses on the computer, remove newly installed hard drives, or hard drive controllers, to look at the hard drive and see whether it is properly configured and terminated, and to run CHKDSK /F. And then to restart the computer.
13. Guessing it was chkdsk that caused the computer to not work. Either that or service pack 1.
14. Anyway, how can those things be done if the computer can't be accessed?

    ---

    Can any freeper help?

    Only going to be on for about another ten minutes, and the next time to go onto FR could be in about a week, so if you don't get an immediate response, ask that you don't get offended.

[Old_Mil]

Here's one solution...

[kenth]

He can’t do a mbr replacement from a dos disk being win2k, but it’s the same procedure from within the recovery console, slightly different command. But having done these a number of times, it’s most likely a driver inconsistency that isn’t allowing the ntfs tables to be read, or they’ve gotten a bit trashed which the chkdsk should be able to fix. Getting the inaccesible boot device error means it hasn’t gotten to the bulk of his registry yet and it should be okay, so long as the rest of the drive is too.

That reminds me, for Jedi, when in the recovery console and you enter the chkdsk command, it sometimes will ask you for the path to the autochk command. It’s normally c:\winnt\system32 but will be whatever drive and system folder for windows you have.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Appreciated. Turns out that have gotten access to another computer in less than a week. Hopefully with the advice given on this thread the old computer can be made to work again, especially as that one has a bunch of files and other personalized stuff.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Ahhhh....

That might work--you see, personally not a computer expert.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Safe mode (and all the other options on the screen) doesn’t work. It goes to a black screen with a white progress bar on the bottom (which it normally does), then to the Windows Professional 2000 start-up screen and there is a blue progress bar on the bottom (also normal), but either exactly halfway or a bit over halfway, the progress bar stops for a few seconds and then the blue screen comes up.

[SwordofTruth]

I’m sure MS has a patent on that blue screen of death. That’s one that Linux will never have. Install Linux and don’t ever patronize MS again, problem solved for good.

[papasmurf]

Ok, it's really important to note the exact error message that you are receiving. Is it one of the following?

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM32\\CONFIG\\SYSTEM

Windows NT could not start because the below file is missing or corrupt: X:\\WINNT\\System32\\Ntoskrnl.exe or
Windows NT could not start because the below file is missing or corrupt: X:\\WINNT\\System32\\HAL.dll or
NTLDR is Missing Press any key to restart or
Invalid boot.ini Press any key to restart

If the exact message is one of these, I may be able to help you tonight. If not, then, your best option is to re-install Windows in a side by side fashion.

OTOH, if you have access to another pc, and know how to install your non functioning HD as a slave drive in that, then you should do so, and copy off all of your important files and application license keys.

After doing so, a fresh install is the best option.

I'll wait about 1/2 hour for your reply.

papa

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Going to try snowlislander’s suggestion as it seems by far the easiest for a computer super-novice. It should be downloading onto CD right now. Seems as though programs will have to be reinstalled and files are gone—at least temporarily though.

[papasmurf]

That should run in memory, if you take that route, and not hurt any of your files. Then what?

papa

[goldstategop]

Reinstall Windows. Hope you backed up all your data. The blue screen of death generally means Windows is corrupt and won't boot up. Time to break out the recovery or Windows CD.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Puppy linux was downloaded onto a CD. It seemed to have finished (it stated that it had) and an icon was produced on the CD window. The CD was taken out, and put into the CD drive of the broken computer. Then the that computer was turned off and then turned on again. Pressed F12 when appropriate to go to the boot menu, and then selected CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive. The screen went black except for a blinking underline at the top. The drive made noise as though it was spinning fast.

But then the black Starting Windows screen came up, and went to the Windows 2000 Professional screen with the starting up blue bar.... and then the blue screen came up again.

It continues to do so on repeated attempts.

Is that how Linux is supposed to be put onto the computer? Or was there an accident in the burning of the CD? Also, Puppy Linux wasn't registered--should it be?

[snowsislander]

Is that how Linux is supposed to be put onto the computer? Or was there an accident in the burning of the CD? Also, Puppy Linux wasn't registered--should it be?

No, you don't need to register Puppy.

