HELP Dell Vostro 200

I have Dell Vostro 200 and I added 1GB of RAM & another stick of RAM 2GB made by Kingston. Anyways, I installed it the system. I notice a big performance increase it was running a lot faster because it had 3 more GB of RAM in it. I updated AVG (I use the free version) then I ran AVG and 'scan whole computer' option.

I fell asleep around 400,000 already scanned. I wake up this morning look at the system the sreen is off but powered on and also I couldn't get the system out of it's mode. So I did a "hard shutdown" and now when I bring it up, it say, run windows repair or something similar to that. Now it just displays a black screen says /8,000 (something around there) and now I cant even get to the desktop or see the windows screen.

When I installed the 3GB of RAM I powered it on, it started right up with no problems, no errors it was running great. Now, this morning after I turned it back on it displays a "recent hardware or software changed could have caused this issue". Screen There are two options available:

(repair windows and run a diagnostics on it then the screen switches to black mode does a file scan then the system then the screen goes blank. I select the other option start windows normally same issue, here is what is displayed on the screen while it is scanning but spends 95% of it's time on !!

"0xc01a001d does a scan of23.578/87338 (\registry\machine\COMPONENTS\DerivedData)*"

then it goes to a black screen again. I already took out the RAM but having same issue. I never had any issues with the PC before. Need help, please.

I am unable to back up my system and this is my main system. I need to back up school work, papers, and pictures,videos, music etc...

All help is greatly appreciated.

Are you able to boot from a live cd? If yes, just boot from any linux live cd, plug in an external USB stick or hard drive and copy your files that you need. Then reinstall your box and copy the backed up files back.

Hope this helps.

Can you boot in Safe Mode? Or Safe Mode with Command Prompt? If so, you can attempt a system restore from command line: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

What OS? When's the last time you scanned the HDD for errors? Have you tried disabling all of your extra, unneeded processes and services via msconfig?

I cannot boot into safe mode or any other mode for that matter. Also, I have Suse 9.0 live cd but no go. I do not have any external HDD due to money being pretty tight. I have a lot of class work pictures video music and I have not been able to get back into windows at all.. I even tried restoring the system with the DISK that came with the DELL Vostro 200 and it is unable to reinstall the operating system.

I was thinking I could take out the old hard drive and install it into another machine and backup the data that way? Yes no maybe? Let me know.

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Originally Posted by Computernerd22

I cannot boot into safe mode or any other mode for that matter. Also, I have Suse 9.0 live cd but no go. I do not have any external HDD due to money being pretty tight. I have a lot of class work pictures video music and I have not been able to get back into windows at all.. I even tried restoring the system with the DISK that came with the DELL Vostro 200 and it is unable to reinstall the operating system.

I was thinking I could take out the old hard drive and install it into another machine and backup the data that way? Yes no maybe? Let me know.

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SuSE 9 is ancient... get any new live distro and boot from cd. The reason why I keep coming back to this solution is, so you can make BACKUPS before you even try to attempt to restore you old system. Messing with restoring a system can lead to data loss. First make backups, then see what you can do with the system.

In your first post you said you were unable to make backups, now you say you have no disk to put the backups... so question: Where were you initially planning to put the backups? You do not have any other hard drive in general? If your data is so important.... boot into a live linux and burn the data on to dvds if you have to, or put another internal hard disk into the box and again, from a linux live cd make backups. But definately stop attempting to use any restore disk that came with your dell BEFORE you make backups.

HI all trying to do a simple fkn post on here is bs.

fk it

bye

Hi CN22,

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I was thinking I could take out the old hard drive and install it into another machine and backup the data that way? Yes no maybe? Let me know.

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Yes, that should work just fine. I actually have USB docking stations for SATA and PATA drives because I do this sort of thing on a fairly regular basis.

Once you have your backups, you might try fixmbr and fixboot .............make sure you select your drive :D

Also, I am surprised that it didn't boot from the Linux CD, even if it is an old version........can you get into BIOS setup and check that the CD/DVD is above the HDD in the boot sequence?

Dells have a boot menu available on their splash screen,
before the OS boots. F12, maybe F10, is the key (F1 or
F2 gets you the bios). Did you try booting up via the Dell
boot menu?

