I downloaded a screen capture program (BSR Screen Recorder to do a job for an attorney that needed it right away.

Started capturing video from the screen. After 12~15 minutes, I notice the screen has gone black.

BSOD comes up (recovered from a serious error).....

I get the PC to come up in safe mode. Several times. System won't come up in normal mode.

I go to system restore to restore it to a point two days ago.

System won't do anything. Black screen, with only the mouse pointer visible. After 15~20 minutes, I get a screensaver, which had never been set before.

Forcing a shutdown only brings me back to this point whether I choose safe mode or not. I have no visuals to try another restore point or anything.

I'm wondering if, when I forced a reboot after several minutes the first time the screen showed black only, the system WAS restoring itself at that time and I seriously effed things up by forcing a shutdown in the middle of a restore.

It's my main business computer (others were tied up or WAY more expensive) but of course I need it back as it has all my accounting, etc....

I'm willing to pay someone who is qualified to help me out here.......

I assume this is a laptop, during boot up can you hit F10 (or esc, or whatever) takes you into BIOS. There are usually some tools you can run for memory and hard disk test, to see if the hard drive passes. You could also try going into Safe Mode with Command Prompt and from CHKDSK /f to check main partition and fix any bad sectors.

At the top of the BSOD, does it give a filename or anything that is failing. Sometimes that will clue in to how to resolve. There is one that I have seen often with Symantec Endpoint Protection, but not sure your using that application.

Hi Randy-

Thanks so much for the input!

This is an HP desktop. It seems as though I've explored every option there is from the boot up, except "restore system" as I'm saving that as a last resort.

"Safe Mode" or "Normal Windows" makes no difference; I get a black screen with the mouse pointer visible; nothing else.

I'm beginning to think it might be something malicious in that nothing seems to be working to get me past it. Or maybe something went awry with the video driver.

I _DO_ run a backup weekly onto an external drive and I'm really getting to the point where I'm wondering if I should just restore the system to factory-new and then see if that backup drive and software actually works!

Mark, I think that's where you're at at this point. Safe mode uses a failsafe video driver (not the same one you normally use), and if safe mode isn't working, you're done.

One possible alternative is to boot up with a Win7 DVD (I hope you're running 7; if you're running XP at this point, well... um... yeah.) and either try to repair the system or do a system restore with that. You should have some kind of Windows boot disk somewhere; if not, go buy the cheapest OEM version on the shelf and use that.

Hi Mark,

My guess is that BSR Screen Recorder replaced or tweaked your video driver completely or it tweaked some registry settings in that area. As above, Safe Mode should use a generic video driver and get you going, so I also suspect something more complex happened as well.

One unlikely solution.
Somebody SUPER-technical regarding Windows could use a Linux startup CD or thumb drive to boot up your PC and poke around the registry, looking for something that could be preventing video in safe mode. Hard drive/data integrity could also be checked in this manner. That being said, spotting something helpful in the registry is more than I would have the patience to do. You need a true Geek before they would be able & willing to go that deep without further clues, at this point.

If it were me, I'd have given up by now and re-installed everything and grabbed my data from my backup. If you don't have a backup, see below for an alternative.

Last Resort data retrieval.
I wouldn't sweat too much about at least retrieving your data. You can use the same 'boot into Linux' method to get access to your hard disks, without having to fix Windows. (Note: this is why your windows passwords are meaningless.)

You could then use Linux to transfer all your data to a portable hard drive. Once your data is safe, you can feel better about any further Hail Mary troubleshooting.

I'm hardly a LINUX Guru but that much, I could probably walk you through over the phone. There are also lots of guides online that step you through this.

It's actually not that hard. I'd be happy to try to walk you through it, although honestly, there is nothing like having a an expert on sight who can actually see what's happening.

One caveat, if you have encrypted your hard drives..... this won't help.

Sorry, not much useful but I hope this helps as a last resort strategy anyways.

No, Murph. Everything is helpful at this point! Thank you for responding!

I'm pretty much at wits end. At this point, I'd LOVE to have to restore the system to factory and try that back up to recover all the rest of the files since the computer was new.

