repair windows vista OS

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bigm3657

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Jul 9, 2018
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Im tring to get a quick fix to a vista install that blue screens. I've tried everything and no luck.

I am thinking of trying to do a vista install/upgrade, will that work and keep my programs/data? What about doing a windows 10 upgrade?

Im currently running windows vista 64. I cant even upgrade to SP1. :/
 
Vista ? really. Would your hardware even support windows 10. Honest question.

If the hardware is 12 years old... the better way to go may be booting off a Linux Live disc. Copying as much of your windows data onto backup media. Then installing a light Linux distro.

As for reinstalling Vista... my guess would be settings and programs would be gone or need serious repair. Data ? if you don't format I imagine it should all be there if you manage to get a working system. (even if you decide to reinstall vista... find a good Linux live disc and make backups of your data first if you don't already have it all backed up)
 
Sounds also like a damaged hard drive. Use the tool from manu. to test it.
 
no you cant upgrade vista to 10. I tried going vista to 7 then 10 last week(to avoid reinstalling programs), also didn't work. but if its a dual core with 4 gb it will be useable for light stuff. but as suggested ^, check the hdd.
 
Without any detailed information, I'll give you a similar issue I had at work with an old Dell laptop. Booting up shows a blue screen. I checked the HD and it was fine. Go into the BIOS only to discover that the CMOS battery is dead, and the SATA setting defaulted to ATA instead of ACHI setting. Once I changed it back to ACHI, it booted fine.

Things to check
  • The SATA controller configuration in the system BIOS If the SATA controller gets toggled from ATA to AHCI mode (or vice versa), then Windows will not be able to talk to the SATA controller because the different modes require different drivers. Try toggling the SATA controller mode in the BIOS.
  • RAID settings You may receive this error if you've been experimenting with the RAID controller settings. Try changing the RAID settings back to Autodetect (usually accurate).
  • Improperly or poorly seated cabling Try reseating the data cables that connect the drive and its controller at both ends.
  • Hard drive failure Run the built-in diagnostics on the hard drive. Remember: Code 7 signifies correctable data corruption, not disk failure.
  • File system corruption Launch the recovery console from the Windows installation disc and run chkdsk /f /r.
  • Improperly configured BOOT.INI (Windows Vista). If you have inadvertently erased or tinkered with the boot.ini file, you may receive stop code 0x7B during the startup process. Launch the recovery console from the Windows installation disc and run BOOTCFG /REBUILD
 
Works also reversely (if you installed using SATA and someone changed settings to AHCI, Windows will bluescreen on boot).
 
Under Windows 10 you can switch from IDE to AHCI by booting into safe mode. In safe mode the correct drivers will be installed and you'll be fine from that point on.
 
Yes my hardware will support windows 10. Its a z48? asus motherboard with dual core. Its plenty fast enough for me! Too fast! Im not ready to do a fresh install unless I really have to.

The PC is rock solid unless the nic is enabled. Once I disable the nic its will run 24/7 non stop. With it enabled there is no saying.

I've run HDD and mem tests, and everything comes back fine. It just randomly started without me doing anything. It started with the mouse freezing within mins of booting up. I changed the mouse and it fixed that problem and then I started getting blue screens.

I suspect this is beyound repair as I've tried everything.

1) I cant upgrade to windows 10 from vista?
2)Can I do a vista upgrade to hope and repair the install?
3)Can I upgrade to windows 7?

Just trying to get a quick fix untill I upgrade my hardware. Despite what people want to think, my current hardware is plenty fast enough for me. I just want to keep my current programs and data until I have the time to go through everything. If I upgrade my hardware, my chances of booting into the current OS is like NONE.
 
If the NIC is having issues it could be something on the motherboard could be going bad too.
 
bigm3657 said:
But like I said I already replaced the nic card with a usb card
Click to expand...
Yes NIC is just a POS component, replace it with something that works. Wont cost more than 10-15 bucks. Having said that, if your integrated NIC failed start saving up for a new mobo or a new system. Often failures chain up.
 
B00nie said:
Yes NIC is just a POS component, replace it with something that works. Wont cost more than 10-15 bucks. Having said that, if your integrated NIC failed start saving up for a new mobo or a new system. Often failures chain up.
Click to expand...

I dont understand what you mean. I've already replaced tried a realtek USB nic and same thing. Its not hardware related because I can actually have the nics enabled and the PC will run 24/7 no problems but once the computer is connected to the internet it blue screens. I can enable the nics to a internal IP and access the network with no issues but once I plug directly into the internet then the PC crashes. This is telling me its software related. It looks like I will just have to deal with this until I next month when I have time off.
 
Is the dead nic built into the motherboard is what we are thinking of?
 
bigm3657 said:
I dont understand what you mean. I've already replaced tried a realtek USB nic and same thing. Its not hardware related because I can actually have the nics enabled and the PC will run 24/7 no problems but once the computer is connected to the internet it blue screens. I can enable the nics to a internal IP and access the network with no issues but once I plug directly into the internet then the PC crashes. This is telling me its software related. It looks like I will just have to deal with this until I next month when I have time off.
Click to expand...

