Dell XPS fails to boot Windows XP from Disk

[DuckKing]

My girl-friend is having issues with her Dell XPS and I'm not able to look at the problem personally but hoped that someone might be able to provide some input based on the limited information that I have. In chronological order;

- Whilst using her computer, she would experience random freezes. Restarting the computer fixed the issue temporarily.

- After a while, the machine would freeze more frequently. Occasionally, these freezes would be accompanied with a BSoD. However, she wasn't recording the errors and when I instructed her to make her machine not reboot on error so that she could give me the BSoD information she was not able to get the error again. During this time, loading her last configuration known to be working would fix the issue temporarily.

- Later, the system would freeze within one minute of start-up (a couple of days after the original error).

- Safe mode works for a while.

- Safe mode stops working. Boot options are accessible but the system can't boot.

- Re-formatting the computer is not possible. I'm not sure what the exact issue is, something along the lines of the disk being corrupted. At this time, emulating the error message is not possible.

- The computer is unable to boot from a boot-able disk containing the Windows XP OS.

- BIOS system diagnostics reveals nothing.

The computer has had a history of video card issues, which seemed to have been resolved when the old card (NVidia 8800) was replaced (will post current card when I get that information...).

Frightfully sorry about the lack of technical information that I was able to glean out of the situation. At this point I would be welcome to any suggestions based on the pattern in this scenario.

As it becomes available, I'll post more information about the machine.

 

[Mark56]

Dell do XPS laptops and desktops so I don't know what type of PC this is.

Without the crash dumps from the BSOD's to look at I will just list three routines to try and help pinpoint the problem.

Identify the make of your hard drive and then use one of the links below to get the manufacturers diagnostic for ISO CD. Burn the image file to a CD, boot the PC with the disc in the drive and run the diagnostics. You first need to set the CD drive to 1st in the boot order in the Bios setup.

If you do not have an image burner use this free software to make the CD.

http://www.isoimageburner.com/


ExcelStor: http://www.excelstor.com/eng/support.php?sub_id=3

Hitachi/IBM: http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/

Samsung: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/utilities/Support_HUTIL.html

Toshiba Fujitsu: http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=SoftwareUtilities#diagnostic

Seagate, Maxtor & Quantum:http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads

Western Digital:http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en

Power off the PC and remove the mains connection, always touch the metal of the case with your hands to avoid any static electricity from causing component damage. (On laptops ALWAYS remove the battery before removing or replacing memory modules). Remove all your memory modules. Clean the contacts with a soft rubber (up and down not from end to end) then insert just one module and reboot to test for any change in performance. Repeat this for every module one at a time and run for at least 24 hours. Obviously if you only have one module this cannot be done, but you should still remove and clean the module and reseat it and test.

If you only have one stick download this to test it. http://www.memtest.org/

You need to scroll down the page until you see the three blue screenshots. Just below is the list of downloads for Memtest86+ V4.10. Click on Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)and save to your desktop, When the download is complete right click the file and select Extract Here and burn the image to a CD. In windows 7 right click the extracted file, select Open With, then select Windows Disc Image Burning Tool then follow the prompts. For all other versions of windows (if you do not have an ISO burner) download this free software. http://www.isoimageburner.com/

Boot the PC into the Bios setup and set the CD/DVD drive to 1st in the boot sequence. Insert the disk in the drive then reboot and the disc will load into dos. Leave the test to run through at least 5 cycles.

The memtest will not be 100% accurate but should easily detect any major faults.

For windows XP - Click on Start and then Run. Type verifier into the box and hit the Enter key.
For Vista and Windows 7 - Click on Start and type verifier into the search box then click on verifier in the list that pops up.

Driver Verifier Manager will open.

Select the first choice "Create Standard Settings" and click on the "Next" button.

Now select "Automatically select all drivers installed on this computer" and click on the "Finish" button.

A box will appear asking you to restart the PC for the changes to take effect. Click on "OK" and reboot the PC.

To stop Auto reboot so you can read the error message do this for Windows XP:
Click the Start button, right-click My Computer, click Properties, click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
Under System Failure, uncheck the "Automatically restart" check box.

And do this in Windows 7 and Vista:
Click Start, select 'Control Panel' select 'System' in the left pane select 'Advanced System Settings' in the box select the 'Advanced' tab then under 'Startup and Recovery' select 'Settings.' In the box under 'System Failure' uncheck 'Automatically Restart'.

If the PC reboots normally then there is no problem with any of the drivers. If you get a blue screen straight away it will name the faulty driver. If you are absolutley certain that the named driver is OK then make a note of it.

You will then have to go back into the Verifier and instead of selecting all drivers select "Select drivers from a list". Click on "Next" and the list of drivers will appear. Select them all apart from the one you know to be OK. Click on "Finish" and reboot.

Once you have identified the faulty driver or confirmed that there are none go back to the first page of the Driver Verifier Manager and select "Delete Existing Settings" and click on "Finish"