Yet another blue screen problem

This is a laptop that has Win XP home. I bought it used, and tried to clean it, and update it. Unfortunately, I did too much too soon. I deleted MacAfee and a bunch of other programs. I then installed Adaware, Spybot, Spyware Blaster, AVG7.0, A Squared. I also updated the BIOS. These could have all caused the problem, but I suspect that my trying to update the video card driver was the fault. I downloaded the Dell self extracting file, and had it fail to install properly. Its an ATI Mobility 1300 card. When it failed to install, I came to WindowsBBS and saw a "sticky" post that talked about the proper way to update the driver. It involves removing the catalyst control panel, drivers, and uninstall utility, and then use a third party utility to clean up all remnants of the old driver. Since then, I have been unable to get to anything but the safe mode. I have tried two restore points with no luck. I've written to Dell, and have gone through their diagnostic routines that are built into the laptop. The laptop passed all of the tests. Dell then suggests attacking the specific Stop codes via Google. The trouble is, the blue screen comes and goes too quickly for me to read it. I did take a video of the screen during boot up, but the resolution is poor, and the only stop code I can read is the first one: 0x0000050. My question, for now, is there a way to stop the screen so that I can read the blue screen? I tried pause, break, esc. without being able to arrest the boot up process. Thanks.

 

Hi, skaler2k.

Go to your problem computer's Control Panel > System > System Properties window > Advanced tab > Startup and Recovery section > Settings button > System failure section.

Make the following settings in the System failure section:

• Checkmark: "Write an event to the system log "
• Checkmark: "Send an administrative alert "
• NO checkmark: "Automatically restart "
  (This is the particular setting that you need to change in reference to your question. You will be able to read your BSOD screen after making this setting.)
• Write debugging information: Small memory dump (64K)
• Small dump directory: %SystemRoot%\Minidump

• Click on the OK buttons until you're back to your Control Panel.
• Then exit out of your Control Panel.

Once you have made those settings, follow all the instructions in this link so you can use DebugWiz to get detailed information about your BSOD ( "Blue Screen Of Death ") crashes from your minidumps (and post your DebugWiz information here if you wish).

After you download debugwiz.zip, you'll need to unzip it (extract the contents: debugwiz.exe) to either your desktop or a folder before you can run it.

Each time you get a BSOD, your system should save a minidump file in your C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\ folder (if you have Windows installed on your C:\ drive).

Here is a 4-page article about interpreting BSOD dumps:
Network World: "How to solve Windows system crashes in minutes "

Once you perform the steps I gave above, you've pretty much covered the steps on pages 1, 2, and most of page 3 of the article, thanks to the DebugWiz utility. DebugWiz automatically inserts the proper commands and symbols paths into the Windows Debugging Tools application for you. The last part of page 3 and much of page 4 seem to be the most helpful.

If you read that Network World article, you'll know as much as I do about BSOD dump analysis (which isn't much to go on in my experience, but it's a start).

There don't seem to be any BSOD dump analysyis experts around lately but if you post your DebugWiz dump analysis data here, someone might be able to give you more pointers.

 

BSOD continued...

Thank you so much, Mailman, for your kind response. I just booted the problem laptop, and, instead of letting it cycle through the BSOD and end up on the screen where you can select Safe mode, etc., I pressed F8, and it took me to the screen directly, of course. However, I believe that I now see options that I did not see before. Of course I could be wrong. As an aside, I approached an ebayer who is selling this same laptop and he tells me that Dell no longer supplies recovery CDs but builds restore software into the harddrive. Anyway, here is what the screen now contains:
Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Enable Boot Logging
Enable VGA Mode
Last known good config(your most recent settings that worked)
Directory Services Restore Mode(Windows Domain Controllers only)
Debugging Mode
Disable automatic restart on system failure

Start Windows Normally
Reboot
Return to OS Choices Menu

I am excited to try that Directory Services Restore Mode as I'm pretty sure I've never seen that before.
If that fails, I'll go through your suggestion.
I'll be in touch.
Thanks again.

