im sick and tired of trying to wrestle my sister for the laptop so i can go out datalogging so im trying to get my old laptop working,

after turning it on it comes up with the DOS screen that says safe mode, safe mode with networking or start windows normally, i pressed start windows normally and it won't boot up, so i tried in safe mode and it still wont boot up, it just comes up with some blue screen with writing on it and then restarts and goes back to the dos screen with the safe mode option on it. it also says boot up from last known working configuration, tried pressing that but the same happens

the blue screen isn't on long enough for me to read what it says but im guessing its some sort of error message.

any ideas? please help

Do you want the data on the hard drive? if so remove the HD and get a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter (asuming its an IDE HD, most are), plug that in to your desk top, rescure th files.

If you dont want any data off the drive then skip the above and just insert your O/S disc and reinstall the system and start again.
If that fails its probly a hardware fault which means ebay the thing spares/repair and buy a new/used one.

im not bothered about whats on the HD, but i don't have the laptop recovery disc, more than likely ive lost it, haven't used this laptop for a few years

can i download recover software from microsoft website etc?

I take the OS is win98SE (or similar)

what make /model of laptop is it ?

[Edited on 16/3/09 by mcerd1]

Ive had that with XP and had to reinstall it. You dont need the recovery software , just reinstall a fresh copy of windows either Xp or win 98 will do for megatune.
Paul

its a packard bell, 2.8 ghz processor speed, 512 ram, running xp.

im trying to get what the blue screen says at the moment

Blue screen is likely to be a garbled mash of irelvant number saying physical memory dump or similar.

Check on ebay for a copy of the OS, I assume you have a COA on the laptop so any copy will do, should be no more than about £10

i've never used it, but some friends of mine recommended Linux. Makes old slow machines run fast and it's free.

turn it upside down - there should be a serial number (something like: S/N########)

go to the packardbell website support section - ther should be a bit to enter the serial number

there maybe a downloadable recovery disk


or download all the latest drivers for your OS
then find any copy (legitimate obviously) of that OS that you have a code for and use that with the drivers you've downloaded
(there will be a code on the xp sticker - but this will probably need a packardbell version of the os / recovery disk - you could always try it, but its never worked for me )

PB will sell you a copy of your full recovery disks - but I don't think they are cheap

[Edited on 16/3/09 by mcerd1]

ok so i have managed to write down what the blue screen says

quote:

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Stop [c0000128.....] registry failure
the registry cannot load the hive (file)
or its log alternative
c:systemrootsystem32configsoftware
it is corrupt, absent or not writable

beginning dump of physical memory
physical memory dump complete
contact your administrator or technical support group for further assistance

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Just reformat it and install a clean copy of windoze

Theres nowt else wrong with it I doubt.

O.k. sounds like you have some corruption in the disk, you need a windows install CD.

boot from the cd and select r ( for recovery )

at the dos prompt type

CHKDSK c: /p /r

and press return, this will check the disk and repair any problems, will probably find it will boot after that.. just a dirty shutdown

Agree with the last post.

It's not at all neccessary to completely reinstall windows here.

A quick ggogle with the contents of your error message soon found lots of advice onlien on how to fix this, an I remember having to do it myself.

it's part of my normal daily job fixing problems like this, you could also take the drive out of the machine and slave it onto a different machine and then run the disk check.

quote:

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Originally posted by zilspeed
Agree with the last post.

It's not at all neccessary to completely reinstall windows here.

A quick ggogle with the contents of your error message soon found lots of advice onlien on how to fix this, an I remember having to do it myself.

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I am not far from you, if you want to bring it around I have any windows disc you could need and I am sure we could get it working.

make sure the machine will boot from cd, there is usually a key you can press for the boot menu ( F9 or F12 ) as you power on.
select the cd rom drive, you should get a message " press any key to boot from CD " don't look for the "nay key " there isn't one

just let the cd load, wait until you get to the boot menu and select R for recovery cosole.

you will then get a black screen about other keyboards... just let it finish

the only other think you will need to know is a logon to the administrator account.

if the machine has no password it will just go to the prompt.

run the CHKDSK /F /R

( i know i said /p /r before but thats windows 2000 )

will take a while to complete, if you get an error about not being able to fix some error about half way through, just run the chkdsk /f /r again.

when it's all done type EXIT and it will reboot ( remember to take out the CD )

tray and reboot

I think the problem here is that he doesn't have the recovery CD and I am thinking he would never have had the windows XP CD as Packard Bell don't give one. Also the error means the registry is corrupt so CHKDSK will not fix it. There are ways to repair a corrupt registry but they also require an XP CD and only work half the time unless you have actually done a registry backup in the past on that machine. As he doesn't need to save any files or settings etc. the best fix is a reinstall which again needs a CD obviously which is why I said I am fairly local and have the CD's required.

[Edited on 16/3/2009 by Keith Weiland]

It may not be the regisrty it's self but the location in the disk it is stored. there is also a copy of the registry files under c:windowsrepair but these are created during the initial install, unless you have created a repair in the past they will be old but can still be used to get the system to boot. like i said i have repaird this error with chkdsk before and there is no halm in trying it.... it just may fix it

As for Linux - nice, but I doubt that megatune would run on it (not without something like 'Wine', and you don't want to go there if you're a linux virgin!)

kieth u have u2u

i have managed to get into the 'recovery console'

its asking 'which windows installation would you like to log onto (to cancel,press ENTER)?

it will only enter one letter or number? so what do i press?

if i press 1,then enter it asks me to put in an administrator password

[Edited on 17/3/09 by omega0684]

if there is only 1 copy of windows installed on the machine then it will be '1'

if you've not set a password, just leave it blank and hit enter.....

You have a U2U reply

kieth u2u'd you again the mobile number you sent me don't work, says dialled incorrect number. send me your address and i'll make my way over, will come in the Rush if you want to go for a quick spin

Ive never tried it but there are a couple of versions of megasquirt software designed specially for Linux, Megatunix is one.I have often been tempted to set up a dual boot on the laptop and try it .
Paul.

quote:

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Originally posted by David Jenkins
As for Linux - nice, but I doubt that megatune would run on it (not without something like 'Wine', and you don't want to go there if you're a linux virgin!)

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There is another alternative,

you can create a bootable version of windows from bootpe website

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/#download

once you have created it you can boot to and run chkdsk from there