Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Visa Issues...I know, Vista right?! LOL

at Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Posted by Jeremy 4 comments
Well, a friend of mine called me up and sent their computer with me yesterday for some help.  It's a rather interesting problem, so I figured I'd chronicle the work here to help others through my thought process.

Here's the problem with their Dell XPS 420; from powering on the desktop computer it splashes up the Dell loading screen and continues through to a screen that prompts you to either launch a 'Startup Repair (Recomended)' or 'Start Windows Normally'.  Other issue, I have no way of doing a factory image restore on this computer since the user's never created the restore disks after the bought the computer.

If you select 'Start Windows Normally', the boot process continues to the Windows Vista logo splash screen for only a brief second and it reboots and continues through the cycle again.  If I hit 'F8' and select disable automatic restart after errors, I actually get a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) that reads the following STOP error:
0x0000007B (0x80599BB0, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)


Some of the support I found online is pretty cryptic concerning this STOP error.  Mostly saying that the OS can't see the hard drive, etc.  And it points to the drive being faulty.  However, running the Dell Diagnostics from the Advanced Startup menu the Hard Drive checks out as good.

So, boot option 2: 'Launch Startup Repair' was attempted.  Which continues to boot to a login screen.  However, the only account listed is for: 'Other User' for which there is an empty username and password.  Attempting to enter the username and password for the actual accounts doesn't work.  Neither does using the combination of Administrator with no password, Administrator with administrator as the password,  and admin, admin as username and password.  All search results have been futile as well.

It appears that something has hosed the OS from the boot side of things.  So I am going to attempt using a Vista Recovery disk now.  Look back soon for either a happy post, or a total meltdown.

Why is my life filled with computer based angst and drama?!  :)
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4 comments:

  • July 20, 2011 at 3:35 PM
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    JGreen1280 :

    (not site if my first post worked, if so, please disregard - but blogger takes me to the web post box after submitting post)

    In the BSOD, sometimes a file is referenced, giving you an idea of what is causing the bsod. Which file, if any, is listed? Usually a .sys file.

  • July 20, 2011 at 6:04 PM
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    Jeremy :

    JGreen1280: I didn't see a file listed yesterday when I was checking out this machine. I'll be booting it up again very shortly and will take note if there is one listed.

    I was able to make a copy of the Factory.wim restore image and stash it on an external hard drive. Now I just need to figure out a way to restore it without the actual Dell restore disk. (And the Ctrl + F11 shortcut is a no go).

  • July 20, 2011 at 6:27 PM
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    JGreen1280 :

    For the wim restore, give this a shot:

    http://smsoftdev-solutions.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-restore-dell-factory-image-when.html

  • July 21, 2011 at 12:45 PM
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    Jeremy :

    JGreen1280: Yeah, I found that site too. Last night I tried the ImageX instructions and the advice on just using PC Restore (which looked very promising, but didn't work).

    I may physically format the C: this evening and try again. Meanwhile, to be on the safe side, I have requested a set of Recovery Disks from Dell just in case.

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