Unfortunately after shutting the computer down after it finished 3 hours later i woke up the next morning to find that as soon as the dektop loads i get the dreaded "blue screen of death" and my laptop restarts only to do it over and over again as soon as i log in...
Will the system start in "Safe Mode"? Type the F8 key as Win2K is starting, and see if you can start that way. Regarding the crash, what module does the "bluescreen" report as the location of the crash? Were any changes made just before this problem began happening?
Any help on this matter would certainly be great seeing how i currently do not have the software to re install the system and there are quite a few things, family photos, reports etc that i would still like to save if possible
You'll need the Win2K CD to reinstall the system. But you can do a "parallel installation" if you're not able to resolve the problem with the current installation. That will preserve the contents of the hard drive.
You can try a "repair install". I found
this note, which is a better description than I could have written, explaining how to do this.
There's a possibility that the filesystem is damaged, given that all this happened right after a seemingly successful defragmentation. That might have resulted from problems with the hard drive. You can check that by booting to the Dell diagnostic CD, and having it check the hard drive for errors.
(edit) What kind of Stop code do you receive? What module is listed at the address where the Stop occurred? Here's a sample:
srry the blue screen flashes for only a split second and then machine restarts almost instantly, withought rebooting and loging on about 20 times i cant get it in detail but i will try to write down as much of it as possible but all i can seem to make out so far is that is wahts it says about phys memory dump...
I havent tried the re-install but am thinking i can go to the f8 startup menu and get it to load from the cd rom drive,
My copy of Win2k arrives tomarrow and i will use that to attept a parellel instal or if that doesnt work ill be forced to start over. Im thinking this would be alot easier if the dell bios wasnt locked up because ive been told on other forums that i need to set the video ram to the actual ram to get it to reboot proberly but i cant access it from the Dell bios due to... security protocals?
anyway, ill try the para. inst. but if that doesnt work is there anyway to hook a laptop hd to pc as a slave? or are the two completely incompatable?
or to hook a laptop to pc as a slave without taking the hd out?
I don't think that's possible. But I believe I've seen notes about removing hard drives from laptops and attaching them to other machines for recovery of files. What model is the laptop? If I can find anything out about hooking the hard drive up to a PC, I'll post back.
If you can't get the BIOS to let you boot from the Win2K CD, you may be stymied!
safe mode will not log me in, i get a message saying my login is invalid
i dont have a backup of this os or any other os
and when i use a dos boot disc from my computor, running windows xp, it wont let me reformat giving me the messege " bad command or file name" -- i can get a new os at sams or costco if i can just get this thing re-formatted, ive found a disc with some of the pics i wanted to keep but ive given up repairing this thing and just want it running again.
is there any way to re-format the computor easily?
Trent, you have me puzzled. Earlier you'd said, "the laptop will not start in safe mode, the same problem occurs". But now you're saying that the only problem with safe mode login is an invalid password. If it's a password problem, can you log in to the machine's "administrator" account?
If you want to install XP, you should be able to boot from an XP CD, and format from there. All that's built in to the CDs for XP. Since you found the pictures, that may be the best way to proceed. You should check that the BIOS is up to date. The currently available version for the C500/C600 is this...
Release Title: BIOS: Dell Latitude C600 System BIOS, English, Latitude C500 / C600, A23
Release Date: 7/17/2003
When the machine boots, press F2, and you can determine what the currently installed BIOS is from the BIOS setup display.
While you may be able to install XP with the current BIOS, it's generally a good idea to update the BIOS before installing XP. Given the tenuous state of your machine, I'm not sure what to suggest.
to be honest with you it did no work earlier and after i pidled around with it it got to the safe screen and wouldent accept my login. at present i have no clue what i did to it but it boots normally now.
just incase anyone else needs this info
when booting press f5
it will ask which os (windows or dos) to boot
hit f8 this will take you to a somewhat extended version of the regular f8 selection,
on that list there is a system restore safe mode option, it should be noticed by its being labled "for domain users only"
running this option corrected or re-arranged files and started in safe mode where i was able to un-install service pack four.
The laptop now boots well but runs a bit slow, i am going to re-format the hard drive and re-install the operating system to get out any kinks after i save what i need to keep to a floppy disc.
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
April 27th, 2004 05:00
Will the system start in "Safe Mode"? Type the F8 key as Win2K is starting, and see if you can start that way. Regarding the crash, what module does the "bluescreen" report as the location of the crash? Were any changes made just before this problem began happening?
Any help on this matter would certainly be great seeing how i currently do not have the software to re install the system and there are quite a few things, family photos, reports etc that i would still like to save if possible
You'll need the Win2K CD to reinstall the system. But you can do a "parallel installation" if you're not able to resolve the problem with the current installation. That will preserve the contents of the hard drive.
