Getting BSoD everytime I boot up from shutdown...

Question

Hi everyone, I posted this in another forum, but I think its more a Windows problem than anything. Anyway. So I bought my Inspiron 8600 two and a half years ago and it has been brilliant up until very recently. I have been getting the dreaded blue screen of death ("unmountable hard drive" - have read up online about this problem, nothing conclusive was really found) pretty much every time I start up windows when the computer is off. I then have to try a few methods of trying to get in via safe mode or through the "use last configuration that works" option from the boot menu, and hope that something works. Interestingly once I get windows started and then go to restart, it will USUALLY restart just fine.

I think it's either something to do with my hard drive being a bit messed up, my boot.ini file being a bit messed up OR my graphics card (boot lingers on AGP440.sys for a while). I have attempted a few methods of diagnosing the problem, but I'm not that knowledgable and it's difficult to ascertain what the problem is from within windows as if I'm in windows it means everything booted up OK and there isn't a problem that time. If that made sense....

Anyway, my logic isn't necessarily to get the problem fixed myself but instead send it back to Dell and let them do whatever. I wouldn't have a problem with a ful re-format as I have all my peronal files backed up and it would speed thing up. I don't want to go and try re-installing windows either as I would rather see what Dell can do for me.

What, in people's experience are Dell likely to offer to me and say, as I have never had to have any major dealings with their support. I have a three year warranty and accidental cover that is still in date, so should be covered for anything I imagine? Can I ask them to take it away and fix everything up (even request for them to format and re-install everything?), and will I be charged? Sorry for the questions, I would just rather make use of my warranty instead of attempting a re-format and windows re-install if that's whats needed.

Thanks a lot (in advance!) for the opinions.

Flooby · Answer

Have you tried removing and reseating the hard drive and RAM, and/or booting to Safe Mode and attempting a System Restore to a point prior to when the problem first occurred?  If not, those would be my first suggestions, and since Dell will more than likely require you to try all of the above before they authorize a service call, you'll be ahead of the game.

wheatln2 · Answer

Hi there, thanks for the response.

Booting to Safe Mode does not always work, and will only bring me back to the BSoD.

When I eventually did get into Windows, I attempted to go back to a restore point, but they had all disappeared. I used to periodically create one every few weeks, plus I believe XP creates them when you install new software etc. My memory had gone down to about a gig before I deleted some stuff so perhaps this ended up deleting the system restore points?!

I haven't removed the RAM or the hard drive, nor do I know how to restore them.

Flooby · Answer

wheatln2 wrote:
I haven't removed the RAM or the hard drive, nor do I know how to restore them.

See your Users Guide, under "Adding and Replacing Parts," - "Adding Memory" + "Replacing the Hard Drive."

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins8500/en/en.htm

tgsmith · Answer

WheatIn2, You said that your memory had gone down to about 1 gigabyte.  I assume here that you're talking about the free space left on your hard drive.  If your system restore points had disappeared, then you were running extremely low on free hard drive space.  Doesn't take many songs or images to eat up a gigabyte of storage space.  The reason you're getting the 'Unmountable boot volume' message could mean Windows doesn't have enough free hard drive space or, due to corrupt file allocation table, 'thinks' it doesn't have enough free space to create enough virtual memory to properly initialize.  See this link regarding 'Unmountable boot volume' error message:  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555302   Per this link, I recommend that you insert your Windows XP CD.  Restart computer.  While Dell logo is still on screen, press F12.  Select CD/DVD ROM as boot device, and press Enter.  If you are prompted to 'Press any key to boot to CD..'  do so.  At Windows setup screen, press R to enter Recovery Console.  When prompted enter 1 for Windows installation, and press Enter.  When prompted for password, just press Enter.  At the command prompt, type  CHKDSK /R.      Be patient, if your drive is corrupt or has bad sectors this process can take a while.   Let us know what you find.   Tony      Message Edited by tgsmith on 07-19-200601:43 PM

wheatln2 · Answer

Thanks for that tgsmith, it was very useful. I have my XP CD at home I think, and so will try and run chkdsk /r on Saturday when I have access to it. I attempted a regular chkdsk before when I started up in safe mode with just cmd but had no real look. Anyway, will run that and see what happens. I think the BSoD has been appearing since I've been about left with about 2-3gigs of free space on my hard drive.

