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

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?!  :)