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Following an outage of the public power supply my HP Compaq DX2400 (Vista) will not boot. I can access the BIOS screens and make changes if necessary but on startup the PC will only boot to the ‘starting Windows’ screen and then loops back to the initial BIOS startup screen. This loops continuously. System Restore will run but then BSOD and the error message above and advising a problem relating to the page file. Safe Mode does not work and I cannot boot from CD (so I cannot use the HP recovery discs) or installed HDD. The PC is exactly as supplied by HP with no additional hardware or software installed and was working normally until the power outage.

You’ve done a lot of the things I was going to tell you to do, so you’ve effectively stolen my thunder.  I do have one suggestion that it looks like you haven’t tried.

Of course, a power outage can leave your operating system files corrupted or your hardware damaged. If this is the issue then you are looking at some major work to find out what the problem is. They can also corrupt the BIOS because things weren’t able to shut down properly before the outage, and a simple clearing of the CMOS might do the trick.

Reset CMOS

There are two kinds of CMOS - those that come as a flat, round watch-type battery and those that are jumpers on the mother board that you can reset. I believe that yours is the jumpers on the motherboard. To reset these, turn of the PC and unplug it. Open the case and find the motherboard. You should be able to clearly see the jumper that clears the BIOS settings in CMOS RAM. Set the jumper that is labeled “Clear CMOS” to pins 1-2. Wait 10-15 seconds and then move the cap back to pins 2-3. When you start the computer you will need to enter the BIOS setup to reset any custom BIOS settings.

If you happen to have the flat, watch-battery type of CMOS, you should be able to gently pull the battery off of the motherboard, wait a few seconds and then put it back. Either method will clear the BIOS settings and should allow the computer to start up normally.

Reinstall the Operating System

I’m not sure why you can’t boot from CD (I’m hoping that it’s due to a BIOS problem that will reset with the CMOS), but if you still can’t get out of the BSOD, then you might need to reinstall Vista. You can pull the hard drive out and use it as a slave either in a working machine or in an external hard drive to save your data before you reinstall so you won’t lose anything that you haven’t backed up.

I’m hoping that resetting the CMOS will do the trick. If it doesn’t and you need more help, please let us know.

My PC is capable of high quality gaming with a Vista rating of 5.3. I get about 5 minutes of perfect gaming, and then all of a sudden the entire screen is filled with a sequence of 3 squares. This persists for about 10 seconds during which I can continue gaming with these accursed squares, then Windows shuts down to the Blue Screen (this also has the squares), and resets my PC. All games have been updated with the latest patches and my drivers for my graphics card are all up to date. What could be causing this?

I’ve edited your question, but you gave me a lot of specifics on your machine - thanks for that. You say you’ve updated your video card drivers, which is good because that was going to be my first suggestion. As long as you are sure that it is not a problem with your drivers, let’s move on with some more troubleshooting.

My first question is - does the blue screen have an error message? If so, that can really narrow down where the problem is originating. Without that information, my best guesses are memory issues, a conflict or motherboard issue.

Memory Issue

You say that you are running 2GB of Ram, which is what I would have suggested. Have you tried switching the ports, and making sure you are only using the first and second slots? Also, have you checked the sticks to make sure that one of them isn’t having an issue? You can try switching some things out to see if you can pinpoint where there is a problem. Test your memory on a website such as Memtest.

Conflict

Other gamers have had this issue when there is a conflict between the sound card drivers and the graphics card drivers. To test this theory, try disabling your sound card and then try to play one of the games that’s giving you trouble. This is most common with people who have upgraded from Windows XP to Vista either 32 or 64.

Update BIOS

You may need to update your BIOS. You can find out if there is an update available by finding the manufacturer for your motherboard and going online to check. You can find the motherboard manufacturer most easily by opening the case and checking the name on the board itself. Download the update to the desktop and install and see if that helps your blue screen problem.

Overheating

The last suggestion is to check for overheating issues. You may need a new heat sink in order to run high-performance graphics, or it could be as simple as cleaning the fans and dusting the interior so that the cooling system you have works properly. You can use an application such as Speed Fan to check your computer’s internal temperature.

I hope that one of these suggestions will help you avoid the dreaded blue screen and get you up and running quickly.