Ahh ... vista... dies when hits net. I would look at the router settings... if you have your machine set up on a DMZ or something I would remove that. Also check to see if you have any ports opened up for software. If you do try closing everything up nice and tight and see if that makes any difference.

Other then that it could be a driver issue... but I would assume any drivers for vista must be old and I would assume stable.

I know you say you have tested the HDD... still this really sounds like a bad HDD. Perhaps run some more in depth disc tests. At the age of the disc though... it could well be failing even if all the clusters checkout as fine with something like chkdsk. You could always load one of the Linux rescue/restore type live discs that are around and run a NTFS file system check from there.

Another suggestion... rule out your hardware completely. Download a Linux live disc, boot it up and see if all your hardware works. If it works under Linux then clearly its your vista install or a vista driver or whatever.
 
ChadD said:
Ahh ... vista... dies when hits net. I would look at the router settings... if you have your machine set up on a DMZ or something I would remove that. Also check to see if you have any ports opened up for software. If you do try closing everything up nice and tight and see if that makes any difference.

Other then that it could be a driver issue... but I would assume any drivers for vista must be old and I would assume stable.

I know you say you have tested the HDD... still this really sounds like a bad HDD. Perhaps run some more in depth disc tests. At the age of the disc though... it could well be failing even if all the clusters checkout as fine with something like chkdsk. You could always load one of the Linux rescue/restore type live discs that are around and run a NTFS file system check from there.

Another suggestion... rule out your hardware completely. Download a Linux live disc, boot it up and see if all your hardware works. If it works under Linux then clearly its your vista install or a vista driver or whatever.
Click to expand...

ahhh, good idea. What is a good software firewall? Comondo? I cant do zonealarm because it requires SP2. I guess I could try taking an image and trying a new HDD. But I just dont see how it is the hdd. Like I said if I plug into my private network with no internet the PC is stable to my knowledge. but once I plug this PC directly into the cable modem thats when things go crazy. Ive already tried scanning with malwarebtyes and superantisypware.
 
bigm3657 said:
ahhh, good idea. What is a good software firewall? Comondo? I cant do zonealarm because it requires SP2. I guess I could try taking an image and trying a new HDD. But I just dont see how it is the hdd. Like I said if I plug into my private network with no internet the PC is stable to my knowledge. but once I plug this PC directly into the cable modem thats when things go crazy. Ive already tried scanning with malwarebtyes and superantisypware.
Click to expand...

I honestly have no idea what decent windows software is for firewalls... I am a Linux user in everything I do. Perhaps someone here has a suggestion. I assumed as you mentioned you have a home network you are using some form of router which should have Hardware firewall features. I was thinking perhaps if your router got reset at some point perhaps some settings got changed.... or if you had a DMZ or port forwarding setup and you moved stuff around on your network perhaps the IPs got messed up and your PC is now open to attacks. Older versions of windows tend to get hit hard by SMB attacks... and I have heard unpatched versions of vista can be compromised in a matter of seconds if they are connected to the internet without a firewall covering SMB ports.

Having said that
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2017/ms17-010
even though MS hasn't updated Vista in a very long time... when wannacry hit they did offer vista security patches. If you are not running them you would want to install them.

As for the HDD issue... when you connect to the internet vista is using bits of code that it wouldn't be using for a internal network connection. So its possible... not saying its 100% but possible, that a bad sector on your HDD could still be the issue.

I would check the settings on your router to ensure your protected there... make sure your vista is running SMB exploit patches. Try perhaps reinstalling the network drivers. If you still are getting blue screens. Try a Linux live disc/usb... almost 100% chance all the majors like Ubuntu or Fedora will just work with your older hardware. So if you boot one and you have no issues connecting at all... at least you will know its software and not hardware for sure. If you have the same issue you know its hardware, and you can go from there. If everything works find then you can figure out if its a windows driver... or just general vista suckage. ;)
 
If you boot off a live Linux distro like Ubuntu, assuming both your NIC's aren't complete rubbish and are supported under Linux, do you get connectivity?

Live Ubuntu distro's are fantastic for isolating whether an issue is hardware or software.
 
bigm3657 said:
I dont understand what you mean. I've already replaced tried a realtek USB nic and same thing. Its not hardware related because I can actually have the nics enabled and the PC will run 24/7 no problems but once the computer is connected to the internet it blue screens. I can enable the nics to a internal IP and access the network with no issues but once I plug directly into the internet then the PC crashes. This is telling me its software related. It looks like I will just have to deal with this until I next month when I have time off.
Click to expand...
Ok then you most likely have a virus/rootkit or malware. It's embedded somewhere at system level and contains a bug that crashes your windows when it tries to call home.
 
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