Blue Screen emergency--help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hiawatha Bray
  • Start date Start date
H

Hiawatha Bray

While working on my PC, I bumped against the case with my foot--not very
hard either. Up popped a blue screen covered with gobbledegook about some
kind of crash. It told me that if this was the first time it had happened I
should simply reboot. This I did. Only the computer won't boot. It gets
to the booting part and the screen stays blank. Sometimes you get that
checkered line at the bottom, like it's about to boot, but it just freezes
there.


I have no idea what's wrong. Anybody got any ideas? Thanks.
 
My machine has two hard drives, one with Linux, one with Windows. I tried
booting from CD-ROM, first with Linux and then with my Windows XP disk. In
both cases, it STILL won't boot. This suggests some kind of radical
hardware failure, I suppose. Any ideas?
 
Again I tried to boot off the XP CD-ROM. This time the process started, but
as the system tried to load the kernel debugger DLL I got this error
message:


File setupdd.sys could not be loaded
The error code is 4.

Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit.

Interesting...when Linux failed to boot, it displayed a "kernel panic."
What could be causing this sort of thing? A problem with the processor?
The motherboard? Help!!
 
Have you opened the box? You may have card that's loose or needs reseating.
Setupdd initializes the display driver.

- Robert -
 
Mr. Bray,

I have to agree with Kelly and Rob. Open the case and reseat the cards and try it again. If that fails, reseat the memory modules.

P.S. I enjoyed our chat a while back :-)
 
Hiawatha said:
Again I tried to boot off the XP CD-ROM. This time the process
started, but as the system tried to load the kernel debugger DLL I
got this error message:


File setupdd.sys could not be loaded
The error code is 4.

Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit.

Interesting...when Linux failed to boot, it displayed a "kernel
panic." What could be causing this sort of thing? A problem with the
processor? The motherboard? Help!!
Click to expand...

It's definately hardware related. My first guess is that when you bumped
the PC something that was almost loose was rattled just enough to come
loose. Open the case and check our your connections and seating for all
of the cables, cards and chips. Make sure everything is nice and snug.
You might even try unseating and reseating those items. Check for dust or
other build-up and clean if you see any. The fact that neither HD will
boot suggests to concentrate on the cable where those two drives are
connected, RAM or processor.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Smart Display
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.
 
Sounds like a plan. I'll try it. Thanks, all!


Tom Porterfield said:
It's definately hardware related. My first guess is that when you bumped
the PC something that was almost loose was rattled just enough to come
loose. Open the case and check our your connections and seating for all
of the cables, cards and chips. Make sure everything is nice and snug.
You might even try unseating and reseating those items. Check for dust or
other build-up and clean if you see any. The fact that neither HD will
boot suggests to concentrate on the cable where those two drives are
connected, RAM or processor.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Smart Display
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.
Click to expand...
 
Bingo!

Reseated my graphics and TV tuner cards, rebooted, and voila! Everything's
back to normal.

You guys are a godsend. Thanks so much!
 
Thanks for all the help. Good to hear from you. I ought to do another MVP
story one of these days!


Mr. Bray,

I have to agree with Kelly and Rob. Open the case and reseat the cards and
try it again. If that fails, reseat the memory modules.

P.S. I enjoyed our chat a while back :-)

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
 
Hiawatha said:
Bingo!

Reseated my graphics and TV tuner cards, rebooted, and voila!
Everything's back to normal.

You guys are a godsend. Thanks so much!
Click to expand...

Good to hear. Thanks for the follow-up.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Smart Display
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.
 
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