Jim
TLowery
8 Posts
0
April 27th, 2004 21:00
the laptop will not start in safe mode, the same problem occurs~
if I re-install the os will it erase the previous os? or will it just stabilize it?
I'm not 100% sure what is involved but as far as I know I'm going to have to format and re-install =(
if there is any way to circumvent this Id like to know but if not, I guess its all I can do.
Trent
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
April 27th, 2004 22:00
There's a possibility that the filesystem is damaged, given that all this happened right after a seemingly successful defragmentation. That might have resulted from problems with the hard drive. You can check that by booting to the Dell diagnostic CD, and having it check the hard drive for errors.
(edit) What kind of Stop code do you receive? What module is listed at the address where the Stop occurred? Here's a sample:
*** STOP: 0x0000080A
(0xBAD0BC,0x00000FF,0x00000000,0x80416B67)
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
*** Address 80416B67 base at 80400000, DateStamp 3ee6c002 - ntoskrnl.exe
The name of the module might provide a hint as to what's wrong, as well as the STOP code (0x0000080A in the sample).
Jim
Message Edited by jimw on 04-27-2004 04:49 PM
TLowery
8 Posts
0
April 28th, 2004 05:00
srry the blue screen flashes for only a split second and then machine restarts almost instantly, withought rebooting and loging on about 20 times i cant get it in detail but i will try to write down as much of it as possible but all i can seem to make out so far is that is wahts it says about phys memory dump...
Thanks
Trent
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
April 29th, 2004 03:00
Have you tried the repair install?
Jim
TLowery
8 Posts
0
April 29th, 2004 21:00
well shoot...
I havent tried the re-install but am thinking i can go to the f8 startup menu and get it to load from the cd rom drive,
My copy of Win2k arrives tomarrow and i will use that to attept a parellel instal or if that doesnt work ill be forced to start over. Im thinking this would be alot easier if the dell bios wasnt locked up because ive been told on other forums that i need to set the video ram to the actual ram to get it to reboot proberly but i cant access it from the Dell bios due to... security protocals?
anyway, ill try the para. inst. but if that doesnt work is there anyway to hook a laptop hd to pc as a slave? or are the two completely incompatable?
Thanks again
Trent
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
April 29th, 2004 21:00
I don't think that's possible. But I believe I've seen notes about removing hard drives from laptops and attaching them to other machines for recovery of files. What model is the laptop? If I can find anything out about hooking the hard drive up to a PC, I'll post back.
If you can't get the BIOS to let you boot from the Win2K CD, you may be stymied!
Jim
TLowery
8 Posts
0
April 29th, 2004 21:00
TLowery
8 Posts
0
April 30th, 2004 04:00
the laptop is a c600/c500 as far as i can tell
safe mode will not log me in, i get a message saying my login is invalid
i dont have a backup of this os or any other os
and when i use a dos boot disc from my computor, running windows xp, it wont let me reformat giving me the messege " bad command or file name" -- i can get a new os at sams or costco if i can just get this thing re-formatted, ive found a disc with some of the pics i wanted to keep but ive given up repairing this thing and just want it running again.
is there any way to re-format the computor easily?
Thanks again
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
April 30th, 2004 05:00
If you want to install XP, you should be able to boot from an XP CD, and format from there. All that's built in to the CDs for XP. Since you found the pictures, that may be the best way to proceed. You should check that the BIOS is up to date. The currently available version for the C500/C600 is this...
Release Title: BIOS: Dell Latitude C600 System BIOS, English, Latitude C500 / C600, A23
Release Date: 7/17/2003
When the machine boots, press F2, and you can determine what the currently installed BIOS is from the BIOS setup display.
While you may be able to install XP with the current BIOS, it's generally a good idea to update the BIOS before installing XP. Given the tenuous state of your machine, I'm not sure what to suggest.
Jim
TLowery
8 Posts
0
May 2nd, 2004 14:00
Well Jim,
to be honest with you it did no work earlier and after i pidled around with it it got to the safe screen and wouldent accept my login. at present i have no clue what i did to it but it boots normally now.
just incase anyone else needs this info
when booting press f5
it will ask which os (windows or dos) to boot
hit f8 this will take you to a somewhat extended version of the regular f8 selection,
on that list there is a system restore safe mode option, it should be noticed by its being labled "for domain users only"
running this option corrected or re-arranged files and started in safe mode where i was able to un-install service pack four.
The laptop now boots well but runs a bit slow, i am going to re-format the hard drive and re-install the operating system to get out any kinks after i save what i need to keep to a floppy disc.
Thanks for all your help Jim, I appreciate it !
Trent