Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Anybody good with computers that might be willing to help before I have to take my PC to the shop?


I try to start my PC and this is what pops up:





A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Disable or uninstall any anti-virus, disk defragmentation or backup utilities. Check your hard drive configuration, and check for any updated drivers. Run CHDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.

Technical information:

***STOP: 0x00000O24 (0x00190203,0x86F84220,0xC0000102,0xO0000000)





I've restarted my computer numerous times, only to have the blue screen pop up once again.

Anybody that can help here, I'd greatly appreciate it.


Thanks,
Andy

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Unplug it for a few hours, it may just be borked from a stack dump, especially if you had a power outage. Then start/restart till you're blue in the face and unplug it again for a few hours.
Once you get to the splash screen, if you do, let it grind their for a good long time.
Then start with the unplugging and restarting crap some more.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

I've had it turned off for about two weeks until today, but haven't actually unplugged it. I'll try unplugging it and see. Thanks Scott.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Do you have your install disk? If so try booting with that and run the repair utility or restore to an earlier date.

Also try booting into safe mode and then restore to an earlier date.

The first set of numbers is an indication of windows system file damaged or missing.


Ron

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

It's unplugged right now, but it won't let me start up in safe mode. I can choose the option, but it still goes to the blue screen. Can I use install disk if Windows won't actually start up?


Forgive my ignorance here. I'm just not very tech savvy.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

0x24 is the file system Andy. Boot from the OS install CD, choose repair, select recovery console, run chkdsk /r.

You can also run hard disk manufacturer diagnostics from a boot cd to see if there is a physical disk issue and, if so, possibly remap or zero out those sectors and replace with spares.

Google "STOP: 0x00000024" for more information and maybe some specifics for your unspecified OS.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

The second half of your post is Greek to me, Adam.:r I got the first part though.:tu

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

I'll have to find the install CD. I'll let y'all know when I find it and run it, Ron and Adam. Thanks.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

(See the 3rd paragraph I added since you quoted the post.)

The second part entails
-determine what brand of hard disk is installed in your system
-go to that manufacturer's website
-find the diagnostic and repair tools.
-download the bootable CD image of the tools
-burn the cd
-boot from the cd
-run the full diagnostics (sometimes called full surface scan)
-if it finds physical errors, you can choose to have it repair them (it will do the remap and zero part for you - I should have just said "repair" rather than the explanation of what it would do)

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Short answer is "yes".

When you boot from the disk you are using the files located there and not on hard drive.

Good luck with this.


Ron

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Update:

I've found the OS disk and put it in the drive. Blue screen popped up again so I shut the system down. Now when I attempt to restart it, it seems to be stuck in some sort of loop. It attempts to start up, shuts down, reattempts to start up, shuts down, reattempts...etc, etc.:sad

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Sounds like it's not booting from the OS cd.

Try accessing the bios to change the boot order.

When you first turn the computer on do you see anything like "XX for BIOS" or "XX for Setup" - typically at the bottom of the screen?
XX could be just about anything, but the following are the common ones (off the top of my head):F2, F8, F10, F12, DEL. Typically, this info can be found on the system or motherboard manufacturer's website.

When you get into the BIOS, change the boot order so that the optical drive (CD, DVD) is first. Some BIOSes are quirky and you need to actually disable booting from the hard disk to get them to boot from the CD/DVD.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

One more question:
If I use the OS disk, will it erase all the files/documents/pictures on my hard drive? I've got too many family pics to just dump all of them.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

It doesn't even have time to startup the screen, so I can't see anything other than the blinking lights on the CPU.

Sorry if I'm being a pain in the @$$ here.;s




BTW,the computer is a Dell XPS of some sort. Other than that, I don't really know much more.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Assuming that the drive hasn't failed, only if you reformat the drive.

Dell XPS - try the F2 key as soon as you see the Dell logo. Or, alternately, from a cold boot, just start punching the F2 key repeatedly.

If you can find the service tag sticker on the back, PM the code on there and I'll look up what the exact sequence is.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

He should get a disk failed or not found error if it was that.