 A common cause of Windows errors is clutter on the registry. The computer’s registry is the central catalog where the system saves and stores information about all the processes it runs and makes a note of all information that comes in to or goes out of the computer. The registry logs important configurations and information about your installed programs so that your operating system is able to read, communicate with, and use them.

As you use your computer, more and more information is stored on the registry and, in time and normal operation, pieces of redundant and useless code add up and jam the registry, slowing its processes. If there is a lot of clutter on the registry, then the computer can have a hard time finding available memory and disk space, resulting in Windows error messages.

While Windows error messages are a real hassle and a system crash is enough to make even the steadiest hand tremble, there are things that you can do. If you have been using Microsoft Windows for any length of time, you have likely encountered a Windows error message or, if not, it won’t be long until you do. The infamous Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) that suddenly occupies your screen and denies you access to your desktop is, in fact, a Windows error message, albeit of the most severe variety. The BSoD usually means that some individual programs have shut down and might warn that the whole system is closing. When this happens you usually have to restart your computer and operating system.

Other than the BSoD, other Windows errors are the Dr. Watson Error, which usually implies corrupted data in the computer’s registry, and the exception error, which signifies that something unexpected has happened within the Windows operating environment such as an application trying to write onto a memory location that is being used by another program. A conflict of this kind will result in a Windows error message. The fatal exception error means that code has been returned to a program if it has encountered an illegal application, invalid data, or an invalid privilege level that stops the program from proceeding and results in an error message.

To clean up your registry and improve your computer’s performance, it is important to run routine registry scans. Registry cleaners find all the fragments and obsolete data and prompt the user to delete it. To avoid Windows errors, clear up registry space and help your computer work at its best. Before you make any changes to your registry, you should make a back up of your registry just in case there are problems and you want to re-load the same settings. In the worst case, you might have to reinstall your operating system. Before you run the registry scan, check your programs list and delete anything that you no longer use or want, and empty your recycling bin.

A Blue Screen of Death, also known as a BSoD, stop error or bluescreen, is an error screen that is displayed by some operating systems when the system encounters a critical system error. The BSoD causes the system to shut down in order to prevent any further damage.

On Microsoft Windows NT, 2000, XP, Server2003 and Vista, the BSoD occurs when the kernel, or a driver that is functioning in kernel mode, encounters a problem that it can’t recover from.

The kernel refers to the central component of most computer operating systems that is responsible for overseeing the system’s different resources, essentially managing the communication between the hardware and software components. The kernel typically facilitates the use of different resources by application processes as it referees exchanges between applications and the CPU, the memory and/or different devices.

Usually a kernel error occurs when an illegal operation is being performed and the only safe option available to the operating system is to stop, shut down and restart the computer. If or when this occurs data can be lost since the user doesn’t have an opportunity to save changes not yet saved on the hard drive.

If your system encounters a BSoD, Windows will automatically generate a memory dump file that could be either a 64 KB mini dump or an entire system dump that includes a copy of the entire content of your system’s RAM memory.

A memory dump is a diagnostic log of the system particulars and the attempted commands at the time of the crash that are helpful for troubleshooting and updating software. After a BSoD error occurs, the user or a technician can read the memory dump log. This log documents the specific operations encountered by the system at the time and determines the exact cause of the error which is useful for future programming, execution and program design.

If you have encountered a BSoD you might already know that the problem is sometimes resolved by the simple re-boot performed by the computer. Occasionally, there are further issues to address.

If you encounter a BSoD and have files that have not been saved to the hard drive there are a few things to try in order to recover lost, or potentially lost data. You will need to select a recovery software program depending on the nature of the crash, in this case the Blue Screen of Death, such as ParetoLogic Data Recovery Pro, or seek the assistance of a technical professional.

Microsoft has included a manual function to create a BSoD in order to get a diagnostic memory dump at the command of the user. To enable this function the user must add a value to the registry, then the BSoD can be activated by pressing the SCROLL LOCK key twice while holding the right CTRL key.

The BSoD is encountered during fatal errors on numerous systems including Xbox, PlayStation Portable, Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS. Other systems like Mac OSX have similar features like the “spinning rainbow wheel of death,” the cursor that tells the user that the program is busy.