Laptop bluescreen on boot

My son's laptop just arrived home by itself in the post. Dad is supposed to fix it as Dad can fix anything...right.

This is a Packard Bell. Model Argo C2, Core 2 Duo. Running Vista. Thought I'd try to boot it from UBCD, but it doesn't want to play.

Symptoms:

It shows the "Windows did not start" black and white screen. Whichever option is chosen it starts to load windows files, but then goes to BSOD which is doesn't give you time to read before rebooting - but I can see that the BSOD is "unmountable boot volume".

I've had a poke around in the BIOS and the boot order is definately DVD/CD followed by HDD.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks.

 

Sorry to bump, but I'm thinking this message might have been missed.

 

Greetings, trogladyte.

While in BIOS, do you see your hard drive? You might try re-acquiring the drive - for that matter, you might try physically re-seating the drive.

Also within BIOS, set everything to default 'Safe' settings to clear any UDMA, and see if there are any changes.

Do you have the Vista disk and/or a system recovery disk? If so, have you tried booting to it?

 

Hi Caliban - great name, btw.

Yes, I can see the HDD in the BIOS.

I can now boot from CD and have run chkdsk/r (found loads of problems...) and have also run the MBR fix from the command prompt. This at least now means that when you load the recovery console it recognises a VISTA installation. But attempting a fix now results in the machine attempting to reboot and then saying that the Vista installation has not completed, and to reinstall from disc.

I don't have a vista disc. I think on this machine the vista installation files are on a partition on the HDD, but I am struggling to access it. It's supposed to be accessible via F11 on boot, but it doesn't want to play.

Many thanks indeed for your help - appreciate it.

 

If you're able to boot to UBCD, can you see the recovery partition using Parted Magic or Super Grub? You might be able to steer the boot.ini to the recovery partition.

Also, another shot: download and burn NeoSmart's Vista Recovery Disc - see if there's anything there that might help.

 

Can't seem to get UBCD to work - may give it another try. The boot CD I have seems just to be the Vista recovery console.

I'll try the NeoSmart and let you know how I get on.

Do the symptoms so far suggest that the HDD has flaked out?

 

Ah...the NeoSmart is the boot CD I am using.

 

Sure sounds like the HD may be suspect, especially since you're seeing chkdsk errors and failed installs. Can you find out the drive manufacturer? If so, you might be able to crank up the OEM's diagnostics tools, see if anything can be done from that angle.

 

OK.

I have now managed to get in to the machine with UBCD. I can see the recovery partition, and now that chkdsk has done its thing, everything seems to be working normally - except Windows, that is.

I'm a bit out of my depth now, so would appreciate some guidance. I am not sure how I can access the recovery partition, and check to see if it is sound, and then use it to reinstall Vista.

Or, do I stand a chace of getting a copy of Vista from MS or Packard Bell?

Or, am I flogging a dead horse, and need to reformat and install Linux?

 

Oh yeah...the drive is a Seagate. The details were available from one of the UBCD applications I was playing with. Does this help?

 

Sounds like the HD may be ok, but it wouldn't hurt to run any Seagate tools the UBCD might have.

I'm assuming you've tried all combinations for booting to the recovery partition?

I'm wondering if there may be some .ini or setup files that would allow you to burn the partition as .iso disks - you could try a live Linux distro like Mint to look inside and either burn some disks, or copy to a machine that could burn as images.

 

Not sure what you mean about all combinations of booting to the recovery partition.

Soon after i started this game I tried hitting F11 on boot, and it opened the Packard Bell recovery system. This ofered a Windows utility to fix the startup and it said "Try this first". It aso offered a complete reinstall. I tried the startup fix, which failed, and I have not been able to get back to the recovery system since.

 

OK I think I have access to the recovery partition, through the NeoSmart Vista Recovery disc. It recognises the partition, and recognises my Vista product code (I'm amazed, but yes I do have it!). But when I ask it to reinstall Vista, ot goes rooting about in the partition before delcaring that the following file does not exist "D:\sources\install.wim. The only file in that directory appears to be boot.wim.

Any thoughts? Is the data in the partition corrupt? I've started thinking about Ubuntu. Should I? And if I did, would I want to format first?

 

Sorry about the confusion - the nomenclature differences between Recovery Console (Windows) and Recovery Partition (Packard Bell) mixed me up.

By all means, try booting to a Linux distro that you're comfortable with.

I suggest again to try to pull the data from the Recovery Partition - if the files there are presented to the machine as bootable disks, you might get a little further with repairing/replacing the Vista install.

If not, then I'm with you as far as wiping and installing Linux as your OS.

 

Hi Caliban

Thanks for all your help. I used the UBCD tools to have a good nose around in the hard drive, and recovered everything that looked important (not too much, thankfully). And then I bit the bullet - reformatted the drive and loaded Ubuntu.

I'm really very pleased indeed with the result. I've never used a Linux distro before, and I'm taking t it very well. Trouble is, I'm taking to it so well, I don't want to give this laptop back to my son...

Thanks again.

 

Good job! Glad you're up and running, and thanks for the feedback. :major

 

Just be careful with Ubuntu. It's a great OS from a security standpoint, but I have to tell you that the updates leave something to be desired. To wit, the last time I did an Ubuntu update, it corrupted the boot sector to my HD. In otherwords, you might be back in the same situation as you were before with Vista.

I am surprised that the Windows disc did not repair the issue.

 

Me too. but I think the problem was that I needed to restore loads of windows files. I didn't have a disc with the Vista files on it - the files were on the recovery partition of the hard disk. And the recovery partition itself was damaged.

If my son had made recovery disks in the first place, then I suppose it would have worked fine. But what's the point in being young, if you can't be reckless?