# BsOD at boot, Vista[32]



## HotActionYiffFur (Aug 2, 2009)

I'm on my laptop now, to clear up how I'm posting this.

This morning on my PC I was surfing the internet as usual when I get a BsOD and the system restarts itself. I'm naturally thinking, "God damnit" and hoping it was just a memory error that would go away. Well upon ending the bootstrap and going to the 'logon' screen I either get a BsOD after typing in my password or right before the 'logon' screen shows; immediately restarting and doing this in a infinite loop.

Booting up in safemode does the exact same thing, as well as booting with networking and command prompt.

I can't describe the error type because it displays for a maximum of three seconds doing a minidump and then restarts.

I hardbooted the installation disk and ran a recovery and that did nothing, as well as a memory check in the recovery options and that came up with no errors. I would really like NOT to have to system restore for I have not backed up ANY data really, and I have many project files I cannot lose.

I can get to the command prompt via the recovery dvd, but don't know the right command lines to really accomplish anything. I also noticed the I'd randomly get an error at the 'logon
 screen saying "LogonUI.exe - Runtime error" with the only option to click being 'ok' and then goes onto the BsOd screen and reboots.

I'm running out of ideas here and don't know what to do :\


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## Aurali (Aug 2, 2009)

Does anyone else think this could be hardware?


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## HotActionYiffFur (Aug 2, 2009)

Eli said:


> Does anyone else think this could be hardware?



At this point I have no idea what it is, I haven't recently installed any hardware or updated any drivers; recently being within the last week at least. Updater is off for the most part.

What I thought I could do is access my PC through the network on my laptop and transfer data onto here for a 'temp storage' so I can reinstall Vista on the PC, however it's not showing up in my networks and I'm not sure if I have to be logged in on my PC for it to be accessible. 

If not then I'm fucked. Fuck you Vista


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## Aurali (Aug 2, 2009)

HotActionYiffFur said:


> At this point I have no idea what it is, I haven't recently installed any hardware or updated any drivers; recently being within the last week at least. Updater is off for the most part.
> 
> What I thought I could do is access my PC through the network on my laptop and transfer data onto here for a 'temp storage' so I can reinstall Vista on the PC, however it's not showing up in my networks and I'm not sure if I have to be logged in on my PC for it to be accessible.
> 
> If not then I'm fucked. Fuck you Vista



When I had this problem, my video memory had died.

Can you give us some specs to your PC? Also, try booting a live OS (Ubuntu LiveCD?), see if that works.


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## HotActionYiffFur (Aug 2, 2009)

I have to open up the case and try to remember what hardware I'm running, so I'll do that now. 

I've been trying to take a picture of the actual error message but now the welcome screen after I enter my logon info just loops forever. There's activity because the little circle thing keeps spinning, but it doesn't actually do anything past that.

This is too weird


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## Raithah (Aug 2, 2009)

[This] Experts-Exchange article mentions how to disable the automatic restart after blue screens - maybe you could use it if the photographic approach fails? It involves some registry editing, so you should be comfortable with that, otherwise forget it. I'd also like to second trying a Linux LiveCD like [Ubuntu], for even if it's a problem with Windows and not your hardware, you'll be able to backup your data safely before attempting anything else.


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## HotActionYiffFur (Aug 2, 2009)

I figured with the current state of the problems and how unsure I am with why it's happening and what's causing it, I won't take the approach to regedit anything, I'm downloading ubuntu now and will mount it, however I remember having very little space left on my hard drive, maybe 20gb at that, will I be able to boot this up?


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## Runefox (Aug 2, 2009)

HotActionYiffFur said:


> I figured with the current state of the problems and how unsure I am with why it's happening and what's causing it, I won't take the approach to regedit anything, I'm downloading ubuntu now and will mount it, however I remember having very little space left on my hard drive, maybe 20gb at that, will I be able to boot this up?



Ubuntu comes on a LiveCD that runs an actual copy of Ubuntu when you boot it up, taking zero hard disk space.

More helpful would be knowing what the bluescreen says (apart from the whole "you must restart your computer / contact your administrator" crap; The error code). That might give some insight into what's going on. Also, try hitting F8 on startup and choosing to enable boot logging; That way, when you get into Ubuntu/etc, you can see where things broke. You should be able to find it in \windows\Ntbtlog.txt when you do that.

