BSOD

[Willy5157]

My PC has vista home basic SP1. It boots up for a few minutes and then I get the BSOD. It tells me to run a chkdsk on drive F. Drive F is an external Ide drive in an enclosure connected by USB. I get this problem even with the drive disconnected. I attach it to other PC's and run a chkdsk, use the drive and have no problems.

Any help would be appreciated...Thanks

[redwudz]

What's the text of the BSOD error? It usually tells you the name of the module that caused the error. If the BSOD screen closes too fast to read, go to Control Panel>System>System Protection>Advanced>Startup and Recovery' and uncheck 'Automatically Restart'.

Is this a recent problem? Did you add some software right before it happened? If you added a virtual drive program, that's one possibility. Tried a system restore to before when the problem started? Can you boot in safe mode? That doesn't usually install drivers so it may help isolate the problem.

[Willy5157]

I wrote in a couple of weeks ago. I have been having alot of problems with IE starting and stopping along with the BSOD. I couldn't do a system restore or start in safe mode. I ran memory diagnostic and had bad ram. I replaced it and now it is a constant cycle of on and off.

Error message;

Check hard drive config, and check for any update drivers. Run chkdsk /F to check for hd corruption and restart comp.

STOP: 0x00000024 (0x001904AA, 0x8AB21A54, 0x8AB21750, 0x82E95A5B)

NTFS.sys - Address 82E59A5B base at 82E0B000, DateStamp 47918a96

I installed iTunes and started to have more problems than usual a couple of weeks ago, so I un-installed it, tried to do a system re-store. PC says the restore wizard is already running and I have no restore points. Can't start in safe mode. Haven't updated drivers that I know of. I'm not a computer whiz. Thanks again for the reply and hopefully more help.

[minidv2dvd]

first rule out rootkit/virus/malware - run something like avast free, gmer, malwarebytes.

if it's not infected, the internal hard drive is possibly dying. get the important stuff backed up.

[Willy5157]

Could only run a quick scan with malwarebytes and nothing was found. Spybot, adaware, avast takes too long. PC only boots for a few minutes.

[Verify]

The command: chkdsk /f does not mean drive f it means run checkdisk with F(ix errors on system drive) see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHKDSK

Note that you usually have to re-boot - you will be told by chkdsk.

Got to Start, Run, and type: chkdsk /f

[Willy5157]

Could only do a chkdsk by right-clicking c-drive, tools, check drive for errors at start-up. Because it was checked automatically at restart the drive was clean.

[minidv2dvd]

does the new ram test ok? still sounds like a serious infection to me. try gmer and see if anything shows up in red when it loads.

this is a dell correct? if so it may be time to do a complete re-install of the c: drive. i think you access the backup function from f12 during boot. it re-writes the c: drive back to how it was when first purchased.

[Willy5157]

I did a windows memory diagnostic on the new ram it was ok. I have to go out right now but I will try that tomorrow. Thanks for the replies.

[Bjs]

Install disk-monitor ... will give you an indication of C drives health ... enter around 70% would suggest drive is on its way out ... do this before reinstalling the os.

Enter bios and check memory spd setting ... if this is set to auto detect, change this to correct frequency.

Download latest drivers from mother board manufacture or dell if this be the case.

In vista, uninstall device drivers listed under usb and finally the main category.

Repeat this for scsi and ide devices.

Reboot.

Back in vista install updated drivers.

Reboot once more and see how system performs.

====

In IE go to tools > internet options > advanced > click RESET button and once completed restart browser.

[Willy5157]

My PC wouldn't stay booted for more than a couple of minutes so there wasn't alot I could do. I wound up restoring to the factory mode. Luckily I backed up most of my data when problems worsened. Thanks for all the advice.