At the moment, I can't even get to the option of "restore" from the boot up (F11 I think?) because every time I boot it up, and choose ANY of the options (Diagnostics, Restore, etc) it goes to the screen "Windows was not shut down properly" with the options for starting Windows normally or using one of the safe modes. In other words, I'm not even able to GET to the screen to restore the system.

I thought that if I could maybe attempt to shut Windows down normally, I can get back to options at bootup. So, I just tried hitting the Windows key on the KB, than the right arrow, then enter. If Windows is running back there somewhere, that SHOULD shut the system down normally. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be working.

To Ken's points earlier (Thank You also Ken!) it's a Vista 32 system, and didn't come with a Windows disc....just the recovery partition. I don't seem to have a series of Recovery / Rescue discs anywhere, though I'm surprised because I'm usually good about those things (though admittedly disorganized of late).

Oh, Mark....


Maybe someone on Freecycle can give you a Vista CD? I think those should have some of the same recovery options.

That's a good idea, Ken.

My ignorance really embarrass me on this: For a repair such as this (as opposed to an installation) does it matter if it's a "used" CD as opposed to a disc that has not been previously registered?

In other words, can I simply borrow one from anyone? And does it have to specifically be 32bit v. the 64bit version?

You guys are saving my life here!

As a long shot idea:

Since I'm not having any luck doing a shutdown with the "hitting the Windows key on the KB, than the right arrow, then enter" sequence, is there some OTHER Keyboard sequence that will shut down a computer?

Yes, you can borrow it from anyone. I'm not sure if 64 bit vs 32 bit makes a difference.

Also, dammit, you made me shut down my VM inadvertently when I was trying command sequences for you. Mnech.

Thank you Ken. You'll have t tell me what you would like better than the Ring Dings.

Or, buy a Mac.


Sorry.


Cleaning ceiling fans. It does strange things to me.

Thrilled.....!

Have gotten into the "Recovery" option. Am doing diagnostic tests!

Woo hoo! So you got ahold of a disk?

No.....for whatever reason, the F11 recovery option worked when it hadn't worked previously. It SEEMS to be good, working off a recovery point from several days earlier.

Now to make a new set of recovery discs and back up the various folders onto disc.

I thought I was doing good by backing up the system weekly. This was the first time I foresaw the situation where I might not even get to the point of being able to use that back up system.

Maybe I should look into a new system to replace this while I can still get Win7Pro. It doesn't seem like Win8 is all that popular.

I don't believe this was a hardware issue, but it's still a 5-year-old system running Vista.

Seriously, thank you guys for holding my hand though this scary experience!

Eff You See Kay!

BSOD.

Did you get stuff off before it went? I'd say at this point your best bet (if you don't trust your backups) is to boot the thing via a linux recovery disk and copy your data off.

I got it back up again (I know, I know) and am backing up files as we "speak".

Dude, I know the feeling. Any idea what the bluescreen said? That might help us track down the issue.

Mark,

I was following this but didn't comment based on my lack of techno babble. I will, however, accept any dollars you would like to send for my support. :-)

Having said that, you mentioned a 5 year old system. May be worthwhile to run chkdsk, or better yet, just replace the hard drive(s) with something new. And get an OEM copy of Windows 7 while you are at it.

As a side note, when I had my new build done in October, I had it set up with a 256GB SSD for the operating system and programs and have all the other stuff go to 2 other 1 TB HDDs. The system absolutely screams.

If you get the BSOD again, copy the Stop error message. The description (and especially the first sequence of the numeric code 0x000000??) will give you something to use to begin chasing down the problem with a Google search.

Thanks, guys. I'm sorry, I didn't write down the code. Coincidentally, it happened when I opened Chrome which had the same CNet tab open from when I downloaded that other software. After reboot and opening Chrome, Chrome warned that it was not shut down properly and that I could choose to reopen the tabs that weren't saved. I didn't.

I know, probably unrelated. Joe, can the text truly be copied and saved, or do you mean write it down?

The computer has been fine since.... I'm on it now. I took screenshots of the software list and backed up all of the files onto DVD-Rs.

Most importantly, I learned that the system backup could be useless if you can't load Windows properly in the first place.

I'll prioritize a new computer in the next few weeks and migrate to it just in case. Five years was a good run for this one and it's still useful somewhere else.

Again, thank you guys very, very much!