As to the failure to boot the CD, it sounds to me like you took the right steps, so I don't know why the CD wasn't picked up as a bootable device. However, from looking at the Puppy website, the most common reason for CD problems apparently is that one burns Puppy as an ordinary file rather than as an ISO:

If you don't know anything about burning an ISO file to CD, read the documentation that comes with your CD-burner software. The biggest single mistake is that people treat the "puppy-2.xx-xxxx.iso" file as just a file, and write it to CD. Any decent CD-burner software will have a special menu selection for writing an ISO file to CD. You will know that you have succeeded if, after burning it, you use a file manager such as Windows Explorer to look at the CD and you see the files "image.gz", "vmlinuz", etc. If you see the file "puppy-2.xx-xxxx.iso" then you did it wrong!

The thing to understand about an ISO file is that it is a snapshot of the entire contents of a CD, so has lots of files inside it.

I remember using a program called Nero to burn some CDs on a Windows machine a few years ago (I normally use "cdrecord" under Linux) and I remember that it was a bit tedious trying to find the ISO option in the menus since it was called something else.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

This is a bit late, but trying to get Puppy Linux up and running on the other computer. As of now, it can’t connect to the internet, and the linux cannot be put onto the hard drive because an ‘NTFS’ file is unclean, and it is suggesting to do with Windows, which can’t be accessed, hence the point of installing Puppy Linux.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

If by some odd chance you happen to still be on here, Puppy Linux is now on the other computer, but it still can’t connect to the internet, and can’t be put onto the hard drive because the Windows ‘NTFS’ file is unclean. It suggests going to Windows and shutting it down properly, or some other things with Windows. The thing is, can’t access Windows, which is the point of putting in Linux. If the computer (which currently has Linux) is shut down, when the computer is started again, will Linux come up again, or will it go to Linux? Tried once, and it tried to go to Windows (and therefore went to the blue screen). It seemed as though Linux had to be reinstalled (had to personally press enter or type xorg and other things starting in x).

[snowsislander]

If by some odd chance you happen to still be on here, Puppy Linux is now on the other computer, but it still can’t connect to the internet, and can’t be put onto the hard drive because the Windows ‘NTFS’ file is unclean. It suggests going to Windows and shutting it down properly, or some other things with Windows. The thing is, can’t access Windows, which is the point of putting in Linux. If the computer (which currently has Linux) is shut down, when the computer is started again, will Linux come up again, or will it go to Linux? Tried once, and it tried to go to Windows (and therefore went to the blue screen). It seemed as though Linux had to be reinstalled (had to personally press enter or type xorg and other things starting in x).

When Puppy talks about NTFS not being clean, this is because it wants to save some "Pup" files that cache your settings for Puppy. If you have a USB memory stick, you can save those there rather than on an iffy NTFS partition.

If you remove the CD, Puppy Linux should not come up since it is booting off the CD. (You can choose to install it to another device --- there's a menu option called "Puppy Universal Installer" which would let you install it on other media. If you have data on the hard disk that you care about, then I wouldn't install it on your hard disk since Puppy is reporting that its NTFS partition isn't clean. Most Linux installations will let you resize a NTFS partition, but I don't think I would try that with one that is reporting consistency problems unless I didn't care about the data in the NTFS partition.)

As to "X", what Puppy is trying to do is best use your monitor for its windowing system; the Vesa mode, which does work on almost all hardware, doesn't have any other redeeming features --- but if you aren't going to use Puppy much, Vesa is a good simple choice to make.

[DreamsofPolycarp]

If you are going to put the guy on a linux version. you should stick with MEPIS. It sees everything, installs drivers for everything and gets the guy on the internet right away, and allows him to poke around in his file system to see if he can do anything with the data and/or os. Make it easy on the newbies, and NOTHING is easier than Mepis.

It does sound like he needed to burn the cd as an image.

[DreamsofPolycarp]

If you have puppy up and going, you MAY want to try this:

Copy over your ntoskrnl.exe file from another machine.

Several times, that has fixed the bsod problem for me. That is, until I went to Mepis Linux.

[Daffynition]

[DreamsofPolycarp]

If you are going to put the guy on a linux version. you should stick with MEPIS. It sees everything, installs drivers for everything and gets the guy on the internet right away, and allows him to poke around in his file system to see if he can do anything with the data and/or os. Make it easy on the newbies, and NOTHING is easier than Mepis.

It does sound like he needed to burn the cd as an image.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Still trying to get on the internet (on the broken computer). Rebooting doesn't work, and so the 'drivers' and 'network interfaces' are not recorded, and have to go through the installation each time ('' used to show unfamiliarity with those things). Is there some sort of standard Linux, or are there many, many versions. Should this MEPIS be used, or will it be another dead end (which Puppy Linux currently seems to be)?