Major STOP Error

I'm pretty sure this STOP error is the worst one i've ever seen. It's a STOP 00000050 error which is page fault in nonpaged area. When I was able to get to my desktop I went to run and then msconfig and proceeded to change the boot.INI advanced settings to have a max mem setting of 256MB so my computer would at least run. But one day I was fooling around with my RAM sticks to see which one was defective and I accidentally changed the max mem setting to 1024 which was the amount of RAM in the computer at the time. Now no matter what I do I cannot start my computer. I have tried everything that myself and the internet can provide. I have tried safe mode, but the same STOP error appears. I have tried running the windows startup disk to access the recovery console but when I hit 1 to choose the disk I want to repair the same STOP error appears as soon as I hit enter. Every single setting in the F2, F8 and F12 boot menus have been changed around and used but to no avail. Anyone have any ideas for me? Also I'd like to note that all hardware and software currently installed has always worked and that this is a recently developed problem. All hardware and software fits this machine.

Just for your information:
Dell Dimension 4700
Windows XP SP3
300GB Seagate hard drive
Nvidia GeForce 7300GT
2X512MB of RAM

 

I assume this stop is a blue screen with white text otherwise known as a blue screen of death? If it is a BSOD, the first thing I would do is run a chkdsk using the Windows XP boot disk. If you don't know how to do that, I can elaborate.

 

Yes this is a blue screen with white text. The same message appears no matter what the settings or hardware configuration in my computer. And i'm not sure i've done chkdsk using the XP boot disk so please ellaborate.

 

On a related note, I know my computer will run if I can somehow modify the boot.ini settings to run at the onboard 256MB of RAM I just can't get to the settings without the recovery console or the desktop obviously. However i can currently attach the old working hard drive with the new one with the bad settings. Is there any ways I can change the boot.ini settings of the new hard drive while using the old working hard drive to access windows?

 

basically you boot the computer off of the windows cd. When you get to the first screen that gives you three options, press r to enter the recovery console. After that, log into your windows installation (should be straightforward) and then type in "chkdsk c: /r" and press enter. Note any errors or bad sectors.

Usually page fault BSOD's are hard drive problems. However, If you're chkdsk does not fix it, I would run a memtest next.

 

Well see the problem is even with the XP boot disk when I use the recovery console it loads all files then I hit R for recovery console it prompts me to pick the drive I want to repair and I hit the 1 key because I have one drive and when I do, the same blue screen comes up.

 

Nah thanks anyways but that's not the root of the problem. I need to somehow modify the advanced boot.ini settings on my faulty hard drive. But since I can't run windows on that hard drive, is there any way to hook up 2 hard drives and modify the settings of the faulty hard drive using the one that works?

 

If you need to edit boot.ini, you should be able to hook up your faulty hard drive to a working computer either as a secondary drive or with an IDE to USB adaptor.

 

This is what I have done. I have the faulty hard drive hooked up to the working computer so I can run windows. Now how do I modify the boot.ini settings on the faulty hard drive?

 

boot.ini is in the root directory on the hard drive. It may be hidden, in that case you will have to set your computer to show hidden files. If you don't know how to do this, I can elaborate.

 

I know how to show hidden files on the drive. But where exactly is the root folder?

 

the first directory. For your fist hard drive (the one currently running windows prolly) it is labeled c:\
it could be d:\ e:\ or so on, depending on how the drive is labeled. I call that directory root.