[Tfire136]

Hello everyone!! found this forum and it looks like an absolute wealth of knowledge. I have a problem that I sure could use some advice on. I have an HP Pavillion ze5500 running XP SP2. I am running a Pentium 4 2.66 Ghz with 448Mb of RAM. The recovery disks that it came with seem to be corrupt and have not been able to use them. My problem begins every time I start the computer. Once the power is turned on the Blue Screen of Death pops up for a milisecond and then the computer restarts itself. I can start the computer in Safe Mode if need be.I did manage to get a picture of the screen and this is what I came up with:



Now I have no way to do a recovery without the disks and I do not even know how to attack this problem. I would really appreciate any help in getting this solved. I have not added any new hardware or software. I did take this to Best Buy which was my first mistake. They said they reinstalled the OS but the same problem occured and it seems like the only thing they did was take my money. I have opened up the computer myself and cleared out whatever dust I can find and have made sure that everyhting is seated nice and tight. Thank you in advance!!!!

[Tfire136]

Top for the morning crowd. Still wondering if anyone may have some advice on this situation. Thanks!!

[wannabe1]

Hello Tfire136...

Is your machine ACPI compliant? Boot to Safe Mode and open Device Manager. Expand the "Computer" catagory...What does it say there?

wannabe1

[Tfire136]

OK so I booted the computer to safe mode and once I expanded the computer category under device manager it said "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC". So my guess would be yes it is ACPI compliant. Thanks for the reply this is my computer for work so I really appreciate the help trying to help me out with this

[wannabe1]

Restart the machine and enter BIOS Setup...usually by pressing the Delete or F1 key at the logo screen...it should say which key to press at the bottom of the first logo screen.

Once in BIOS, look for a Power or Power Management catagory. See if there is a way in your BIOS version to disable APM (Advanced Power Management). Save any setting you change (F10) and see if the machine will boot normally.

[Tfire136]

I am having some trouble finding the power management category. When I go into setup I see cetegories like main,advanced,tools,security,boot, and exit. Did not see anything related to power management.

[wannabe1]

Every version of BIOS is a bit different so I can only offer general advice here...

Look in each catagory for anything relating to Power settings or Power Management. If you find something and are unsure of what it is, let me know.

[Tfire136]

I looked again definatley nothing that mentions anything about power management. The word power does not even come up lol. I definatley appreciate the advice. Is there any other way to get into power managemnt besides BIOS. This computer is driving me nuts lol.

[wannabe1]

Is ths XP Home or Pro?

[Tfire136]

I am using XP Home

[wannabe1]

I don't think we're going to find this, but let's look anyway.

Open Control Panel and double click on the Power Options icon. Is there an "APM" tab in the Properties window?

While you're in there, change the settings under the "Power Schemes" tab so that all three fields show "Never". "Apply" any changes you make.

[Tfire136]

There is no APM tab......but I did change all 3 for both plugged in and running on batteries tabs to never. There is an "Advanced" tab but it does not look like it will be much help.

[wannabe1]

Setting the Power Scheme to never is kind of a "poor man's" APM workaround...sometimes it works...most times it doesn't, but it's worth a shot. See if the machine will boot normally.

What's happened, I think, is when the OS was installed...ACPI support wasn't. This is done during Windows installation at the same point that SATA drivers are installed, only instead of pressing F6 to install SATA support, F5 should have been used to install ACPI support.

Let me know if it boots.

[Tfire136]

OK it did boot up ok that time. Should I go through and set "never" to each power scheme that it has listed??? I will see if this solves the probelm. If not should I just post back to this thread??? Also I would assume that I would just leave these settings the way they are or should I some how try to get those drivers installed? Once again I really appreciate your help. I do not always get that blue screen on every startup so I will play around with it and see if I can get it to come back later.

[wannabe1]

In order to install the ACPI support, the OS will have to be reinstalled.

Leave the settings as they are now and try the machine for a while. If you continue to get the BSOD, post back to this thread. In the meantime, I'll research the problem a little more...though I'm pretty sure it's the ACPI support not being installed that's causing the problem.