blue screen of death, restart at windows logo

I sure hope you guys can help.

I received a dell dimension 4400 from a friend. As it was slightly faster than the one I had I decided to intall my video card and hard drive to the new computer.

Now my hard drive will not boot up and as stated, I get the blue screen right before the windows logo and computer restarts. And it continues to do this til I turn off the computer. I tried to use the pause button so I could read the blue screen but it never works.

The hard drive that came w/this computer works fine.

I tried the repair console from the windows cd but it asks for the administrator paswod. I have never set a passwod for this hard drive. When I press enter I just get a windows prompt.

What should I do next?

 

I should also mention that it wont boot in safe mode either.

 

To use your old hard drive in this new(er) computer, you would need to do a repair installation of the operating system while connected to the new(er) computer. The drivers and registry loaded on that hard drive are specifically for the components in your old computer.

 

Great, could you please tell me how to do that?

 

I'm using windows xp pro

 

Method 2

You will need to reapply all Windows Updates after the repair installation, and you should check for driver updates from the manufacturer for the hardware components (audio, video, ethernet, etc.). You may need to use a third party software program to help identify the components. I recommend SIW (System Information for Windows).

 

Thanks for the info.

I tried to repair windows and reinstall, only to have it hang will installing devices w/34 min remaining. I found the Microsoft article about this understand it is a hardware issue. I pulled all card except the video card and it still hangs.

Can you help me w/this?

Thanks!

 

Forgot to mention that I have used 2 different vidoe cards for this.

Also I have the pnplog.txt and setupapi.txt files if that would help.

 

If the original hard drive in the new(er) computer is still attached, remove it. If more than 1 cd or dvd drive, disconnect 1. Have you gone into the BIOS and reset it to default? If you have any other hardware attached that is not necessary (like a printer, speakers, etc) unhook it.

Those logs might be helpful if none of the above helps. Also grab the setuplog.txt file. I would imagine they are too large to post here, so feel free to email them to me. Put RE: smitRem in the subject line.

 

I've been able to do everything except set the bios to default b/c this new(er) computer is password protected and there isn't any way to get the password. I am currently working w/Dell about this but have to transfer ownership first and can't do that til tomorrow.

Anyway I'm mailing you the files. Thanks so much for your help.

 

Turn the computer off and remove the BIOS battery for a couple of minutes. That should clear the password. It will also clear the BIOS date and time, so make sure to reset those first.

 

This might be helpful too.

 

Resetting the battery is an old trick, I've been away from the computer too long, I didn't even think of it. Thanks!

After I set the bios to default, it wouldn't reconize the hard drives, so I replaced the ide cable and that worked. I was hoping that might have been the problem (the ide cable) but setup still hangs.

Any more advice would be great.

 

Near as I can tell, the machine is hanging while installing the following.

Device: "Intel(R) 82801BA LPC Interface Controller - 2440 "


Here's the last couple of entries from the setuplog. I separated the two device setup entries.

Notice the bolded line in the Firmware Hub Device installation Device successfully installed. The setuplog ends without showing the same message for the LPC Interface Controller.

Setupapi.txt ends while the same device is being installed.

The next line (were there a next line) should read;

What does all this mean? I don't know, but it's something to go on towards finding an answer. Maybe someone else will chime in with some insight or suggestion. I'll continue trying to research it as well.

There should be new setup logs too. Have a look at them to see if they stop at the same place, or if the changes in the BIOS have affected it otherwise.

 

Ok, I'll keep plugging away at it. I'd really like to fix it. If I have to, I can back everything up, but I so don't want to.

My new setup log is quite different from the one from yesterday. Do you want to see it?

Thanks!

 

Yes I do. Please send them.

 

Sent 'em!

 

Will take me some time to sort through those logs.

Have you tried restarting the computer after it hangs and see if it continues to hang? Suggest doing that several times. Sometimes subsequent restarts will force setup to skip the installation of whatever device it's hanging on, or otherwise complete the installation.

Should that fail to help, go to a C:\Windows> command prompt and rename the inf folder with the following command.

ren inf inf.old

Then run setup again.

If you don't mind re-installing the programs, you could also try a parallel installation, which would be like a clean install without losing the other data you have on the hard dive.

 

I've rebooted the computer many, many times hoping it would not hang, but it does, every time.

I tried renaming the file and got this message "the system cannot find the file specified "

I've thought about doing the parallel install, but again, hoping I don't have to.

Not ready to give it up quite yet!

 

I'm guessing that when you Shift+F10 to open a command window you have a prompt like the following?

C:\>

If so, you either need to change directories to the Windows folder with the following bolded command first, so that your prompt is C:\Windows>

C:\>cd windows

Or, use the bolded rename command from the C:\> prompt as follows.

C:\>ren windows\inf windows\inf.old

Note there is a space between the letters I put in red.