I've researched this all over the internet and a lot of people have similar problems, but they're not quite exact. I refuse to pay Dell Tech Support $250 for this, which I imagine is a somewhat easily fixed issue.
I came home from work tonight and my computer (a Dell E521) was on a black screen, frozen. When I flicked the power on and off, it takes me to the screen:
"We apologize for the inconvience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this" etc., etc.
I'll post the list of options presented, as well as the results when I chose them:
Safe Mode:
-Goes down a loading list and stops on the following line:
"multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows\System32\Drivers\mup.sys"
Underneath that it says:
"Press Esc to cancel loading SPTD.sys"
And then it continues to freeze on a blue screen reading:
"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated.
Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.
Technical information:
***STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF789E524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)"
Safe Mode with Networking:
Same as above^
Safe Mode with Command Prompt:
Same as above^
Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked):
-Allows me to select it, but goes to a black screen. A long time ago I messed with my registry to stop the Windows loading splash screen from booting up, so I imagine if I hadn't done that, it was go to a frozen Windows loading splash screen.
Start Windows Normally:
-Screen freezes the second I press Enter.
I've heard many people say to run a system repair via the Windows XP disc, but I don't have one and I have no easy way of acquiring one. Am I screwed? I don't want to completely restore the computer to factory settings because I'd lose my OS, right? Most of my important files are backed up on my external hard drive.
Additional info:
-I was able to boot to the boot menu by pressing F12, and I ran a diagnostic on my hard drive. When tested, the only result was "Pass," thus I assumed that the problem is not my hard drive.
-I have recently installed a program, but it ran well for all of yesterday and today through the afternoon.
-I've been having some odd adware issues. When I use Google with Mozilla Firefox, a lot of my searches are redirected to ad websites. Firefox also randomly crashed for no apparent reason every so often. I've run checks with Malware Bytes, Spyware Search & Destroy, Norten Antivirus, and Webroot SpySweeper, and all of them haven't been able to identify any adware or spyware, or malicious programs, though there was clearly something wrong.
Sorry for the lengthy post...just wanted to be thorough.
-Zeke
I came home from work tonight and my computer (a Dell E521) was on a black screen, frozen. When I flicked the power on and off, it takes me to the screen:
"We apologize for the inconvience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this" etc., etc.
I'll post the list of options presented, as well as the results when I chose them:
Safe Mode:
-Goes down a loading list and stops on the following line:
"multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows\System32\Drivers\mup.sys"
Underneath that it says:
"Press Esc to cancel loading SPTD.sys"
And then it continues to freeze on a blue screen reading:
"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated.
Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.
Technical information:
***STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF789E524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)"
Safe Mode with Networking:
Same as above^
Safe Mode with Command Prompt:
Same as above^
Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked):
-Allows me to select it, but goes to a black screen. A long time ago I messed with my registry to stop the Windows loading splash screen from booting up, so I imagine if I hadn't done that, it was go to a frozen Windows loading splash screen.
Start Windows Normally:
-Screen freezes the second I press Enter.
I've heard many people say to run a system repair via the Windows XP disc, but I don't have one and I have no easy way of acquiring one. Am I screwed? I don't want to completely restore the computer to factory settings because I'd lose my OS, right? Most of my important files are backed up on my external hard drive.
Additional info:
-I was able to boot to the boot menu by pressing F12, and I ran a diagnostic on my hard drive. When tested, the only result was "Pass," thus I assumed that the problem is not my hard drive.
-I have recently installed a program, but it ran well for all of yesterday and today through the afternoon.
-I've been having some odd adware issues. When I use Google with Mozilla Firefox, a lot of my searches are redirected to ad websites. Firefox also randomly crashed for no apparent reason every so often. I've run checks with Malware Bytes, Spyware Search & Destroy, Norten Antivirus, and Webroot SpySweeper, and all of them haven't been able to identify any adware or spyware, or malicious programs, though there was clearly something wrong.
Sorry for the lengthy post...just wanted to be thorough.
-Zeke
