Black Screen of Death with a Twist

[AnnD]

I'm a font fanatic who was silly enough to load too many fonts into my Windows\Fonts folder. When I realized my mistake, I decided to move all of the new fonts into a separate folder, burn everything onto a CD, and leave the original ones intact. I even used a list from another computer to ensure that I didn't remove any fonts that needed to be in the Windows/Fonts folder. As a "Plan B" strategy, I did a System Restore to a couple days earlier, then rebooted.

On reboot, ScanDisk ran automatically, although I don't know why. I received a message that the WIN\System\vgaoem.fon file was missing. I assume that this is a font file that allows my monitor to display properly. So, I tried to start in safe mode. I see the HP (This is an older HP Pavilion.) startup screen, and the WinXP screen, but after that, it's the ominous BSOD. Instead of the flashing bar cursor in the upper left corner, though, I do have the white arrow cursor.

I've tried repeatedly to boot from my WinXP disc, but to no avail. At one point I was able to get into BIOS, and tried "BOOTCFG/default" thinking that this would reset the boot directory to default settings, but it didn't help either.

I reformatted the hard drive just a couple of months ago, and everything is working properly as far as hardware goes. Just finished reloading all of my software, and updated some files recently that weren't backed up yet, so I'm unwilling to reformat again unless absolutely necessary. I REALLY don't want to lose any files.

Any suggestions?:rolleyes:

[Chaky]

Is this still on?

I'm sure you meant "%SystemRoot%\fonts" where the %SystemRoot% variable stands for path to Windows installation directory.

There is a way to bypass some of the setup checks that windows setup does and sometimes fails to resume with repair or fresh install.

Setup program tends to check if there is windows already installed on your HD. There are some trivial problems (such as corrupted or missing file) that can make windows unrepairable. I had similar experience with corrupted registry, where I couldn't move past square 1 (BSOD when the setups checks for the installed windows).

Here is what you need to do:

Enter BIOS and disable your HD. When HD is disabled, setup program doesn't try to check the current windows installation, but it still has access to HD.
Reboot from setup CD, and use repair console to access CD and HD.

You'll be prompted to log on to your C:\WINDOWS installation (ironic) and for the admin password.

After that you just type "expand d:\i386\vgaoem.fo_ c:\windows\fonts\vgaoem.fon". I'm guessing that your CD drive is "d:" and your windows path is "c:\windows".

P.S.
Something tells me you already fixed it.

[AnnD]

Is this still on?

I'm sure you meant "%SystemRoot%\fonts" where the %SystemRoot% variable stands for path to Windows installation directory.

There is a way to bypass some of the setup checks that windows setup does and sometimes fails to resume with repair or fresh install.

Setup program tends to check if there is windows already installed on your HD. There are some trivial problems (such as corrupted or missing file) that can make windows unrepairable. I had similar experience with corrupted registry, where I couldn't move past square 1 (BSOD when the setups checks for the installed windows).

Here is what you need to do:

Enter BIOS and disable your HD. When HD is disabled, setup program doesn't try to check the current windows installation, but it still has access to HD.
Reboot from setup CD, and use repair console to access CD and HD.

You'll be prompted to log on to your C:\WINDOWS installation (ironic) and for the admin password.

After that you just type "expand d:\i386\vgaoem.fo_ c:\windows\fonts\vgaoem.fon". I'm guessing that your CD drive is "d:" and your windows path is "c:\windows".

P.S.
Something tells me you already fixed it.

Chaky--

Your P.S. was correct--I have already fixed the problem, but thanks so much for the reply!

[Troxx]

If you have another computer handy with a cd burner, go to http://www.UBCD4win.com You can make what is called Ultimate Boot CD. I use it all the time on computers with BSOD's. What you could try from there is to going into the System Volume Information folder and pull a backup of your registry.

You could also try chkdsk c: /f /r that will check the system for any file problems and try to correct them.