 

2nd follow up

I tried that Directory Services Restore Mode, and after a quick routine got the message :" The volume is clean" and it took me back to the Advanced options menu after passing through the BSOD. This is a decidedly different page in that there are the 3 Safe mode options, last known good config, and start normally.
I then rebooted, pressed F8 and tried Disable automatic reboot after system failure, and it accomplished nothing that I can see in that it rebooted, passed through the BSOD and ended on the page with the few choices.

 

It's fixed!!....sort of

I used the device manager to uninstall the drivers for the ATI card while in Safe Mode, and when I rebooted, it came up to the desktop. It requested some ati related files that it couldn't find. I located them in the I386 folder, and I'm pretty much off and running. Things aren't quite right in that I keep getting nagged by MacAfee about portions not installed correctly, etc. I wanted to get rid of the MacAfee suite and use AVG, Spybot, Adaware, etc., but the add/remove program said some portion of the program was missing, and the uninstall of Macafee could not continue. So, I went to msconfig, and under the start tab, unchecked everything tht looked like macafee-some obvious, some not. I still get two popups from Mcafee, and don't know what else I can uncheck . I have one check mark next to a blank field, and one where the source is represented by a little square. The Internet explorer has a yahoo toolbar. I tried to uninstall it, got an error message, and now the toolbar is still in IE, but the reference to it in add/remove is gone.
Can anyone tell me how to get rid of Macafee and the yahoo toolbar?
When I go to IE, the home page opens very quickly(normal), but if I try and click on a link, either from my favorites or from within the home page-like finance- it just sits there for about a minute. Finally, it'll respond to the click and take me to what I requested. Thereafter, navigation and linking revert back to normal behavior. If I close and open IE, the first pause recurrs.

 

Hi, skaler2k.

I'm sorry I didn't respond more quickly. I've been away for a few days.

I'm glad you fixed the BSOD problem. I don't know why the F8 > Disable automatic restart on system failure
method didn't work for you. If you follow the directions in the first part of my post above, that should do the trick if you ever run into a BSOD again.

The Windows Debugging Tools installation and DebugWiz utility aren't necessary for getting your system to hold on the BSOD for you to read before continuing. However, the Windows Debugging Tools and DebugWiz should be more helpful in pinpointing the cause in case you run into a BSOD again.

I don't use IE except when absolutely necessary (i.e, Windows Update) and I certainly have no experience with IE toolbars. If you post that particular question in the IE/OE forum with a descriptive topic like "Need help removing McAfee and Yahoo Toolbars" , I expect someone there will have some ideas about how to proceed. (I did an advanced forum search in the IE/OE forum for yahoo toolbar remove and didn't find anything that seems like it would help. The posts I read involved removing browser hijackers.)

I would be tempted to try HijackThis (HJT) to remove the McAfee and Yahoo toolbars but I certainly don't recommend using HJT without guidance from someone experienced with HJT. [SIZE= "3"][FONT= "Arial"]TeMerc[/FONT][/SIZE] apparently is experienced with HJT and [SIZE= "3"][FONT= "Arial"]Geri[/FONT][/SIZE] has been taking online malware removal classes relating to HJT. [SIZE= "3"][FONT= "Arial"]PeteC[/FONT][/SIZE] has been successfully helping people with HJT stuff too. I would feel pretty safe relying on their advice. You run the risk of making your system more unstable with HJT if you don't know what you're doing.

If you want to take a chance without guidance from others, first create a System Restore point. Then download HJT and unzip it to a folder on your hard drive (not the desktop). Run HijackThis.exe (without having the IE browser window open) and have it "fix" the O3-Toolbar entries that deal with McAfee and Yahoo.

If you're just curious about what HJT will display, I expect you can safely run it without telling it to "fix" any entries.

I think I have made my disclaimers clear enough so I won't feel too guilty if you mess things up.