Member Avatar for samoddie

:confused:

Hi there

I have acquired a dead computer and would like to try and fix it. The problem is this:


Computer powers up, makes all normal noises, beeps once (although very loudly!) all looks fine. Then where you would expect to see the windows loading screen there is a flash of what might be a blue screen. It's too quick to see what it says. Then it instantly restarts itself and goes onto the windows safe mode screen (the one where you can select how windows loads). At this point the keyboard no longer works, have tried different keyboards both USB and the other way (cant remember the other connection! - pci?) and still no luck so have to wait until the countdown finishes then it goes through the same thing again, doesn't load windows, reboots etc...

I have been into the bios and all looks normal, have removed the soundcard, changed graphics card, changed hard drive but still the same thing happens. Anyone got any ideas? I'm stumped.

Thanks

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by benoxph

Dani AI

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Brief summary and practical next steps based on the symptoms (single loud POST, instant blue-screen flash then reboot loop, keyboard dead at the boot/menu phase) and the existing replies from and .

The situation should be treated as two parallel problems to diagnose: 1) capture the actual STOP code/driver name from the blue screen, and 2) run low-level hardware checks. Capturing the STOP code first avoids a blind reinstall.

Concrete, safe diagnostics (ordered):

  • Strip the machine to bare essentials: one RAM stick (try each stick in turn), onboard video if available, no PCI cards, only keyboard/monitor/one boot drive and no USB devices. A quick RAM reseat or single-stick test frequently exposes memory faults.
  • Run a bootable memory tester (MemTest86/86+ from CD/USB) for several passes to rule out RAM errors.
  • If possible, swap in a known-good PSU or check voltages in BIOS/hardware monitor to rule out power problems.

How to force the BSOD to stay on screen when the keyboard won't let F8/Advanced Options be used:

  • Remove the boot drive and attach it to a working Windows PC (internal or via USB adapter).
  • Run regedit on the working PC and select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
  • File -> Load Hive -> open the offline drive\Windows\System32\Config\SYSTEM and give it a temporary name (for example OFFLINE).
  • Under OFFLINE\ControlSet001 (and check ControlSet002 if present)\Control\CrashControl set the DWORD AutoReboot to 0 (create it if missing). Unload the hive, safely return the drive to the problem machine and boot: the blue screen should now stay long enough to read the STOP code and filename.
  • Copy any minidumps from Windows\Minidump before touching the installation; those files can be analyzed on a working PC with tools like BlueScreenView or WinDbg.

After the STOP code is known, match it to targeted fixes: driver file => remove/update that driver; storage/controller errors => check BIOS SATA mode (IDE/AHCI) and chipset drivers; memory/PSU errors => replace failing component. If the dump implicates the kernel or system files and hardware checks pass, a repair install (not blind reformat) is the next step — but only after personal data is backed up.

Caution: offline registry edits and hive loads must be done carefully; back up the drive first.

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Member Avatar for DavidRyan

First of all USB keyboards won't work in the boot screen unless the relevant BIOS option is set. Look for USB Legacy Support or USB Emulation.
The small, round colour-coded connections used by mice and keyboard are PS/2 connectors.
As for fixing the PC, I'd suggest a repair or - if that fails - clean installation of windows.

Member Avatar for benoxph

Maybe you really need a new windows installation. The blue screen commonly appears if you have installed a new hardware that causes conflict to the system or in some cases it can also be incorrect motherboard drivers.

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