BSOD even in Safe Mode

I can't boot my colleague's new netbook at all - not safe mode, not last good configuration, not normal mode. It just goes to BSOD. The BSOD flashes up for a fraction of a second so I can't even see what kind of error it is. I have two OSs on the same partition - one XP Pro SP3 and one XP Home SP3 - but the same happens with both.

Before this happened I uninstalled a driver in Manager (in the Pro OS) that I thought I didn't need - maybe Bluetooth or something, can't remember - so that may be related. I don't think I have any important data on it so I could re-install the OS, but I have just spent a very long time setting it up from scratch for a colleague and am reluctant to go through all that again.

 

Not quite sure how you can have two OS versions on the same partition - perhaps on two partitions on the same HD? Please clarify.

Next question: is that something that happened from the beginning when you installed the two Windows systems, or did it start later?

Can you enter the Recovery Console and perhaps do a CHKDSK and SFC?

Or would you be willing to do a Repair Install?

 

When I got the netbook there was already XP Home on it, but it was in Thai and there was all sorts of crap on it that I didn't want, so I decided to install it myself. When I installed I didn't format C Drive as I assumed the other OS would automatically be deleted, but when I boot up it shows both, and I can still use the other one, so I'm assuming it is on the same partition. I only kept the other one as I couldn't see a way of removing it without formatting the partition, and I couldn't be bothered installing the whole thing again.

No, it didn't happen from the beginning - I happily used it for about a month with both OSs on there. I had just got it how I wanted it (for a colleague) and was going to image the hard drive then hand it over, when this happened.

Sorry, I've never used the Recovery Console. I can't see it on the boot menu (via F8) or in BIOS.

What would I lose with a Repair Install? Just non-default Windows settings, or all software? I've tried booting from an XP disk (not the one I installed initially) but couldn't figure out how to use it for repair (though I didn't try for very long).

I just disabled automatic restart on system failure and it stayed on the BSOD. The Technical information is:

STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF79A9524, 0XC0000034, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)

 

It says F9 is image recovery, and when pressed says 'System recovery has been selected', but then it goes straight to the Truecrypt boot loader, and after entering the pw just tries to boot as normal. (TC has been on it for ages so I don't think that's connected to the problem.)

 

I gave up, did a Quick format and re-installed XP. While re-installing programs, I got a message saying there was an error writing to disk. So I ran ckdsk on cmd - it found errors and said it couldn't continue in read-only mode. So via My Computer I got it to check again and attempt recovery of bad sectors. It finished, and I ran chkdsk again to confirm it had fixed the problem. It finished this time, but found more problems:

CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the master file table bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows found problem with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F option to correct these.

But after doing so, and running plain CHKDSK again, I got exactly the same message. And again on the third attempt.

What do I do now? It's only a month old and under warranty, but as I'm in a different country it would be a pain to take it back.

 

It is good that you were able to see the BSOD error code 0x0000007B; that indicates that you may have a hardware error, possibly a damaged disk.

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324103/ for more information on the 0x0000007B error.

Since you write that the machine is only one month old, it would really be best if you could have it repaired (or replaced) by the manufacturer. You write that you are in a different country; doesn't that manufacturer have a subsidiary there?

 

There seems to be a place in town authorised to service ASUSes so I guess I'll take it to that.

After reading that microsoft site, I decided to run malware scans, even though it had just been reformatted and hadn't been online yet. SAS found nothing with a quick scan, but an Avast boot-time said system restore ...\pwdump\servpw64.exe is infected by Win32UP-gen [PUP]. I couldn't repair it so moved it to chest. Could that have something to do with it?

It also said a couple CAB files were damaged in uninstalled software in D drive.