Yeah - pretty sure it's the F2 key or secondly the DEL key.

Andy - unplug anything you may have attached: printers, scanners, etc - everything but your monitor, keyboard and mouse. Remove the CD from your drive.

Turn the computer off, then turn it back on. As soon as you turn it on immediately start tapping the F2 key (heck, start tapping before you turn it on even). If you hear a series of quick beeps/tones you can stop. Try it several times if need be. (Note: those little beeps/tones you hear at start-up actually mean something and can help identify problems sometimes.)

Every computer with a software problem should be able to at least access the bios. Computers with hardware, i.e. motherboard problems may not be able to.

Ron

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Ok, thanks for being patient with me. I let it sit for an hour or so. I managed to get the computer to come back on. Screen says:

Alert! PCI Express card is operating in x1 mode.
Stike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility.

For the benefit of the doubt, I pressed F2 and am now in the setup utility menu, but don't know where to go from here.

Adam, PM incoming.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

BTW, the OS disk is out of the drive. Not gonna put it back in unless one of you two give me the ok.:)

Thanks for all the help. I seriously need to make it up to both of you, Ron and Adam, even if all of this doesn't work.:)

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Ok. No wait! I didn't mean ok to put the disk in the drive - just okay as in good.

:D

At the top of the screen you should see "Boot" or "Boot Sequence". Use the arrow buttons to highlight it and then press enter. Use the up and down arrows to move through the list, press the space bar to enable or disable. Disable everything except the CD/DVD drive and the hard drive. Use the + and - buttons to move the CD/DVD drive to the top of the list.

F10 to save and exit - agree with the okay to exit. The computer should reboot.

You can insert the OS disk now. Reboot. It may ask you if you want to boot from the CD. Normally press any key. Follow along the prompts to either try to repair or restore. Just don't allow it to format, i.e. reinstall the OS. So read carefully.

And oh yeah - it could take a while for the repair or restore so just let it do it's thing.


Ron

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

So if I do a repair it shouldn't erase any of my files/documents/pics, right?

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Not necessarily. In a total hardware failure situation, yes. In something less than that, it's still possible to lose a significant amount of data without the audible/visual hardware failure error indicator being tripped.

Like you, I'm giving some general answers, without going too far into technical specifics here - that statement was one of them.
Andy sent me the service tag, I just confirmed, it is F2 for this system.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Starting to get p!ssed off with this, so I'm gonna quit on it tonight.


Ron, I didn't see any boot or boot sequence on the screen. I couldn't look through the menu screen/directory b/c now my mouse and keyboard froze on this thing. Ugghhh! I'm gonna try your and Adam's directions tomorrow again and go from there.

Thanks seriously for the help. Even though I haven't gotten anywhere, it's been a big help.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

That means that it's just defaulted to a safe (performance degraded) mode right now. Don't worry about it right now, if it stays that way, it can be turned back up to the higher performance settings later.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Unfortunately, the manual doesn't have screen shots of the bios for that system, just descriptions, but in these descriptions, the 5th one on the list (assuming that this is like a lot of the other dell bioses where everything is on one screen that just scrolls) is boot sequence. You would use the arrow keys to highlight it, then tap enter to go into the specific screen. At which point, follow Ron's guidelines to move the CD/DVD to the top of the list -note it might not be described as "cd / dvd" it might say something like "SonyXM5462D" or whatever the model number is.

Typically, in any BIOS, what keys you can use and what they do is listed at the bottom of every screen.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

That's good to know.

I'm gonna unplug the thing before I go to bed. I'll plug it back in tomorrow and then try it again.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

In theory, the auto-repair should be safe.

It told you what it needed to do in the error - chkdsk /r (/r = repair).

The only way to get that and only that is to use the manual recovery console (there is a prompt where you decide if you want manual or automatic)

Automatic recovery/repair tends to fix many things, even if they don't need it, all at once by resetting them to defaults and original install versions/settings. This _usually_ won't lose data, but it can hose programs.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Andy,

At some point here you may feel the need just to take a hammer to the thing so you can feel better - :D

At that time, and I think Adam will agree with me, the best option is just to replace the hard drive, reinstall the OS and call it a day. As long as your old hard drive will spin up, the information (pictures and such) can be recovered as it can be added as a slave drive (either permanently or temporarily).

