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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.

I have a Gateway computer and can’t figure out how to reset the password.

Are you not able to get into anything at all, including the BIOS? If so, then your Gateway has locked up and you will need to clear the BIOS in order to access the computer. Or are you locked out of the operating system, such as Windows XP? If that is the case, then there are several things you can do to try to reset or remove the password for the operating system.

BIOS Password Reset

Because you have a Gateway (and they are notorious for this), I’m guessing that you are locked out of the BIOS. There are a few ways to get around this and regain access to your system, depending on the age and model of the computer.

You can try to use a ‘backdoor’ password, as long as your computer isn’t the kind that will lock you out after 3 wrong password tries - check your manual or online with your model number to find out if this is yours. If not, then do a Google search for backdoor passwords to get a list of the most common passwords that you can try to unlock the system.

You can also try to clear the CMOS battery, if there is one and it is easy to do on your computer. Most CMOS batteries look like flat little watch batteries, and many can be simply disconnected from inside the computer. Make sure you have unplugged and discharged the electricity before you reach inside. If you can see the CMOS battery and it is not soldered down, take it out, wait a minute or two and put it back. This should restore the BIOS to the original settings. If it is soldered down, you need to decide whether it is worth removing and re-soldering (although this isn’t common with Gateway).

Your motherboard may also have a CMOS reset jumper that is on the side. You can flip the jumper switch, wait a few minutes and then flip it back. This will accomplish the same thing as taking the CMOS battery out - it will restore your BIOS to the original settings.

There are third-party programs out there such as KillCMOS that will accomplish a similar thing, but you need to be careful that the one you choose doesn’t have a Trojan or other problem.

Reset Windows Password

If you can get your computer to load, but you just can’t access your operating system, then you need to reset the Windows password. There are many programs that will do this for you for low cost, or you can try a backdoor solution that will work for Windows XP as long as you have the CD. Rather than list the directions here, I’m going to point you to this Filetonic article.

If you’re still having trouble, you might do well to contact Gateway support where you can enter the serial number for your computer and get specific help, hopefully including any default Gateway BIOS passwords.