Adventures in Blue Screen of Deathing

July 31, 2008 8:03 AM

Blue Screen of Death in XP SP2.

When I turn on my laptop it loads as far as the "Windows Loading Please Wait" screen before going black then the BSOD appears. The only error message is RDR_FILE_SYSTEM and the standard stuff about drivers. I've doubled the RAM and the problem persists.

I can start it in safe mode but not safe mode with networking. If I use msconfig to turn off all services and startup programs I can start the laptop normally. I can then turn on most of the services manually. The non-working ones seem non-essential but I'm not an expert. If I try to reboot with the now-working services on I get the BSOD again.

I've also done a Windows repair with the XP disc which didn't seem to change anything.

Thanks!

posted by minifigs to computers & internet (6 comments total)

I have had similar stuff. I have done re-installs, and my data, while harder to get to, has not gone away, and it seems to solve the problem for awhile. Your results my vary.
posted by Danf at 8:23 AM on July 31, 2008

Try downloading and reinstalling the drivers for your network card and perhaps your hard drive controller.
posted by lockle at 8:41 AM on July 31, 2008 [1 favorite]

Look to see which drivers are coming up with errors. You are getting driver conflicts & its causing your machine to shut down to protect itself. Reinstall latest versions of the drivers that are causing the conflicts. Uninstall any new software (last couple days). Good luck!
posted by zia at 9:06 AM on July 31, 2008

Log into recovery console using the xp disk. Delete c:\windows\system32\drivers\sptd.sys

I get this because of daemon tools quite often. Have stopped using it for now. other programs use this driver too
posted by Shoeburyness at 9:18 AM on July 31, 2008

Seconding both zia and Shoeburyness's comments. Don't uninstall software all at once; instead, do one at a time, with restarts in between if asked to do so. It might help to uninstall and then reinstall, rather than just installing over an existing driver, but don't take my word for it. Likewise for software.

Failing all this, the last resort would be a clean re-install, not a "repair". I've tried repairs many times, and it doesn't solve all problems, so I did end up formatting the HD and then doing clean installs of XP. Make sure to back up your data beforehand.
posted by curagea at 10:20 AM on July 31, 2008

Yeah - this is a driver problem. It's a question of finding out which one, though as lockle said, the network card driver is a good bet. Also see this Microsoft Knowledge Base article.
posted by cnc at 1:48 PM on July 31, 2008