[roger_smith]

Working on a machine for a client of mine. They called me last week and their payroll machine was booting to a bluescreen error 0x24. This poor old XP machine should really hit the heap, but it's the only machine they have that will run their payroll software (it requires XP).

I'll post the fix for it when I'm done if anyone cares. I originally planned to toss a HDD at it, but so far it's passing hard drive tests.

[Losi]

I'd be interested in what you did to assess and fix your client's problem. Did you recommend a newer software?

[roger_smith]

I'd be interested in what you did to assess and fix your client's problem. Did you recommend a newer software?

This guy is in a unique situation in that he's close to retiring. The payroll software he uses would be exorbitantly expensive to upgrade so he makes due with this.

So far i've run a few hard drive diagnostic tests and they've passed. I'm actually surprised by that. I have a few more running at the moment to see if they pass or fail. If they all pass, I'll go ahead and assume the drive is more or less ok and move onto trying to fix the actual OS.

[Oni]

This guy is in a unique situation in that he's close to retiring. The payroll software he uses would be exorbitantly expensive to upgrade so he makes due with this.

So far i've run a few hard drive diagnostic tests and they've passed. I'm actually surprised by that. I have a few more running at the moment to see if they pass or fail. If they all pass, I'll go ahead and assume the drive is more or less ok and move onto trying to fix the actual OS.

sfc /scannow?

[roger_smith]

sfc /scannow?

chkdsk /f /v /x is what I'll try next assuming all the hard drive tests pass.

[mothered]

chkdsk /f /v /x is what I'll try next assuming all the hard drive tests pass.

Unless you have a definitive Indication, don't waste your time with a process of elimination.

To see exactly what's causing the BSOD, debug and analyze the MEMORY.DMP file located In the C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP directory. Tools such as "WinDbg" perform the job well. By default, an "automatic memory dump" Is created at the time of the BSOD. For further analysis, you can configure a full memory dump via the Startup and Recovery options within the Windows environment. This will contain both user & kernel mode dumps.

[roger_smith]

Unless you have a definitive Indication, don't waste your time with a process of elimination.

To see exactly what's causing the BSOD, debug and analyze the MEMORY.DMP file located In the C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP directory. Tools such as "WinDbg" perform the job well. By default, an "automatic memory dump" Is created at the time of the BSOD. For further analysis, you can configure a full memory dump via the Startup and Recovery options within the Windows environment. This will contain both user & kernel mode dumps.

I know I didn't go into detail, but I've been a computer repair tech for about 10 years now. I didn't need to go into a deep debug to sort this one out. chkdsk seem to get it back up and running and now i'll be imaging over to a replacement drive since this one is from 2008.

I'm not discounting windbg at all, trust me. I've used that many times in the past to find the cause of issues and fix them. In this case though I already had a pretty solid idea of the cause.

[mothered]

I know I didn't go into detail, but I've been a computer repair tech for about 10 years now. I didn't need to go into a deep debug to sort this one out. chkdsk seem to get it back up and running and now i'll be imaging over to a replacement drive since this one is from 2008.

I'm not discounting windbg at all, trust me. I've used that many times in the past to find the cause of issues and fix them. In this case though I already had a pretty solid idea of the cause.

Okay, that's great news.

I was under the Impression that you hadn't performed any prior analysis. I should've asked first, then posted. Only 3 months ago, I had a BSOD Issue whereby each and every time I moved my lappy, the BSOD would hit. Stationary, It was fine. It defeated the purpose of portability (and the objective of being a laptop) If It were to remain In a fixed location. Each time I moved It, I noticed an Irregular sound coming from what appeared to be the HDD. Sure enough, It was the hard disk. Analysis Indicated there were "hardware" (not software) bad sectors, hence Irreparable. Replacing It took all but 5 minutes, and all was fine.

The point being (like yourself), I had more so a definitive Indication of the cause of the BSOD.

[roger_smith]

Just to wrap this up. I re-imaged the replacement drive last night using a program called Acronis, and all is now well. The client has a new hard drive that isn't almost 8 years old, and it's double the size. Best of all, because I was able to image the drive everything is just as it was immediately before the BSoD issue . No down time, no reinstalling all their tools, no configuring network stuff, all set and good to go :-D

[mothered]

You can always rely on Acronis, It performs the Image/clone of the HDD with ease. It certainly beats Norton Ghost (which I was using many years ago).

Nice to read all Is up and running.