XP's bluescreening on startup...

azurice

Not my computer, but my brother's laptop, so apologies for the lack of knowledge about his computer.

Just posting here incase this is a small and/or stupid problem...Anyway, I came home this afternoon to see my brother staring forlornly at his laptop. Apparently Windows XP wouldn't start. I don't know much about fixing this kinda stuff, but I tried going to the startup menu (F8 ) and none of the options get me anywhere. Everytime Windows gets past the progress bar, it stops and an error screen appears (Safe Mode seems to get the furthest before the blue screen attacks.) I can't even get a good look at the error screen though, as it appears for only a second or two, before the thing restarts back to the startup menu.

Anyone have any tips? I'm hoping this won't end up being a major problem, but I can't help but feel as though it's something horrible... :?

xYUUBINKYOKUx

Did he recently update any drivers? I've had this problem when I have tried to install new video card drivers on mine. After it crashes it should have an option to restore to last working settings or something like that the next time it trys to boot

azurice

I'm pretty sure he hasn't updated any drivers in a while, as he mainly uses it to do schoolwork and play old games. That and he's 12 and a bit of a dullard. :P Apparently he was just running Opera when everything just stopped and the bluescreen appeared. :?

Restoring to the last working settings didn't work either. More blue evil there.

exoplasm

If you can get into safemode you want to right-click on "My Computer" and go to properties. From there open the Advanced tab and look at the bottom for "Startup and Recovery" and click the settings button for it. Uncheck "Restart automatically" and hit OK on everything to close out.

Next, open event viewer (Start menu, "Run..." and type in "eventvwr.msc") and look under the System section for anything with a big red circle with an X in it. It should give you the error message the blue screen gives.

If you can't find it or are unsure if it's the right one, just reboot and wait for the blue screen. It should stay up indefinitely now (at least until you restart the machine) and you can get all the information and look it up on google (usually just the error message and number).

azurice

Actually, Safe Mode gave me something different this time. I still can't do anything (it's basically a black screen with Safe Mode in the corners) but an error message appeared long for me to write it down.

lsass.exe failed to initialize properly. (0xc0000005)

Googling the error brings me to the conclusion that something horrible has happened to some sort of required system file and that a reinstall of Windows may be necessary.

Does anyone know anything else about this? In any case, I kinda wish I knew more about this kinda stuff right now. :P

exoplasm

You may be able to get by with a recovery install (you press R or something when you get into the setup from the CD).

Could have been a virus or trojan that hosed the system files, although I think most viruses/trojans lately tend to silently utilize a system rather than nuke it.

Tell your brother that downloading random things isn't a good idea. Especially if they came from Kazaa, LimeWire, etc.

azurice

exoplasm wrote:

Tell your brother that downloading random things isn't a good idea. Especially if they came from Kazaa, LimeWire, etc.

He already knows that LimeWire and friends are full of evil, thanks to past experiences with an older computer.

I'll try the recovery install after dinner, hopefully I'll be able to eradicate this issue. Thanks for the help so far guys! I shall report on my progress later.

Fort1tude

lsass.exe failed to initialize properly. (0xc0000005)

This means it is either a Memory error (which means you need to buy new RAM) OR it is a virus, thought I dont know of any virus's these days that do that anymore. I would make a memory test disk with the EXE at this page.

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

And test the RAM.

azurice

Fort1tude wrote:

lsass.exe failed to initialize properly. (0xc0000005)

This means it is either a Memory error (which means you need to buy new RAM) OR it is a virus, thought I dont know of any virus's these days that do that anymore. I would make a memory test disk with the EXE at this page.

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

And test the RAM.

I'll do that first then, since I still haven't found my bro's XP disc. Hopefully it won't be a memory error, as I've heard that it costs a fortune upgrading/repairing laptops...

exoplasm

You can get new RAM for a laptop for about the same price as desktop RAM these days.

There is no cost other than time if you do it yourself. In most laptops it is super easy to swap memory.