Windows XP - Requires...something else...

[rabbit]

So today I decided to crack open my computer and give it a good cleaning.  All went pretty well, and I got it all back together and hooked up.  Turned it on, went through the motions....and Windows failed critically during the boot screen.  "What the hell?" was the first thing to pop into my mind, shortly followed by a bunch of thoughts that are far too indecent to post.

So, I unhooked everything, opened it up again, and checked all the connections.  They were all good and nothing was interfering with anything else, so I hooked up the essentials and tried again.  Same thing.

I've since checked everything four times over.  The absolute only difference is that there is a lot less dust in my machine.  So, everyone, get out your Windows software boxes and write the following in under operating requirements: LOTS OF DUST

[Sidoh]

Haha... that sucks.

What did you use to clean it?  Canned air?

[iago]

Haha... that sucks.

What did you use to clean it?  Canned air?

Windex!

That would explain the problem

[Joe]

Coke is good for getting bloodstains out of carpet. Why not use it on your motherboard?

[rabbit]

I used qtips with a bit of isopropyl (rubbing alcohol) on some crud on the outside, but the inside I did with dry qtips and some air.

[iago]

Is it possible one of the connectors got bent or something?

[rabbit]

Don't think so.  Anyway, I was able to boot into safe mode a couple times, but now I just get a BSOD after the loading screen and my computer reboots.

[Armin]

Start isolating the problem as if it were any other hardware issue.

Memtest86+

Try installing Windows on a new harddrive.

Unplug all unnecessary hardware (CD-ROM, floppy, any USB devices, PCI cards, etc)

Video Card swap out.

Reset the CMOS.

If possibly, verify you didn't accidentally remove any jumpers on the motherboard.

[rabbit]

Everything is fine.  I got into my system with DSL, and I'm backing stuff up now.  I'm going to reformat and install TinyXP (which I was going to do in the next couple weeks anyway).  I didn't change anything since I posted....XP just loves dust :\

[nslay]

I've seen this happen when tampering with the hardware.  When you see a blue screen while booting just after opening the computer, chances are you have a loose cable or a card/ram are not seated properly (well, this has always been the case for me).

Before doing anything, make sure all the cables are plugged in tightly and cards/ram seated properly.  It'll probably be fine.

[MyndFyre]

I agree with nslay.  Overwhelmingly for me this has been an issue with memory connections. 

By any chance, did you reorder the hard drive connections?  Not that this should happen, but if the BIOS is reporting a different order of the drives to Windows and you're not using GPT, Windows may be having trouble locating itself when it loads its IFS-based drivers.

[rabbit]

the only connections I removed from inside were the graphics card and the rear fan (I completely unplugged the whole machine first, obviously).  I unmounted and cleaned all the fans, and that was it.  I'm installing TinyXP, and everything is working fine, but I never found any loose connections or anything, so either there wasn't one or I accidentally fixed it when I was checking.

[deadly7]

I agree with nslay.  Overwhelmingly for me this has been an issue with memory connections. 

By any chance, did you reorder the hard drive connections?  Not that this should happen, but if the BIOS is reporting a different order of the drives to Windows and you're not using GPT, Windows may be having trouble locating itself when it loads its IFS-based drivers.

That hard drive issue has caused me many headaches, especially because my computer is old enough that I use a USB ATA card. Oh man...

[Chavo]

* Chavo is willing to bet money you just had a hard drive issue present itself when the computer was turned off and therefore wasn't actively getting cooled anymore

I've seen hard drives that are near the end of their life die the first time the machine gets shut down because of heat dissipation stopping numerous times.
Next time run chkdsk and replace your hard drives when they are wearing out (SpeedFan has a good utility for reading SMART info and giving you a pretty accurate, in depth drive health report).

[rabbit]

* Chavo is willing to bet money you just had a hard drive issue present itself when the computer was turned off and therefore wasn't actively getting cooled anymore

I've seen hard drives that are near the end of their life die the first time the machine gets shut down because of heat dissipation stopping numerous times.
Next time run chkdsk and replace your hard drives when they are wearing out (SpeedFan has a good utility for reading SMART info and giving you a pretty accurate, in depth drive health report).

chkdsk was the first thing I did.