Have to diagnose a problem on a friends pc.......

[Guest chuckles_the_scary_clown@budweiser.com]

Situation is this: one 11 year old and one 8 year old, running XP.

Mum professes to be "hopeless" with computers.

 

Sooooo.........what I can gather over the phone is a BSOD was

encountered, I don't know what they were doing at the time, I don't

know their install history, that's all I know :-(

 

So they've restarted and encountered the "Windows did not shut down

correctly....." screen.

 

They've selected the option to "start Windows normally" whereupon I

gather Windows tries to load before the BSOD appears again.

 

They've tried the "start Windows normally" about six times with the

same result which tells me Windows isn't happy about starting

normally!

 

What sequence of steps should I take? If I boot to safe mode, I

assume my USB stick with various diagnostics on isn't any use?

 

Can I boot to "last known working configuration"?

 

Any advice greatly appreciated.

[Guest Gerry]

Re: Have to diagnose a problem on a friends pc.......

 

You need to Start with a copy of the Stop Error Report!

 

Disable automatic restart on system failure. This should help by

allowing time to write down the STOP code properly. Right click on

the My Computer icon on the Desktop and select Properties, Advanced,

Start-Up and Recovery, System Failure and uncheck box before

Automatically Restart.

 

Do not re-enable automatic restart on system failure even after you have

solved the problem as it's better disabled. Check for variants of the

Stop Error message.

 

An alternative is to keep pressing the F8 key during Start-Up and select

option - Disable automatic restart on system failure.

 

If you are using a wireless keyboard and the F8 key does not work

substitute a wired keyboard and mouse for this exercise only.

 

--

 

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Gerry

~~~~

FCA

Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

 

 

chuckles_the_scary_clown@budweiser.com wrote:

> Situation is this: one 11 year old and one 8 year old, running XP.

> Mum professes to be "hopeless" with computers.

>

> Sooooo.........what I can gather over the phone is a BSOD was

> encountered, I don't know what they were doing at the time, I don't

> know their install history, that's all I know :-(

>

> So they've restarted and encountered the "Windows did not shut down

> correctly....." screen.

>

> They've selected the option to "start Windows normally" whereupon I

> gather Windows tries to load before the BSOD appears again.

>

> They've tried the "start Windows normally" about six times with the

> same result which tells me Windows isn't happy about starting

> normally!

>

> What sequence of steps should I take? If I boot to safe mode, I

> assume my USB stick with various diagnostics on isn't any use?

>

> Can I boot to "last known working configuration"?

>

> Any advice greatly appreciated.