XP X64 Recovery

My boys computer (6.0 Gig Athlon Dual Core w/ 2 Gig RAM) has worked stabily for over a month. It started rebooting right after loading the blue load screen, even in safe mode.
I put the XP disk in and pulled the recovery mode up and got what appears to be a DOS prompt after the following text.


Microsoft Windows(R) Recovery Console.

The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality.

Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.

C:\>_


So now what?

 

Usually, you would use recovery console to replace the file causing your reboots with a good copy from disc.

We'll need to identify the problem first, however. Have you run through the HOW TO: Debug Memory Dumps (Figure out what is causing a BSOD) tutorial?

This should help you narrow down the issue. Once you have the name of the file, you would use the expand command in recovery console to "unzip" a good copy from disc to the correct location in your filesystem. (Assuming it is not a 3rd party driver, like video card drivers, sound card, etc)

Do note that if you DO restore a copy from the Windows install disc, that you should run Windows Updates on the machine again to patch it if it is out of date.

 

The core problem is the blue screen goes by so fast there isn't any way to stop it, let alone read it. It goes through the whole boot procedure, flashes the blue screen after the little star trek scroll on the monitor, and resets, so no joy there. In safe mode it loads the drivers, then resets, no blue screen.

I may have to do a reinstall, but first I want to try everything else first.

Like I said, this computer ran for over a month connected to high speed internet, so it should be current on the updates. If anything it could be an update gone bad, but without the ability to run it in safe mode...

Before we go any further I've noticed some oddness, and realized that he may have tried some things to fix it himself. Like moving the primary and secondary IDE cables around. I'll get back with you all when I go through some basics first.

 

Ahh, right... this is so much more difficult since it's not a one-time thing.

There is a registry setting that will keep the machine from rebooting when you hit a blue screen, but that requires special tools to edit the registry offline, or for the drive to be mounted in another NT machine.

I haven't done this myself, but there are rough instructions here:

http://www.mcse.ms/message2341493.html

If you are interested.

Also, about updates, you would only need to re-patch if you replaced any files with older versions from disc.

I guess what you're saying is that the machine uses Auto Updates, so I suppose that would be taken care of for you.

 

OK, we got the hardware where it should be. Previous experience suggested reversed primary and secondary disk interfaces could have contributed to the problem.

I tried using something called Automated System Recovery, this time it asked for a floppy (didn't on the previous setup). Should I have made a floppy for this situation? I'm guessing it might have had the registry on it.

The other thing I'm thinking of trying is taking a camera and recording the blue screen to see if I can slow it down or freeze it. I figure it lasts about 2 frames, just long enough for me to see it without being able to make any details out.

At this point we are ready to reinstall (he wants his computer back). I'd like to know if there is something I could do differently for next time. The XP Pro X64 is pretty different than my computers OS. It never did detect AVG Free as a virus scanner, unlike my computer.

I'm open to other suggestions. Thanks for the help so far.

 

The screen only comes up for milliseconds, so no joy there.