Will let you know how I get on, thanks for the responses!

RottieLover · Answer

If I do this recovery thing will I loose everything on my Hard drive???

tgsmith · Answer

RottieLover,   No.  The Recovery Console is designed for situations wherein Windows will not boot.  It is different from a reinstall or clean install of Windows XP.  More information is here:  http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314058.   Dell users that have Dell PC Restore by Symantec partition please note:   Do not use fixmbr or other Recovery Console commands that deal with the master boot record.  Doing so will make the PC Restore partition inaccessible.    Tony

wheatln2 · Answer

Hi everyone, so I ran chkdsk /r and it took quite a while but managed to get

"CHKDSK found and fixed one or more errors on the disk"

so that can't be bad. I'm contemplating re-installing Windows anyway though, as i imagine it would do no harm. Can anyone tell me whether this is wise and whether there are any side-effects from an OS re-install.

Thanks guys.

wheatln2 · Answer

And equally, if I should go for the new copy of XP option, or simply upgrade? I am aware I'll lose some data with the first option though I do have most backed up and am happy to re-install my software if it will improve performance. Message Edited by wheatln2 on 07-22-200605:59 PM

tgsmith · Answer

Wheatln2,

If you plan to reinstall XP, you might like to visit Denny Denham's site: http://www.djdenham.com/Install%20Procedures.htm. Denny pretty much covers the pros and cons of repair install, reinstall, and upgrade install of Windows XP.

Tony

wheatln2 · Answer

OK, so I went and did a repair install yesterday.

I have found that Windows is more stable (in that I'm not getting BSoD or any other errors), but I'm unable to run Windows Update for some reason. I've tried the fixes proposed on the Microsoft site but they don't work.

Anyway, I'm not inclined to try doing a clean format and re-install of Windows. I have used the Files and Setting transfer wizard that comes on the XP CD, and generated 25GB of *.dat files on my external hard drive.

I'm just wondering about re-installing drivers. I am pretty sure that I have all the original discs that came from Dell, but will I be completely messed up if I can't find them, or how condition will the Windows re-install leave my machine (screen res, sound, pointing devices etc etc?).

Thanks once again, especialy tgsmith, you've been very helpful so far.

tgsmith · Answer

Wheatln2,

Drivers for the Inspiron 8600 are available here: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4M_8600&os=WW1&osl=EN

Recommend you download them to a folder. Burn or copy that folder to a CD-R or R/W.

If you do a clean install, the order of installation is chipset drivers first, followed by audio, video, network card, modem, etc. in any order thereafter.

Found this site that lists numerous fixes that others have found for Windows Update error message(s). : http://www.updatexp.com/0x800A138F.html . Maybe one of this will fix your problem since xp reinstall apparently hasn't.

Tony

RottieLover · Answer

I called the Dell Support line and was on the phone for over an 1hr and a half and he did a chkdsk /r and it fixed my problem. Now I can burn my pictures to CD's for future use.

Thank you for your help.

wheatln2 · Answer

Wow, thanks for the link, it will be most useful. I presume I'll be able to get all the names of the drivers I need from Device Manager.
>
>I have my Dell Drivers CD that came with the laptop, i can't quite work out what's on it but can I expect it to have everything I need (even optional extras like the ATI Graphics card?)

tgsmith · Answer

Wheatln2, Yes.   The Dell Drivers CD should have all the drivers you need for the Inspiron.  Once you reinstall Windows, insert the CD.  Install the drivers, chipset first.  If you didn't get a separate disk for the ATI card, the drivers should be on the Dell CD.  Tony

Windows General

Getting BSoD everytime I boot up from shutdown...

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