I need help with a crash

Hi all, First I must say I am a 42 year old housewife, and not computer savy in the least. We have been dealing with some kind of virus for the past few days. I have seen vundo and we had all kinds of pop ups warning us of problems. We tried lots of free software, but now things have completely shut down. When I start it up, I get a black screen that says floppy diskette failure or something, then the black screen with the option to start in safe or normal mode. No matter what I pick, I get a blue screen that says a problem has been detected and windows has shut down. Now it is frozen. Look, I don't care about this stupid thing anymore. All I want is to get on long enough to get my 9 year old son's vacation pictures off, then throw it out. I don't have the option of putting the windows software disk in because I can't find it. ANYONE? My son will thank you.

 

you need to find that disk or get it off a friend please also let us know what o/s you have

 

What is the exact error, word for word? (The blue screen error)

 

If o/s means operating system, we have windows xp. Thank you for getting back to me. It is 11:00 here in Indiana, and I need to force my kids to bed. I will check back tomorrow for replies. Thank you again. Just knowing there are people out there that might be able to help will make me sleep much better.

 

Gosh where do I start? It says a problem as been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage. If this is the first time you have seen this stop error screen, restart your comp. if this screen appears again, follow these steps. check for viruses on your computer. remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. run chkdsk/f to check for hard frive corruption, and then restart your comp. tech info. ***stop: 0x00000007b (0xf789e524,0x0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000) Hope that means something to you. It is 11:00 here in Indiana. My kids are still up, and the dog needs to go out. I will check back tomorrow. It's been a long day with this thing. Thank you so much for getting back to me.

 

A Stop 0x7b should be easy to fix. I will leave some instructions for you.

Put in your XP CD, and boot to it. Choose 'R' for Recovery Console and log in.

Then, run this command at the prompt:

chkdsk /r

It will take some time to complete.

 

you got to find that disk

 

Thanks, the only problem is I can't find my xp disk. I will have to do some digging tomorrow and try and find it. thanks for your help. I will check back in the morning.

 

Recover your files like so ...
Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/

In order to run chkdsk /r, you may make your own bootable CD .... (if you can't find your XP installation CD)
Download the XP Recovery Console
http://www.thecomputerparamedic.com/files/rc.iso
Burn the .ISO image to CD and boot from it to load the XP Recovery Console.
Use ImgBurn if you don't have appropriate burning software ...
Download ImgBurn
http://www.imgburn.com/

@ Adrynalyne "A Stop 0x7b should be easy to fix"
I have said that myself .... but, on the one occasion that I dared to put it in print, it didn't turn out that way, so I am more cautious about what I write now. I will be watching with interest .... Good luck.

Edit: @ Kari ... if Adrynalyne has any trouble with that 0x7b fix, you may find that Ubuntu CD useful to fix the Windows XP system, as well as retrieving your son's pics?

 

I dare put it in writing, because I understand what the error is, and why it happens.

If the hardware is not failing, there aren't a lot of other posibilities as for the cause.

0x7b is an inaccessible boot device--the filesystem cannot be read.

 

I think you guys are great! However, reading your posts is like me reading French, and I don't speak French! Well, I found my disks. Now which one do I use the operating system one or the drivers and utilities one? And will it run on its own, or do I have to chose F12. Also, Adrynalyne, you said last night it should be an easy fix, but from your new post, I wonder if it will be. Thank you AustraAlien for your post, but to me Ubuntu live CD sounds like a rock band. I have no clue what that means. I need to be talked to like a five year old for me to understand what you are saying. Sorry, this is a whole new world to me.

 

Well, lets begin from the start.

How many CDs do you have?


There should be just one. Let me know what they are and I will get back to you after my Chemical Engineering lecture.

 

The operating system one.
And yes, you are going to have to press
F12, and select CD drive.

When you get to a blue-ish screen, after it loads (should take a few minutes) you will get the option to "Press Enter to Install or Press R to start recovery console".

Press r at that screen.

When it says Select an operating system, type in 1 then hit enter.

When it says to log in, type in Administrator then hit enter twice.

Type in chkdsk /r and press enter. Let it run.

Zack

 

OK I put in the disk that said operating system microsoft windows xp media center version. The other disk says drivers and utilities and contains device drivers and diagnostics and utilities. Anyway, it took me forever to get it to run (it wouldn't on its own), and I am still not sure how it did. I have a black screen that says floppy diskette seek failure strike F1 to continue or f2 to run set up. I messed around in set up, then hit esc. I have no idea what I did, but it started to run. I hit r for recovery, then it asked what windows installation I wanted. Didn't know what to do, so I googled it, and someone said to put in 1, so I did. then it asked for admin password. No clue what that could be, so I guessed 3 times and it kicked me out. Now I can't figure how I got the disk to run to try again. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 

I typed admin and hit twice, but it said command not recognized type help for a list of supported commands. Now I have this list that starts with attrib, batch, bootcfg, cd chdir, chkdsk, cls, copy, del, delete, etc... now what?

 

Hi, Kari...

Type in chkdsk /r and press enter...

 

I did that, and it said command not recog. type help for list which is where I am now.

 

Try chkdsk, without the /r...

 

You need to make sure there is a space between the k and the slash

 

Ok, that did something, I don't know what. by the way, I know NOTHING about computers. it said volume created 12/15/06 and its serial number. then the volume appears to be in good condition and was not checked. use /p if you want to check the volume anyway. 151340332 kilobytes disk space 113119688 kilobytes are avail. then more numbers for allocation unit, units on dis, and available on disk. Last I haved the c:/windows> prompt.

 

Which worked: the chkdsk, or the chkdsk /r?

 

the chkdks

 

I mean chkdsk

 

Ok, now try to run chkdsk /r, and, as zDawg32 warned, pay attention to the space...

