Blue Screen after fresh install

[Iconic]

I have a client that I ended up having to do a fresh install of Vista Home Premium on his gaming computer due to a very poor job done by a "pizza tech" that he had out before me. Long story short the guy did not troubleshoot properly and messed up to many key OS files.

So, I went out to the customer and he was ok with having the system wiped and Vista reinstalled. After doing the re-install on site the PC would no longer boot the the HD. HD shows is BIOS, and boot sequence is correct. Drive is IDE so I made sure jumpers are OK and re-seated all connectors. Still during the boot process once it hits the step to boot from HD the system sits there and does nothing.

I brought the machine back to my shop to troubleshoot more and as a first step I replaced the HD with a brand new one and re-installed once again. Install went through OK however on the first boot I got a Blue Screen flash by too fast to read. Unfortunatly F8 in Vista does not give the option to Disable reboot on startup error. I am now getting the BS ever time I boot the system up, and it reboots when attempting Safe Mode as well.

I then put back in the Vista Disk and selected the option to "Repair my PC" to see what it says. And this is what I got:

Startup Repair Cannot repair this computer automatically
Problem Signature:
Problem Event Name: Startup RepairV2
Problem Signature 01: ExternalMedia
Problem Signature 02: 6.0.6000.16386.6.0.6000.16385
Problem Signature 03: 6
Problem Signature 04: 131074
Problem Signature 05: FailureDuringSetup
Problem Signature 06: FailureDuringSetup
Problem Signature 07: 0
Problem Signature 08: 0
Problem Signature 09: unknown
Problem Signature 10: 1168
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Now keep in mind this system only has a keyboard, mouse and monitor plugged into it.

I have ran a Memtest to check that angle along with replacing the Power Supply just as a curiosity test, but issue is still there. I have searched the web and although others out there are reporting the same error line shown in Problem Signature 02, none are showing the same event name or problem signature 04 in combination with problem signature 02.

Does anyone know where I can find something that deciphers this problem signature? or any suggestions on next step would be great.

BTW, the original reason the guy had the "pizza tech" out was that his computer was running slow. No pop-ups or symptoms of virus, but the "pizza tech" did not even attempt a virus check, his first step was a "repair install".

So Symptoms before "Pizza Tech"
*Slow load for general windows use and gaming

Symptoms after "Pizza Tech"
*General windows errors
*Would load webpages but unable to connect to any gaming server like COD

Symptoms after Vista fresh install
*Would not boot to HD
*Will boot to CD/DVD and drive recognized

Symptoms after replacing HD and Vista fresh Install
*Blue screen on regular startup
*Restart on Safe Mode startup
*Error from Repair on Vista Disk

 

[Iconic]

Next step I am going to try is this

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...p/thread/1646963a-0396-4bc7-85dc-008ee97b86b7

Seems like a strange fix but it looks like it has worked for others... and the PC specs are very similar to my clients.

 

[NickCat11]

Other than what you are doing now I don't see what else you can try. Keep the thread updated, I am curious if removing the stick of ram does the trick. Good Luck!

 

[Iconic]

Other than what you are doing now I don't see what else you can try. Keep the thread updated, I am curious if removing the stick of ram does the trick. Good Luck!

Thanks, I was kind of worried I was missing something glaringly obvious and someone was going to call me out on it, asking if I was stupid or something. Overlooking the small stuff can happen from time to time and I was afraid this was one of those cases and I could not see it.

 

[studiot]

1) Did you delete the old partition before the fresh install? Setup sometimes fails without this step.

2) Is the HD a failing Western Digital 250G job? There seem to be a lot of these about.

3) Install with less RAM and add the RAM back later.

 

[diggauk]

I had a similar problem with a Dell PC a few months back. In the end, it turned out to be a broken USB port on the front of the PC. The plastic rectangle had snapped out, and one of the 4 pin's inside the socket was shorting out on the outer casing.

Might be a completely different cause in your case, but worth checking.

