A friends pc

A friend of mine asked me to look up a blue error screen for windows xp cause her computer wont start up, it only shows her a blue screen with "error" as the only word on it...No numbered error and she tried to start it up in safe mode and that did not work, she tried to go to the setup and got no help there. I done a search online for her and the only thing I came up with was things to download, but she cant get her computer up and running enough to download anything. Shes got windows xp....Help me help her. Thank you.

 

She says she has it and tried to start her computer with the cd in and she still got nothing!

 

whenshe starts up the computer it says "we apologize for the inconvience but windows did not start successfully" and it gives safe mode options that did not work and last known that didnt work and last know configuration doesnt work either...No matter which option she picks it sends her to the blue screen, it says "technical info: stop 0x000000007B(0xF9678528,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000)"

 

it does the same thing whether the cd is in or not...have any recommendations on what she should do? She keeps asking cause she just got out of school and she was trying to put her resume together..

 

I googled the code and everything points to a reinstall of xp.

If you can't get into Safe mode then something has gone horribly wrong.

To back up her data you can take her HDD out, change the jumper to slave, put it in another machine and copy her files over like a storage drive type of idea.

Thats what I would do, but someone else may be able to find you a solution that doesn't require reinstall.........although if you reinstall and have xp on disc then you will be ready to rock and all fixed up in a matter of 3 or 4 hours.

 

she really doesnt want to do a reinstall....but if she did, she's not sure hows shes suppose to when the cd isn't working when she puts it in. And niether me nor her is understanding the HDD thing and the sentences that follow. We are not too familar with computer jargan. If anyone has any other ideas please help. it is the operating system cd right?

 

Ok well I didn't read anything about the cd not working (oh I just saw it lol), first you need to see if you can see the CD drive in the BIOS and make sure the CD drive is selected as "First boot device"

To get into BIOS is usually the Del. key while it's booting, you'll go into a screen that looks very old school computer, be very very very careful what you do in here.
Look for "Boot Sequence" and make it so 1st is the CD drive, doesn't really matter whats next but I usually have HDD (Hard Disk Drive, or Hard Drive) second.

What I meant by backing up her files by removing the HDD is.....when you are sure this is what you are going to do, take the HDD out of her machine, change the jumper on the back (little plastic thing connecting 2 little pins) to "Slave (it should say on the top of the drive which one is slave.
Plug it into a different machine (lets say, your pc), it should show up as a storage device. then you can get to her Document files as if they were on a CD and copy what she wants to keep to your PC.
Reverse the process and move the jumper back to master.

Chuck in the disc, boot it up, you'll get "Press any key to boot from disc" and away you go. Warning, doing this will erase EVERYTHING on that hard drive.

Like I said, thats what I would do, please do not do it if you are unsure, research it first.
There's masses of reading material on this site and the net about exactly what I'm talking about.

Again, someone else may come up with a solution yet.

 

I wouldn't do a reformat because you haven't exhausted all possibilities for fixing and is a lazy way out excuse.

What you may need to do is an "xp repair install" or an "in-place upgrade.

I'd make a backup of your hard drive(s) first to preserve whatever data is on there.

 

shes not been able to boot into the bios? whas specific button does she hit, she's tried all the F1-12 ones, does she need to try another one? she called dell and they told her to reinstall also and back up her files, the only thing she really really don't want to lose is her pictures, is there a way other then backing up her files to save this pictures. I know when mine got a reinstall all my pictures where still on my computer...

 

she was able to get into the bios last night when she was talking to the ppl at dell, they had her do a few things but nothing work, he told her that she did need to do a reinstall

 

I explained how to do it in my above post.

If you don't know how to remove and replace jumpers and HDD's then maybe you shouldn't be doing it because thats what it reuquires.

I also never mentioned F1 or F12, I said Del. to get into BIOS.

 

I did noticed ur previous post after i replied, sorry for the confusion. But is there anyway she could save her pictures without doing the backup that obviously someone else would have to do? That is all she is worried about. She did get into her bios but nothing that her and the dell "expert" did helped so she realizes that a reinstall is nessasary but does not want to lose her photos and doesn't want to get into the hard drive herself cause she dont know what to do and doesnt' want to mess anything up even more. And she is currently unemployed and dont have money to take it and pay someone to back up her files. Again it is her photos that she doesnt want to lose, when my computer had a reinstall not to long ago and the photos on my computer survived...

 

If she cannot boot windows in any way shape or form then I don't know any other way to get the pics off the drive.
It's actually a lot less scary than it looks/sounds to back them up, with the right info and pictures to explain you could probably do it.

One other thing, you need to find the drivers for the machine for when you format it.
The model of the machine will help us help you find them. EG: Optiplex 260

If you give me some time (a day or 2) I will try and make a simplified tutorial for you, I know whats it's like to have no money, hell thats why I know what I know, because I could never afford to have someone repair my PC lol

This would be much easier via email. I'll try and work something out.

 

Question - How badly does she want the pictures?

I'm going to give you a technical way of getting the pictures off of the hard drive if it is not totally bad. You will need someone who is technically savy. Build a Bart PE bootable cd and plug in a flash drive into the machine. Boot with the BArt PE Cd and copy the files to the flash drive.

This is not for the beginner.....