Off to research Win7 v. Win8 now!

Coincidentally, TechWoot has a refurbished HP that would be roughly the level I'm looking for, at half the cost.

Again, I need to do some research on Win8!

OK, there is, not surprisingly, a TON of info out there on Win8. So, I'm going to see if I can avoid spending all day researching it. By the time I do, that Woot deal will be gone.

I'm getting the jist that when Win8 first came out, it was almost universally panned. And I've always liked Win7 Pro, which is on most of my machines. But it also seems that later releases and updates of Win8 have improved things.

Is that a reasonable summation? Anyone here move to 8 and have an opinion?

I haven't had any issues running 8 having upgraded from 7 when 8 was first released. Win 8 tiles system is pretty much useless for anything other than a phone or tablet. I like the Windows store and use of skydrive etc. but for most business applications I think Win7 might be the better choice.

Thanks, Jason. By mid-afternoon I checked back on Woot and they had sold out of that particular build.

Probably just as well. The more I read on Win8, the more I think I just want to stick with Win7, and it looks like I can still get Win7 if I do a custom build from HP or Dell.... though I wouldn't be surprised if those aren't around too much longer.

Well, Dell better not. They owe us a lot of support.

LOL...I just mean that Win7 builds may not be offered much longer!

Ten minutes ago, I ordered an HP build with a $250 off Memorial Day sale:

HP Pavilion HPE h8-1360t Desktop PC
• Windows 7 Professional 64
• 3rd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 quad-core processor [3.4GHz, 8MB Shared Cache]
• FREE Upgrade to 10GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [3 DIMMs]
• 1TB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive
• 500GB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive
• 1GB DDR3 AMD Radeon HD 7570 [HDMI, DVI, VGA via adapter]
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
• 600W Power supply
• Norton Internet Security(TM) 2012 - 3 year
• Wireless-N LAN card (1x1)
• 15-in-1 memory card reader, 4 USB 2.0 (front), 2 USB 3.0 (top)
• No TV Tuner
• SuperMulti DVD Burner
• Beats Audio (tm) -- integrated studio quality sound
• Premium HP keyboard and optical mouse
• Adobe Premiere Elements & Photoshop Elements 10
• Roxio Secure Burn

Mark, you can do a print screen or, what I've done on occasion is take a picture of the screen with a camera. Sometimes it comes up too quickly to see what's on the error message.

Sounds like you're on the road to recovery.

Hmmmm, I assumed that a print screen wouldn't work because the computer was unresponsive with a BSOD?

You can pause a BSOD, but you first have to disable the automatic restart of Windows.

Also, it's not possible to print screen a BSOD.

On that related topic, what the HELL was Microsoft thinking with Windows 8???
It went over as well as WinME.

Dumbasses.

Yup ya gotta wonder. I got it not long after it was released since I was building a new computer and figured I would stay current. It was like being in a foreign country and not knowing the language. First thing I did was figure out how to make it like windows 7. Now M$ is coming out with an update to do just that. IMHO they F'd this one up.

They're not making it that much like Win7. They're only bringing the button in the lower left back, not the menu. Clicking the button will bring up the Start screen, not the old Start menu. Or at least that's how I'm reading it.

If it makes you feel better Mark... since I returned from my little trip Sunday, I've seen the BSOD twice on my main PC. Time for a fresh rebuild and hoping it's not hardware. HDs are getting old though so it may be minor corruption. I usually start fresh, OS wise, every one or two years anyways and this is the longest I ever went without a clean slate so it's not unexpected.

Kind of off topic here, But if you ever need to get files off of a hard drive easily, you can get a docking station that a desktop drive plugs right into and the dock is connected to a PC with USB. You can get the files just like you would off a flash drive. I use one to backup my files because I do not like those silly portable drives that have always failed me. I just buy a full size drive and use it like a flash drive with the dock

That's what I'm doing to back up my data at the moment. I have a Synology NAS, too, but it stopped booting up, giving error beeps a while back, and I haven't put the effort into reviving it. I did like it functioning as a DLNA server for my different media files. But for backup purposes, yeah, I find the hard drive in a dock super-easy. I think it's SyncToy that I used to schedule an automatic backup based on what files have changed.