Since you ran a memory diagnostic, it's unlikely (but still possible) that the RAM is bad. One thing you could do is choose the option to launch a console from the Vista repair menu and run a CHKDSK /F /R on your hard drive. A lot of the time, file system errors or hard drive issues can cause this kind of thing, too. A CHKDSK can sometimes fix that if it's just a filesystem error, and even sometimes in the case of a minor hard drive defect, but if it's got bad sectors, it's time to grab a new hard drive, since that's a definite sign the drive's on its way out and isn't reliable.

To be safe, I recommend running the memory diagnostic that comes with Ubuntu (Memtest86+), since it tends to be more thorough than the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool.


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## HotActionYiffFur (Aug 2, 2009)

Runefox said:


> Ubuntu comes on a LiveCD that runs an actual copy of Ubuntu when you boot it up, taking zero hard disk space.



Yeah I just read up on that now, it's nearly done downloading so we'll see how that goes.



> More helpful would be knowing what the bluescreen says (apart from the whole "you must restart your computer / contact your administrator" crap; The error code). That might give some insight into what's going on. Also, try hitting F8 on startup and choosing to enable boot logging; That way, when you get into Ubuntu/etc, you can see where things broke. You should be able to find it in \windows\Ntbtlog.txt when you do that.



Well like above, I'm no longer really seeing it, but an infinite loop on the welcome screen. I've been trying to snap an image of it so get the STOP code but now it doesn't even want to pop up anymore; or if so randomly and unexpected. 



> Since you ran a memory diagnostic, it's unlikely (but still possible) that the RAM is bad. One thing you could do is choose the option to launch a console from the Vista repair menu and run a CHKDSK /F /R on your hard drive. A lot of the time, file system errors or hard drive issues can cause this kind of thing, too. A CHKDSK can sometimes fix that if it's just a filesystem error, and even sometimes in the case of a minor hard drive defect, but if it's got bad sectors, it's time to grab a new hard drive, since that's a definite sign the drive's on its way out and isn't reliable.



I got to the command prompt from the recovery options and ran CHKDSK /F and got;

The type of the file system is NTFS
Cannot lock the current drive.
Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected.

Same with /R




> To be safe, I recommend running the memory diagnostic that comes with Ubuntu (Memtest86+), since it tends to be more thorough than the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool.



Will do and I'll let you know how it goes.

Also I've had troubles with Vista for the past two years I've been using it, I never WANTED it in the first place. It's a factory PC like I mentioned before but is there a way I can backup data (if I find is possible after these steps) and then just remove it and install XP or something again; I tried to partition my drives once before to dual boot XP and it all because corrupt and I had to system restore just to get Vista working again.

Also thanks all for your help so far, these problems are really frustrating


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## HotActionYiffFur (Aug 2, 2009)

Oh also neat my laptop can't write image files onto disks, fffffuuuuuuuuuuuu


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## Runefox (Aug 2, 2009)

> I got to the command prompt from the recovery options and ran CHKDSK /F and got;


That's strange; I think it was trying to run the CHKDSK on the CD/RAM disk that the installer created. Try switching to your operating system's partition (I can't recall if it's C: or not in the Vista recovery console) and try again.



HotActionYiffFur said:


> Oh also neat my laptop can't write image files onto disks, fffffuuuuuuuuuuuu



If you need burning software, grab CDBurnerXP. It's malware-free, and should be able to handle burning disc images.


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## HotActionYiffFur (Aug 2, 2009)

Runefox said:


> That's strange; I think it was trying to run the CHKDSK on the CD/RAM disk that the installer created. Try switching to your operating system's partition (I can't recall if it's C: or not in the Vista recovery console) and try again.




How do I go about doing this



> If you need burning software, grab CDBurnerXP. It's malware-free, and should be able to handle burning disc images.



I was using InfraRecorder, this apparently has worked though


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## HotActionYiffFur (Aug 2, 2009)

Okay I'm now going to start backing up some data and then deleting everything else. 

Thanks for the help everyone


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## Runefox (Aug 2, 2009)

> How do I go about doing this


Assuming it mounts as C:, type _CHKDSK /F /R C:_ at the prompt and hit enter.



> Okay I'm now going to start backing up some data and then deleting everything else.


Just to make sure, you're backing it up to an external hard drive or something, right?


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## Raithah (Aug 2, 2009)

Super-simple: just connect to your laptop through whatever means possible, then copy your important files out! 

