winxp home boot failure, windows logon process BSOD

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black_b[ ]x

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 1, 2002
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My co-workers Dell computer keeps BSOD'ing on the windows logon process. Its possible it was deliberately sabotaged by her son... She couldnt remember the admin password, so I cleared it with a boot CD. I was then able to do a repair installation off the OEM install CD and it still fails in the same spot. The windows loading screen comes up for a few seconds, then the screen goes black for a few seconds, then the BSOD.

Whats my next step? I could put their hard drive in another computer to try to pull files off of it, or maybe do some hard disk diagnostics? Or maybe just do a new install of windows into a different directory as a temporary fix? I just need to pull off the data they want, then I'll wipe everything and start over.
 
SATA drive?
check BIOS to see if it's in AHCI mode? If so, change to IDE.

just a guess, not knowing what OS, Dell model, or any of that useful info.

edit: derr, OS is in the title of the thread, so I will stand by SATA being set to AHCI instead of IDE, and the XP disc not having the AHCI SATA drivers.
 
IDE drive, its an older P4 computer with a 40GB hard drive so it may just be the hard drive croaking. I'll probably just put the drive in another computer and try to copy the stuff off it, otherwise they'll probably ask me to salvage the thing and make it work like new again. :rolleyes:
 
does it boot into safe mode?
or does the same issue happen regardless of safe mode or booting up normally?
 
Put the drive in another computer or boot off an Ubuntu disk and backup all her stuff, then perform a clean install.
 
black_b[ ]x;1035186608 said:
safe mode and "last known good" both fail with the same error.
Click to expand...

every time I've came across that, where all boot selections BSOD, was a reinstall.

I agree with OldMX, use a boot disk to save any data and do a full reinstallation.
 
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