What does "Automated Repair" do?

[unhappy_mage]

I'm fixing this girl's computer across the hall (it's BSODing) and I can't figure out what to do. I'm a *nix guy - What does "ASR (Press F2)" do when it gets run? Delete C:\windows and recreate? She's complaining about everything, so I'm trying to find a way to fix it nicely and with minimal breakage.

It's not a hardware issue - memtest doesn't find problems, and Knoppix (overclockix to be exact) boots without problems.

 

[MediaRocker]

ASR is Automatic System Recovery. now what it does is roll back driver instalations to try to root out the problem.. if its software.. from what i have experienced is there is not recovery.. 99.9% of the time i have to reformat and reinstall.. so yeah try ASR and if it doesnt work try to boot in safemode and remove programs. if that doesnt work get a computer that does and put the broken computers HDD as the Secondary (master/slave requires alot of jumper knowledge and every drive differs alot) and boot the computer.. go into the secondary drive(the broken computers) and try to remove any suspicious programs and programs that boot on start up but be careful. dont remove ANY thing from the Windows Directory. only the Programes directory. it should work. i had to do it to a laptop that failed.

and if you use the windows disk and run its REPAIR program what it does is basicly WIPE the Windows Directory and reinstalls it. it usualy doesnt ruin any of the programs but problems are inevitable and sometimes occour without notice. (highly unrecomended)

 

[unhappy_mage]

I should mention that neither Safe Mode nor normal nor "last known good" work.

 

[MediaRocker]

Then you have to try the Hard Drive trick. if that doesnt work then you have to wipe it.. there is no other way i could do it other than the hard drive thing. most of the time a Toatal Reformat is the best way to fix a Constant BSOD.

 

[SJConsultant]

ASR is Automatic System Recovery. now what it does is roll back driver instalations to try to root out the problem

Not quite. ASR is a backup and restore method that does a *complete* backup of the system in case of a crash. Now this requires that someone has made a backup of the computer in the first place, which judging by the OPs explanation isn't likely.

My best advice is if the computer will not boot in safe mode does not work, then it's much faster to save any documents, pictures, etc that are needed, format the HDD, and reinstall the OS and applications.