 

Great! THANK YOU THANK YOU! It says chkdsk is performing additional checking or recovery. It is at 58% completed. How long will it run? Then most importantly, what in the heck do I do when it is done. I am just trying to get on to see if my son's pictures are there to put on disk. What will it say when completed and where do I go? I can't thank you enough for helping me this far.
Kari

 

it could take 5-10 minutes, maybe longer. when it's done, shut down and reboot.

 

Here is where I am. I think it is done. what I have now is it found and fixed one or more errors on the volume, and all the bytes allocated and available. I have the c:/windows prompt again. What now? Do I remove the disk from the hard drive, shut it off manually and fire it up without the disk? Or do I type something in at the prompt?

 

Type exit, it will reboot you.

 

I typed exit, and came up with the same black screen that says a lot of stuff, but ends with floppy diskette seek failure strike the f1 key to continue, f2 to run the setup utility.

 

Do you have a floppy in the drive?

 

I didn't take the windows xp disk out because I wasn't sure if I should, now it won't open to get it out.

 

I meant an actual floppy disk. Hard plastic 3.25 inches, square. Old, deprecated, etc etc What happens if you hit F2?

 

did you use a cd or a floppy

 

well this is where my lack of computer knowlege really shows. I don't see a place to put a floppy. I only have one drive for a disk that I can see. We have a dell demension E520 if that gives you anything. F2 gives me a blue screen with system processor info. memory info. fci info date/time, boot sequences, then drives onboard devices, video performance, security, power management, maintenance, and post behavior

 

I talked to my husband, he's the smart one he said there is no place for a floppy. news to me!

 

Alright. Have your husband reset the bios defaults, then report back.

 

ok it must be a cd
To run the Recovery Console from the Windows XP startup disks or the Windows XP CD-ROM, follow these steps:

1. Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.

Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted.
2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the Recovery Console.
4. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.note it should be blank
now you should be at the command prompt C:\ type this and hit enter"fixmbr" it will promt you with are you sure your answer Y it will tell you a new mbr was sucsesful
then type "exit" and enter the computer will reboot do not touch the keyboard it should restart fine if not let us know

 

ok, he isn't home from work yet, but I will ask him when he gets here. Under my system info it lists BIOS version = 2.0.5 (11/30/06) At the bottom it says none of these fields are changeable. Then in the boot sequence it lists the order that the bios searches devices when trying to find an operating system. only those with a number are bootable (the space key controls whether a particular device is bootable. the list is: onboard or usb floppy drive (not present) , onboard sata hard drive (not present), samsung hd160jj/p, onboard or usb cd rom drive, onboard network controller (not present) and usb device (not present). So if I understand this, bios is first trying to find a usb floppy drive when trying to find an operating system. Why is that, if we don't have a place to put a floppy? I also have drives which has a group of options and settings related to the drives and hard drive controller. the list is diskette drive, sata 0,1,2,3,4,5 and sata operations. I can use enter to view or change the fields in this group. I don't know if any of this helps.

 

Newbielee, I did something like that earlier today, but typed in chkdsk /r and when that didn't work I used chkdsk only, and that started the recovery check. After that, I was right back where I started with the same message, floppy diskette seek failure.

 

I am just looking around in the system info. I expanded the drives info. and am now looking at info on the diskette drive. It says off, usb, internal (which is highlighted) and read only. then it says, this field determines how the bios config floppy drives. operating systems with usb support will recognize usb floppy drives regardless of this setting. my options are off meaning all disabled, usb meaning enabled, internal (the one selected) meaning intergrated floppy drive is enabled, and read only, meaning it is enabled and allows reads only. The factory default is internal. Is this something I should change to off?

 

would it work to restore defaults to what they were when it left the factory. That is an option under maint.

 

Try the factory defaults.

 

that is due to the xp disk loading new registry hives when you boot from it

the recovery consol is the "R" for repair and you must fix the boot partition
then your pc will boot from the hard drive again

and after that you will not see the missing things it tells you about now
you have to ignore them

is that an easy way of telling someone about boot.ini and kurnel dumps
lol

 

Hi, right now my husband is in the system tree and is running a test under system cannot boot the o/s. It is 50% done. If we get nothing, then I will try what you suggested. When I first ran it with the chkdks, i typed 1 for which windows install. Do I still use 1? aslo, I don't know my admin. password. Can I again type in admin and hit enter twice?

 

yes 1 will be the windows
administrator password should be blank just enter

 

thanks, Joel, my husband, is still running this test from the system tree he found. It said to run it if you can't boot the os. It is only 61% done. So far everything has passed. Not sure how! If nothing happens, I will do what you said. It may not be tonight. This stupid computer has sucked up my whole day and night. I will report back when I run it. Thanks again!
Kari

 

Newbielee, I am back at it again this evening. This is my last attempt. An IT guy at my husband's job says he might be able to help if this doesn't work. I am attempting to try what you suggested. The problem I am having is, I put the disk it, but it just will not run. I don't know how I got it to run before. I was in the setup menu, and when I exited, it just started. I have tried that, but nothing. Any ideas how I can get the disk to run?

 

This is likely to be your best option at this time.

If the above does not work out ... get back to this thread, and I will "hold your hand" while walking you through the steps to retrieve the pics that you want.
(and then maybe work on a 0x7b fix ... ? ... if you wish)

Good luck.
'Alien

 

Thanks so much for all your help. At this point all i want for xmas to get my son's pictures of this stupid machine, oh yeah, and a sledge hammer to destroy it when i am done

 

Understood.

However, with some effort (untold patience and time), and a steep learning curve, you will most likely to be able to get that box of nuts and bolts back to "as new" shape ... unless of course you are able to find a sledge-hammer in the meantime?