Alright, a little more detail: if both your laptop and your desktop are connected to your local area network (like, both of their ethernet cables feed into the same router), try [sharing a folder] on the laptop, then copying any data that you'd like saved from one to the other. Unfortunately I'm not that familiar with Ubuntu in its default setup, so in case you aren't familiar with the usage of Nautilus (Ubuntu's default file browser, btw, in case you need to Google something) you'll have to seek help elsewhere.

Edit: Oh, right, Runefox's post reminded me. Short of a full [image] of your hard drive (with something like [Clonezilla] or its like) you're only getting 'data' back - that is, stuff that you've made, downloaded or saved. That means any product codes, serial numbers, stored logins etcetera will be lost should something catastrophic happen to your hard drive (which I, and everyone else here, will attempt to avoid ). Aah, reminded again: if you've customized Firefox much, you can backup your [profile] as well - just in case.


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## Runefox (Aug 2, 2009)

Nautilus works pretty much exactly the same as Explorer does, except it looks different. It has the same style of address bar, the same style of copy-paste, same everything.


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## HotActionYiffFur (Aug 2, 2009)

Runefox said:


> Assuming it mounts as C:, type _CHKDSK /F /R C:_ at the prompt and hit enter.
> 
> 
> Just to make sure, you're backing it up to an external hard drive or something, right?



Pfft, I wish. FTP server space, unlimited. It's just going to take a very, very long time. But at least it will work.


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## HotActionYiffFur (Aug 2, 2009)

Raithah said:


> Edit: Oh, right, Runefox's post reminded me. Short of a full [image] of your hard drive (with something like [Clonezilla] or its like) you're only getting 'data' back - that is, stuff that you've made, downloaded or saved. That means any product codes, serial numbers, stored logins etcetera will be lost should something catastrophic happen to your hard drive (which I, and everyone else here, will attempt to avoid ). Aah, reminded again: if you've customized Firefox much, you can backup your [profile] as well - just in case.



Yeah I know I'll have to install programs and stuff again, it's really not too much of a problem unless I don't have the data to use them with


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## Raithah (Aug 2, 2009)

Runefox said:


> Nautilus works pretty much exactly the same as Explorer does, except it looks different. It has the same style of address bar, the same style of copy-paste, same everything.



I remember the first time I started using Linux seriously, I was dumbstruck by the concept of 'root'. And seriously, where were my lettered drives? It took a half-hour or so to memorize equivalents of things, and just, in general, to adjust to the differing mindset these devs had compared to Microsoft's - not that that's a bad thing, it's just differentâ„¢ (incidentally, I hate how Mac OS X hides the directory structure from you by default, but that's a different story).

Edit: It appears as though my point has wandered off an away from this page - what I was trying to say is that there are differences in the structure that are subtle enough to throw some people off; maybe not the OP (sorry, typing your name makes me feel all naughty), but at least one person has been confused .


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## HotActionYiffFur (Aug 2, 2009)

Hahaha, it's okay. My name is a little naughty.

Also I found my laptop over the network from Ubuntu and am transferring data to it now, in hopes to uninstall Vista and install XP so I can forever live in happiness.

Also like my question before, does it matter if I didn't receive a physical disk when I got my computer, because it was pre-installed?  Just in case something goes wrong when I try to install XP

I mean WORST case I can get a copy of Vista illegally, but I'd rather not have to resort to that unless for whatever reason the recovery disk I have doesn't work if I can't put XP on it for whatever reason


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## Runefox (Aug 2, 2009)

Well, it doesn't matter about the disc as long as you've got a serial key - That's what you're paying the big bucks for. It's perfectly OK to download the disc if you already have the key. However, chances are if your computer came with Vista, you won't be able to legally install XP unless it came with a downgrade voucher / XP key.

That said, if you do have the key, make sure to download the corresponding copy of XP; It should say something like "Windows XP Home Edition OEM" or "Windows XP Professional Edition (insert company name here)" or some combination of both. In either case, OEM is what you're looking for if it came with your computer; Retail if you bought it off the shelf (but you'd have a CD in that case, wouldn't you?).


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## HotActionYiffFur (Aug 2, 2009)

Runefox said:


> Well, it doesn't matter about the disc as long as you've got a serial key - That's what you're paying the big bucks for. It's perfectly OK to download the disc if you already have the key. However, chances are if your computer came with Vista, you won't be able to legally install XP unless it came with a downgrade voucher / XP key.



I have a legit serial key for my Vista but nothing along the lines of a downgrade or voucher key as far as I know.


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