Problem booting Windows XP

Hello all,

I have a problem with my wife's computer. I will break down exactly what happened, and if anybody feels they know what might be wrong, or can suggest some utilities for me, I would surely appreciate it.

The first thing that happened was I put a mini SD flash card into the little memory card reader, and since it was so small, and I was so dumb, it got stuck into the drive, and me in my infinite knowledge, I grabbed some tweezers and tried to get it out and ultimately pushed it into the furthest reaches of the SD mini disk drive. After this happened, I tried to ghetto rig a paper clip and some glue, so I could pincer the SD flash drive with the paper clip, leave it there for a minute, let it stuck, and yank the clip out with the flash disk in toe. Little did I know the copper receivers in the mini disk drive were facing the opposite way of the clip, and it got caught in two of the copper receivers, and me, still in my infinite wisdom, pulled as hard as I could, and the paper clip came out, but along with it, two of the receivers were badly damaged.

Now I didn't think damaging the mini disk reader would limit the ability of the laptop, but when I rebooted... after the Windows XP logo screen, it stalled. I thought this was strange, so I rebooted and booted under Safe mode. It worked like a charm, and I got into Windows. I didn't know what I was supposed to check when I got in there, so I just ran Check disk, and when that finished... it stalled again saying that the computer would restart.

This is where my problem lies... after running check disk, the laptop gets a 5 millisecond blue screen of death after the five options of how I want to boot (three options of safe mode, last known good config, and start windows normally). And after I choose one, blue screen of death for a split second and then it reboots.

I have no idea what to do at this point... I was about to at least recover the hard drive and reformat but its a HP laptop hard drive, and its not IDE, and I have no idea what kind it is. So my only option is to either do something in the BIOS where I can disable devices, like the mini disk reader, but to do that I need an upgraded BIOS since the default one only gives me the option to change the freaking time and date settings and boot options.

Oh, and I finally did get the flash card out of the mini disk reader in the laptop, all it took was a butter knife, but the mini disk reader is probably in worse condition. Thats really the only thing that got changed to have this effect, so I am just trying to figure out how to disable the thing on the HP laptop.

If anybody has any advice, or help, or tools, utilities, or even a lead in the right direction, it would be much appreciated.

 

I remember that problem in HP laptops 1-2years ago...When did you bought that? Three of my friends bought an HP laptop and after 6-8months of use, the hardisk is damage. so they went to the HP service center and they found out that the fault is in the low cost hardisk of HP. I think it is just a coincidence with your mini SD card flash problem. Do you still have a warranty? Try to reinstall the OS.

 

Oh I so would reinstall the OS, the only problem is that if I do that, then she loses all her pictures and music that she so dearly loves, and I don't think in the recovery option there's an option to keep your Pictures or anything... our last resort is to ultimately reformat, my only problem is to save the files she has now.

She bought it last year... I think she had a one-year warranty, so we might be screwed... I am sure reformatting it might fix it, but it just seems like the Min SD card reader sparked this problem and the way to fix it is to kill it. And my BIOS is so limited, all I can do is change the time.

I'm still searching for some answers... if I have to reformat... I'll do that if I have to... after searching and posting on every forum possible... my wife is 9 months preggo and I don't want to end up in the garbage disposal for losing her pictures.

 

Boot up in safe mode, go to System Properties | Advanced tab | Startup and Recovery Settings button | clear the Automatic Restart checkbox. Restart the system normally and tell us what the BSOD message is.

You get to System Properties by right-clicking on My Computer and selecting Properties.

 

Like I said before, I can't boot into windows, that is the problem. If I could, I don't think I would have a problem getting my wife's information.

I still need help doing this, or its to the professionals it goes... like I said earlier, it can't boot when I go into either of the three safe modes, I get a blue screen of death. I can't do anything but get into the BIOS and that screen to select which mode I want to run Windows in.

So... if you guys have any more suggestions, it would be much appreciated. If all else fails I'll just take it to a computer repair shop because it doesn't seem like anyone can have some certified recovery procedures, so it might just be easier to have someone look at it physically.

 

You could have damaged an inner component besides the card reader. How close is your HD to the card reader? If it's not that close, I doubt you directly damaged it. Even though you aren't under warranty with HP, they'll still probably answer your questions through their online chat. I had a Compaq that was out of warranty by quite a bit and they still gave me advice. The only difference was that I would have to pay for repairs or new parts if I needed them. I would suggest you open up and take a look ONLY if you know how. Do NOT just try anyway because you're likely to cause further damage. I suggest you take out the HD, put it in an external HD case, and put your files onto another computer. Also, when you take it out, you can check for damage. Although to be perfectly honest, I think you should take it in to someone since, I'm not trying to insult you, but it looks like you don't mix well with this laptop.

 

No Jin you're completley right, I don't mix well with this laptop, and while I do this for a living, this thing is taunting me all the way through, it was just one bad decision after another.

The only thing about putting her hard drive on another computer is the hard drive is not IDE or anything, it's something really strange and I have no idea what it is... its like two brackets with copper in an L shape... its really weird, I've never seen it before. I really don't want to take it to a professional and pay 100 bucks for him to do the same thing.