***Update***
After making this post i went back to my bench and noticed the laptop has blue screened and says
Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry can not load the hive (file):
\systemroot\system32\config\software
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writeable.
The background
This Dell laptop belongs to a friends of mines son, hes in college and is on a VERY limited income, so he has no possible way to purchase a new one. He has done his homework and does not qualify for a grant to purchase a new one either. So were basically stuck with the one we got. So i have been tasked to fix the problem. He took the laptop to someone at the school to have it checked, and they tell him his hard drive is "toast". Hes asked that if at all possible that he be able to keep the files and papers on the laptop. he has a backup of everything at school but says there are TONS of hoops to jump through to get the back up.
The problem
Press the power button and the laptop goes through its post process, and up comes the safe mode screen. I choose to load windows first. Windows goes through the load process, the XP status bar is at the bottom of the screen. The screen goes black like its transitioning from windows loading to the desktop. but the screen stays black. I wait for nearly an hour and the screen is still black. So i press the power button to shut down and then re-power the laptop. Once the laptop posts im back to the safe mode screen and i try loading XP in safe mode. This time the laptop starts to stream the loading of the windows xp drivers and then hangs at the windows/system32/drives/Mup.sys file. During this the hard drive is functioning, at least i think it is because the hard drive indicator light is flashing.
My tries
Ive tried setting the bios to boot off the DVD drive, and made an OEM XP DVD and CD disk. I power the system on and it tells me there are no bootable devices. I try loading the same OEM software onto a bootable usb thumb drive, making the bios to only load from a usb storage device. It doesn't even try it goes straight to a HDD boot.
My thoughts
Should i just say screw it and go right to putting a new hard drive in? Is the hard drive really "toast"? I can get him a new WD Scorpio Black 160GB 16MB Cache HDD from newegg for 59. He does have relatively slow memory (PNY pc2 3200 DDR2 400) so i figured id go ahead and throw in a memory upgrade (Kingston HyperX 2x1GB DDR2 667 PC2 5300) for $118 shipped with the hard drive. thats doing the labor for free since is a favor to my friend. Hes only got a 2.0ghz Intel Centrino cpu and i know the memory isnt NEEDED but it would make his pc run somewhat faster since he uses his pc for some applications that are memory intensive (that's what he said).
***Update***
I notified him of my thoughts and that i suggest a memory upgrade, he inquired as to a cpu upgrade as well. I found that it his cpu is a Pentium M CPU ID 06D8 socket 479, is there a cpu upgrade that can be purchased as a replacement for this cpu? If so will it work with his inspiron 6000?
Everyone's thoughts on what is wrong and what i can do to fix this is welcomed. It will be a week before this kid an get the cash together for me to order the parts so we have a week to discuss this issue. Thank you ahead of time.
Edited by Gunner75, 29 March 2010 - 09:33 PM.
Sign In
Create Account
