Unable to boot or reinstall Windows

Question

I have spent the last 4 days troubleshooting this problem and have finally reached my wits end: I would be very grateful for any advice

On Wednesday my Inspiron 300m bombed with a DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL stop message; after that, Windows wouldn't load (in safe mode or last known good). After about 10 hours, I managed to get in using the recovery console from the XP cd, used system restore to go back several days before (when everything was fine), and began to back up my data. I kept getting the blue screen periodically, with various errors, but after several tries I got all my data out. Since the microsoft KB articles I read suggested that the messages (0x0000008E was the most common) could be caused by an antivirus program or driver, I installed a new version of the driver for my external hard drive (the only recently-added peripheral) and removed whatever programs I could. When I tried to uninstall Norton antivirus, it bombed again, and I haven't been able to get back into Windows since then.

Whenever I boot (in safe mode or normal), it goes to a DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error before it finishes booting. I have a Symantec recovery disk which I was able to boot into before, but now I always get the same error before it loads. I am able to boot the XP CD, but it always gets stuck: Whereas before I managed to revert to previous registry files via the recovery console, now whenever I go into the console from the first screen (press R, etc) it always hangs on the message "examining 5232 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi..." After trying a few times and leaving it to work (with no change) for an hour, I thought that I should try a repair install, but that option (press enter, etc) also froze on the same message.

I have run Dell's 32 bit diagnostics and the PSA diagnostics, but everything came up clean. Some of the things I have read suggest that it could be a problem with RAM, but I suppose that this means that it's not a hardware problem (?). So, a few questions:

* Is it still possible that it's a hard drive problem, and is there some way to be sure? (I don't want to buy new RAM if that's not the issue.)
* If it's not a hardware problem, then what could it be?
* Why can't I do anything from the XP cd? (This seems really weird to me.)
* And if I can't use the recovery console or reinstall from the CD, what options do I have left? (Should I format the hard disk and see if I can install from the disk then? Or might that have negative consequences?)

Since I have run out of ideas, I would be *extremely* grateful if anyone has any thoughts.

mombodog · Answer

Do you have the complete error message? Post if you can.   If you can remove the drive and hang it on another PC and run a chkdsk on the drive. Message Edited by mombodog on 12-18-200612:11 AM

Gollux13 · Answer

Hi, mombodog, thanks for your help.

I have had several error messages in the last few days, but the one I have been getting most recently is as follows:

----
A problem has been detected...

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

...

Stop 0x000000D1 ...

Ntfs.sys ...
-----

(I suppose this is the important stuff from the message.)

I have run chkdsk on this drive several times in the last few days, inclouding shortly before the latest meltdown. I suppose it would be redundant to do it again (?).

Let me know if this says anything to you, and thanks again for your help.

mombodog · Answer

0x000000D1: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
The system attempted to access pageable memory using a kernel process IRQL that was too high. The most typical cause is a bad device driver (one that uses improper addresses). It can also be caused by caused by faulty or mismatched RAM, or a damaged pagefile.

http://www.aumha.org/win5/kbestop.php near the bottom

you might turn off the page file and reboot, turn it back on and reboot

Gollux13 · Answer

Thanks for your help. But can I turn off the page file without booting into Windows or the XP cd recovery console? Since I can't get into either, I'm not sure whether I can try this.

Do you have any further thoughts?

hrova · Answer

Formatting the hard drive to get into the Windows disk may be overkill. There is no reason you should not be able to boot to the Windows CD - it all happens before anything on your HD is loaded.   On many Dells, you can hit F12 at the Dell logo screen and it will take you to a one time boot menu. Choose your cd/dvd rom drive and make sure your Windows disk is in.   That should get you to a repair installation or clean install area you want. Windows formats the drive as part of a clean install, so it is not necessary to do so before hand.

Gollux13 · Answer

Thanks for the thoughts, hrova. But...

>There is no reason you should not be able to boot to the Windows CD

That's what I thought, but that's what happens. I am able to boot from the CD to the initial menu screen (choose to install wintows, enter recovery console, or exit), but selecting either to install windows or to enter the recovery console causes it to hang on the following message:

"examining 5232 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi..."

Do you know why it might be doing this? The reason I thought of formatting the hard drive before installing is that I'm unable to do a clean (or repair) install at the moment since it always hangs at that point - do I have any other options?

hrova · Answer

Sorry, I thought you were trying to install from INSIDE Windows... My bad...   Formatting first may be a good option....   Interesting that it freezes up here, though.... ('examining 5232 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi...')   I just had that error (different hard drive size, but otherwise the same)  message on some laptops I was trying to reinstall Windows on... Turned out to be a bad HD in my case. Have no idea if that's a possibility with you or not... It could be just a corrupt section on your disk that a format would fix.   Sorry I can't help more. Good luck.

Windows General

Unable to boot or reinstall Windows

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