T61 and BSOD

Hi, my laptop is driving me nuts. This is a T61 with a T8100 and 1gb of ram. The system comes with Windows XP preinstalled and I've been getting the BSOD lately. Now, when I boot into Windows, it will get the BSOD right after the splash screen shows up.

I was able to remove the HDD and retrieve my data off an USB adapter. Ran very smoothly so I'll assume the HDD is okay. Tried swapping out the RAM but the same BSOD shows once the splash screen shows. When I use the blue button to reinstall, same problem occurs after doing a reformat.

Decided to use another copy of XP SP3 CD. The installation went smoothly but it fails to run the second part of the installation (the part that sets your time, username, password, etc). As soon as it boots to it, I'll get the BSOD. The system will only format under NTFS (quick) and not the regular NTFS format.

I was unable to get into safemode because it hangs at a certain part.

I decided to see if Vista will solve the problem. Vista installed and was able to boot into Windows, however, my Windows Explorer kept crashing/restarting so that was no good.


I wonder what might be the reasons why I'm getting this BSOD and if there's anyway to rectify the problem or if this is the end of life for my T61?




The BSOD error that I get shows this:





A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check for viruses on your computer, Remove any newly installed hard drives or ard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.

Technical Information:

*** STOP: 0x000007B (0xF7A8C524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

 

you would probably need to set the hdd mode from ACHI to Compatibility mode under BIOS.

 

Have you tried the PC Doctor for DOS bootable CD? You could try another hard drive or run memtest. A Linux disc is another option.

 

not familiar with Windows Vista, but I know it requires a lot of memory

 

I think I experienced this before, I had a drive which seems corrupted under Windows and I couldn't do a full format (probably because of a corrupted boot partition). The way I solved it is have a spare hard drive with Ubuntu Linux installed (though you can run of the CD but I haven't tried this) and run Gnome Partition Manager. Then format the corrupted drive (via USB) into FAT file format. Afterwards swap the corrupted drive into the system and install Windows as you normally would which should give you the option to wipe out the FAT and convert into NTFS fully.

But make sure you're not hearing the hard drive straining (or clicking) as that usually signifies that the hard drive is on its last legs. From that you maybe better off buying a new hard drive instead. Hope this helps!

 

I've ran the PCDoctor test and yes, my hard drive is giving me errors.

Is it okay to delete the service partition on the drive too, or just the main partition where windows will be installed into?

If I were to get a new drive, does it have to be from IBM since it comes with the service partition?

 

No you don't need to keep the service partition, but you'll need the recovery discs to re-install Windows unless you've got a disc. Did you make the recovery discs when you got your machine?