 

[JosephLeo]

Shutting down the PC during OS install usually causes things like this to happen. Just reformat and reinstall and be on your merry way...this is one of the few times where a N&P is the only solution...at least in my mind.

You can try repairing it though with the install disk- although it takes the same amount of effort- so fresh install is better in this case (if there is no data on the computer)

 

[NickCat11]

Unless I read it wrong he did perform a clean install of Vista and is still receiving the blue screen. Any update on the removal of the ram stick?

 

[JosephLeo]

Unless I read it wrong he did perform a clean install of Vista and is still receiving the blue screen. Any update on the removal of the ram stick?

Oh, whoops- I'm starting to take my reading skills for granted. I should pay more attention from now on

ALSO, Yes- tell us. This is an interesting case and I would love to know the outcome.

 

[Iconic]

Unless I read it wrong he did perform a clean install of Vista and is still receiving the blue screen. Any update on the removal of the ram stick?

I am in the process of doing another re-install right now with one stick of 2GB removed leaving 1 Stick of 2 Gb in the system. I also noted something rather odd on the screen before being able to start from disk... look at the image I attached. Sorry for it being sideways.

I swear it did not show that on the screen yesterday when I was working on it... first showed up today, just now.

 

[NickCat11]

You mean you can't read that special code...j/k

I've never seen that before, maybe someone else here will have some insight on that.

 

[Iconic]

Well here is an update. Vista install has now reached the point to enter in a user name for first time creation (way past the point it failed before). So it looks like removing the stick of RAM has solved the unable to install Vista issue.

The random characters on the screen on startup just after POST before DMI Pool worries me though. I will do all updates for Vista before putting the other stick of RAM back in, however I will have to do more troubleshooting about the picture I attached.

 

[JD1248]

Have you thought of doing a bios update?

 

[Iconic]

By process of elimination that was going to be my next step after Windows updates. I must also note that this install was done on my Tester HD, not on the original HD. So I will have to image the old HD with the tester drive and if that does not work I guess he is paying for a new HD....

 

[nj_computer_repair]

Does the computer have onboard video? Is there a video card? If it does have a video card, I would investigate that next. Sometimes the high end video cards produce weird results like the picture you sent if they are malfunctioning. If it has onboard video, take out the video card and use onboard. If no onboard, take out the video card and use the cheapest one you can find laying around, put the ram back in and lets see what happens. Maybe the ram just needed to be reseated?

 

[Iconic]

The computer has a NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX/9800 GTX+ vid card with no onboard. I was curious about the vid card considering the first vista install I did on my tester HD had noticable blue tinge to the screen however since it went away I passed it off as being my screen is dying... It is an old viewsonic monitor that is probably coming close to the end of its shelf life.

BTW... after the first restart from loading Windows Updates. the bootup screen went back to proper text showing instead of all the gibberish showing before.

 

[Tweak]

I was thinking along the same lines as above, video card, figured vid mem or potential heat issues with vid card, characters though pushed me toward memory on card which may have been from heat or it is just bad...but if it returns to normal and temps are fine and it ends up testing fine that kills that entire thought. (Also lack of power to card but you mentioned testing that so also that is out)

 

[red12049]

I am in the process of doing another re-install right now with one stick of 2GB removed leaving 1 Stick of 2 Gb in the system. I also noted something rather odd on the screen before being able to start from disk... look at the image I attached. Sorry for it being sideways.

I swear it did not show that on the screen yesterday when I was working on it... first showed up today, just now.

Video card, ram, or bios. Seen that quite a few times over the years. If it's intermittent, probably video card or ram. If it become regular, and you've eliminated the first two causes by known good replacement, figure bios.

Rick

 

[Iconic]

Thanks everyone for the help. I got the system all packed up and ready for delivery to the customer. I will be letting him know that he may need to replace the Vid Card if he starts having troubles in the future.

 

[NickCat11]

So I'm assuming as of right now it's ok? The ram trick worked?