Recommended Posts

Windows XP Pro will not start. It boots to a blue screen that says Registry Error and indicates that Windows was shut down to protect itself. It then advises me to restart and disable any new hardware or software. Then it says if the screen appears again to start in safe mode. I tried to start in safe mode it runs a list of drivers and it ends up at the same screen.

I've run every hardware test everything is fine. Just this darn registry problem.

And, of course, I don't have a back up of my registry. I don't have a windows ASR floppy (not sure I want one if my understanding is correct about it formatting the drive)

Please tell me there's some way out of this mess where I don't have to format the hard drive. If it's that bad, can't I buy a new hard drive, install windows on it, and somehow read from the old drive?

Link to post
Share on other sites

unfortunately, it won't let me do that. I followed the instruction to the letter and after I press f8 to accept the terms i get the same blue screen and message...

with two differences...

1. it's doesn't tick down the dumping of physical memory

2. the "technical information" string of codes... the last group is different...

the other way it comes up..

0xE1258000

When I try to do the repair install the last group reads

0xE11E1000

Oh woe is me!

Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't know if this is the problem, but there was a thread a couple of days ago on G4 about some trojan that causes this. The alert was given due to the number of recent BS of D threads lately over there.

Here is a link to the G4 thread which has a Symantec link for the trojan information.

G4 trojan alert for BS of D

I sure hope your problem can be solved easily and soon.

And for everyone I remind you to check often for all antivirus, firewall, and other updates. There was another large Norton one today. Check manually, the sooner protected the better. Also not all updates come through automatically, at least on Norton. Stay safe folks.

God bless everyone.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you both for the help and the concern.

As far as a trojan... I think I did this one myself. Computer got bogged down and I did a very improper shut down. I guess I needed a nap.

I don't know if it's just me but I've had xp pro since it came out and I've always hated it. I LOVED Windows 2000. Lighting fast, never ever failed me and I tortured that sucker and it was a P2 450.

I'm not formatting this drive if I have to put it in a box for 10 years. I'll just get another hard drive.

Thanks again,

jb

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks. I actually found this last night and wasn't sure (denial) it applied to my problem.

Looks like it does, no?

Oh what a Saturday night I'm going to have. So I can copy the registry files to my laptop and edit them there?

Wait a minute... I just read through this a little closer it says...

1. Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.

Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so. 

2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console. 

It won't even let me into the Recovery Console. That's where I get the same blue screen message only without the physical memory dump message and ticker.

Well, I'll keep trying it anyway.

Link to post
Share on other sites

If you have it set to boot from the CD and you get a BSOD it is not a reg error doing that. It should just boot right up and ask what you want to do, install, load up the repair console and etc......make sure you have the boot order set in the BIOS so the cd is the first boot device........

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well I did that il wiccan but it didn't do what it was supposed to.

That's okay because I went out and got another hard drive, a Maxtor 160 GB. I intalled it as the master and after I got it to take a install of Windows 2000 (a secret dream of mine has been to go back to W2k anyway) I hooked up the old drive as a secondary and suminagun... I can read my old drive.

I'm copying the real important stuff to the new drive but I'm kind of up for strategies and suggestions about where to go from here. I HATE XP and I'm loving the fact that I've been able to load W2K on my new drive. One strategy of mine is to copy the essential stuff (there's a lot) to my new drive and format the old one and have one machine under the groove of W2K.

I know there are some things I'm going to be giving up in terms of software and even some hardware functionality that I've probably gotten used to. I just don't remember what they are.

What are the big things that W2K won't do?

But then there's another strategy I've thought about but have absolutely no clue as how to proceed and that is to repair the registry on the old XP drive that got me into this mess in the first place. Like I said, I don't know where to begin because right now my entire system is so basic that I haven't even got on the internet yet with it. I'm only showing 16 colors on my display. I have to install a TON of drivers and software to get the computer up to speed.

But if I could get that other drive going and boot from IT then I have all my stuff, internet access, drivers, printers, codecs, etc. ALREADY.

Any ideas? I'd like to do both actually. I'd like to repair the XP drive and get right back where I was... and then slowly make the transition to primarily using w2k as my operating system.

I'm rambling. Sorry. I'm just happy that I was able to save all that work on the old drive.

Is there anyone else who feels like I do about W2K vs. XP?

Thanks for all the help.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well I've loaded Windows 2000 but I've hit the biggest brick wall I've ever hit doing this stuff. It's just one thing after another. The only good thing is that I can read the old drive and can recover my stuff.

BUT...

I can't get W2K to take a W2K driver for the NIC card so that I can get online via DSL. One problem is that all my support stuff and drivers from DELL (don't even go there, I already know) for reinstalling are for XP. But I've downloaded Windows 2000 drivers for my monitor and my nic card via dial up and I get some error code 259 thing when I try to install the monitor driver and when I try to install the network driver, it says that it's installed but I can't see it anywhere and when I go to display>setting>monitor everything is grayed out except the default VGA display of 16 freaking colors.

Back to the networking issue... when I do an ipconfig /release etc. in command mode I get no sign of anything but a dial up connection.

It's just not taking the driver... and I got the freaking driver FROM DELL after giving them the actual service tag number from my machine.

I've got the XP Home disc that came with the computer and all the other drivers and software but I'm just hanging on now to my dream of going back to W2K.

I hope it's all is making for interesting reading because it's TORTURE on my end. lol!

It's been many years since the last one but I always have these big PC meltdowns around the holidays.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Okay the tribulation is over.

I just came back to thank you last two guys for responding with the thumbs down to XP. I went to dinner last night resolved to come back, give up the fight, and just install XP.

But when I read what you guys said about W2K vs. XP I decided to hang in there and keep trying. Probably wouldn't have done that if you guys hadn't chimed in.

Sat down and looked at my original order from Dell. I knew I had to get DSL up or I wouldnt' be able to download anything that I needed. (Radeon graphics driver needed Service Pack 4 (129 MB) to run Windows 2000, etc. Stuff like that.)

So instead of trying to get my drivers from Dell I looked at my order and saw that I had an Intel nic card. Okay, I say to myself, Intel 's a big company. Probably more responsible for their products than Dell would be. So I went there and downloaded the driver package.

3.5 MB. Took about a half a freaking hour. But once I installed it... the little icon pops up to tell me that my network had come unplugged. Yeah.

I just turned on the DSL modem and bang. DSL.

Went to Microsoft and downloaded service pack 4. Simutlaneously downloaded the Video display driver package from Radeon.

And the rest... as they say... is history.

Now I have Windows 2000 back. LOVE IT!

In two years I had about a hundred crashes and thousands of complete slow downs with XP to go along with all the intentional annoyances anyone could stand.

In the two prior years with W2K I had ZERO computer crashes. Never HAD to shut down inappropriately (what started all this mess) or restart or anything. I tortured that machine and it never blinked.

Thanks again, I'm outta here.

db

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...