After a power failure I was unable to boot Vista Ultimate.
... Then I tried booting from the Vista CD and it loaded a
bunch of files but then switched to a blue screen
displaying the following line:
***STOP: 0x0000000A (0xC0020000, 0x00000000, 0x88B9E036)
A Vista recovery disk got me to that same blue screen.
First eliminate so many speculations. Power failures do not cause
damage which suggests some replies are based in popular myth and
minimal technical knowledge. You have a failure that may be hardware
or software. Until you know what has failed, any solution is only
wild speculation - and could make the problem worse.
STOP code would have been more useful had the entire message been
provided. With insufficient information, the problem may be related
to a driver. Without the entire message, we don't even know which
hardware or software driver to suspect.
Moving on. This is why more responsible computer manufacturers
provide comprehensive hardware diagnostics for free. What is your
manufacturer? That means all hardware is known without any OS loaded
or executing. The OS only complicates analysis. IOW first is to
break the problem down into parts. Then analyze each part.
Without hardware diagnostics (provided on hard drive, on a CD, and
on manufacturer web site), then download diagnostics from the few
component hardware manufacturers that can halt a loading OS. List
includes sound card, video processor, CPU, some motherboard functions,
memory, and the power supply 'system' (more than just a supply).
Simple procedures can identify any definitively - that means without
doubt.
If hardware works, then maybe a software driver was harmed. Which
one? The entire STOP message would have suggested which.
You can boot to safe mode. That means system (event) logs must be
reviewed. Again, know what has failed long before trying to fix
anything (and maybe make the problem worse). Also Device Manager.
With the rest of that STOP error message, you might know which
hardware device to remove in Device Manager. Then a reboot of Vista
would load a new driver.
Finally, if your surge protector was so good, then it lists each
type of surge and protection from each surge in numeric specs. Did
you think it was good because it cost so much? Or because that is
also a popular myth? Notice no protection claims in numbers because
it does not claim to protect from a type of surge that is typically
destructive. If it provides effective protection, then it
specifically lists that protection using numbers in a manufacturer
spec.
Other tasks can help to first find, then correct the problem. Above
are first things done to find what has failed. Only then would we
even know why.
The entire STOP message is exactly what I had posted in my initial post:
***STOP: 0x0000000A (0xC0020000, 0x00000000, 0x88B9E036)
This is all that it says on an otherwise empty blue screen.
I can't get past this blue screen and therefore SAFE mode is not an option.
Starting the machine with a clean, NTFS formatted hard drive and the Vista
disk in the DVD drive I again get to where it loads the initial Vista files
but then goes to the -end of the road- blue screen. Whith the clean hard
drive there were no drivers to load and only the hdd, Monitor and the
DVDdrive are connected. The screen gives me info up to the blue screen which
probably confirms that the Video card is not the problem? Boot up info such
as processor and memory test all display normal. The machine is not a name
brand and has no hardware diagnostics. Asus MB with AMD processor.
The power failure was caused by me when I turned off the wrong breaker in
the basement. This should not cause a surge.
Based on all the help here and what I've done so far, it probably comes down
to the Mobo?