It's been my experience over the years that blue screens that can't be handled by a reboot/check disk quickly will, in just a matter of time, need a hard drive replacement anyway. Note also that since Adam or I don't have the computer in front of us - other things can contribute to the cause of blue screens such as bad memory, programs, hardware or even cooling fans not working. So we are being general here and going after the most popular solution.

Hard drive replacement - it's not as daunting as it seems. Adam or I could talk you through it by either PM's or a phone call.

I have to go out and actually do some work today so will leave you in the very capable hands of Adam. I'll check in later tonight.


Ron

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

I agree fully with everything that Ron just wrote, except that "very capable hands of Adam" part. I'm really just a bouncer for Chuck E Cheese pizza.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Replace hard drive
Install clean OS
Set original hard drive as a slave drive (D)
Access all files on original hard drive (pictures, documents, etc)

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Hard drive questions:

What's the difference between this hard drive -
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Western-Di...Drive/15907604


and this one-
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hitachi-Tr...ptops/15055754

Other than price.


I wanna do this as cheap as possible, but not sacrifice too much either.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

The WD drive is for a desktop and the Hitachi is for a laptop

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Also keep in mind what type connection you currently have (IDE, SATA, etc).
If you decide to buy a replacement drive and its SATA only and you dont have a SATA port on your motherboard it wont just plug in.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

:r
Showing my ignorance about this.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Its ok. I didnt know what a blue waffle was :D

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

How can I figure out which one I have?

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

It's worse than a blue screen, Kelly.:r

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

IDE left and SATA right
http://beacon.chebucto.ca/Mousepad/i...7/IDE_SATA.jpg

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

You have another option as well. If you remove your hard drive and take it to a friend or relative that knows a little about computers, have then set the drive as a slave drive and copy all your files onto a DVD. If they can do this, your hard drive is not the issue and could just be software.
Then just reinstall your hard drive back in your computer and format it and install a fresh copy of your OS. When your done, just slip the DVD in and copy all files into a new folder (name the folder anything you like). You'll have a fresh install of the OS and also have all your files/pictures/etc you want to keep.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

That sounds like a plan. :tu Thanks, Kelly. I think I've found someone who can do that.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Hope it helps!

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

I've been building and "hot rodding" PC's for a long time. I am still amazed at the number of problems, like this (what sounds like a corrupted file system) that are due to basic hardware problems.

Download and burn yourself a copy of this disk:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

This is a CD that will boot your computer (doesn't need an operating system on the hard drive) and run some basic diagnostics. This is the disk I run on new or recently upgraded systems to make sure all the hardware is playing nice and working as it should.

Start with some memory tests - MemTest86+ is my favorite. It should run all night and "No Errors" in the AM is the only acceptable answer.

Run the HD diagnostics for the brand of hard drive you have. That will tell you if your HD has had a failure of some type.

I could go on about the importance of backing your stuff up, but I think you may realize that now. If you need to get your files off your hard drive, this little gizmo works great:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812156102

I have a couple here and they work great.

You may be stuck with a full re-install of the operating system. Unfortunately, I've found that more often than not, this is what's required to get things back on an even keel.

Don't hesitate to PM me if you need some help or advice. Glad to help.

Good luck - N.F.H.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

Your system uses SATA for the hard disks.
You have 4 SATA connectors in total on the board, so you should have some available for additional disks.

(remember the service tag code you sent me? Great for looking info like this up)

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

I have seen this little gem recovery a lot of "unfixable" drives. If only we could convince our helpless desk at work to use it instead of just sending out a new hard drive.

Re: Blue Screen Trouble/Tech Support?
 

The same thing happened to me, on a laptop. I bought an enclosure for the HD and copied the files I needed to a second computer. Re formated the original hd, re installed windows and was good to go. Time consuming, but couldn't figure out an easier way