You might also try running "memtest" from a Linux CD
as a 'burn-in.' I'm partial to Mepis for their memtest option.
I used it on some refurbs I recently put together. One PC
would stop on memtest no matter what RAM chips I ran.
Turned out all the memory tested fine once I tried a different
CPU. Obviously it may not be possible to swap out a CPU
on a laptop, but memtest can be a good indicator if you've
got a hardware issue. I routinely run memtest on any RAM
upgrade I do.

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I already took out the RAM but having same issue. I never had any issues with the PC before. Need help, please.

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By that I take it that you have re-installed the old memory?

The question I have is: "Is this a BIOS problem, a Windows problem, or both?"

As you are getting a Windows error message it suggests that the BIOS is OK and that Windows is the problem, BUT, you can't boot from a live CD, which suggests BIOS.

The only scenario I can think of that would meet both of those situations is where the boot order in the BIOS has the HDD before the CD/DVD.

With a Dell you press F2 to get into BIOS setup (you may have to tap the key repeatedly to get it to work).

Make sure that the CD/DVD and USB/Floppy are above the HDD in the boot order then try a live CD again. DON'T TRY TO DO ANYTHING MORE THAN CONFIRM THAT IT WILL BOOT FROM A CD.

If it will boot then you have confirmed that it is a Windows only problem.

The error message you are getting references an NTSTATUS code of "STATUS_LOG_FULL".

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I am unable to back up my system and this is my main system. I need to back up school work, papers, and pictures,videos, music etc...

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So I won't ask if you backed up your Registry before installing the new hardware :D:lildevil:...........:halo:

If, however, you used EUSING's "Free Registry Cleaner", it will have made one for you (it doesn't ask). If you used CCleaner's Registry cleaning tool it would have prompted you to make one. You might also have made one with Spybot S&D?

As far as I am aware the only solution if the Windows repair option doesn't work is a full re-install. Although replacing the Registry might work. :(

So what caused it?

1. Failed Windows SP installation..........you would see it immediately afterwards.

2. Failing hardware, either RAM (favourite) or HDD (less likely, but could corrupt Windows in all sorts of unpredictable ways).

What to do about it?

1. Get your system booting from external media. If you can't do this you will need to fix the BIOS first.

2. With the old RAM, run the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics from external media.

3. Run MemTest86 on the new memory sticks, one at a time.

4. Install the best "good" memory combination.

5. Repair or re-install Windows.

Good Luck! :)

@brokencrow

It is F12 for Dell............F10 is Compaq/HP IIRC.

Nihil thank you for your very informative reply. You told me more than my college professor did. Last night was school, I brought in the faulty hard drive (which was fine until I did the windows update servicepack 1 )we placed the hard drive in a spare box and it is still displaying the same error message. The BIOS detects the hard drive. My teacher said something about "blackboxing it" (not sure what that means) but the person wasn't there and he didn't have access to it. So, he told me to bring it in next tuesday and we will get it up and running so he states.

ps; I ran the Dell diagnostics (comes on the drivers cd)and everything was fine no errors with memory, none with the hard drive everything was good I don't understand must be a software issue then. I am no expert but I know a little bit. ;) Thanks again, for the reply trust me it is greatly appreciated.

Hi CN22,

Thanks for the feedback. A failed Windows service pack installation is the most common cause of this problem, even though hardware issues can cause it. It was unfortunate that you did the memory upgrade at the same time as this gave us additional possibilities :D

Service pack installation failures seem most likely when you use the MS automatic update. Personally I go to the "administrator" section of the MS update site and download them separately (it's in the options down the left hand side). I then check that the download is the right size before applying it.

I also set the MS updates to download, and then inform me when they are ready. That gives me a chance to turn off the AV and behavioural monitor before installing, and run the installation when nothing else is happening. :)

If the "black box" is a physical device, it will be a USB connected external drive caddy or docking station. With the docking station you connect it to a working PC and insert the drive you want to work on. With the caddy you install the drive then connect the caddy to a USB port on the working PC. I have one for SATA and one for PATA (EIDE) both are black in colour, hence the name? They support 2.5" and 3.5" drives up to 1TB.

Before you have to go to the extreme step of re-installing Windows, I would try reinstalling the service pack, as there is a reasonable chance that it will work. NOTE: you may have to try this several times before it works ;) so don't give up straight away.

Good Luck!

EDIT:

I have changed the thread title to make it more searchable :)