Infamous Blue Screen of Death - and can't do a thing!! HELP!

My parent's M30 recently started getting the blue screen of death on system startup. The Windows XP boot page shows, then after a while it just goes to the blue screen of death and I get the following message:

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

With a stop error:

0x000000D1 (0x73697749, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xB62278B1)

I've tried to boot in safe mode, nothing, last known config, nothing, keep getting the same error. Simply won't let me into the system.

I tried installing a new 1gb stick of ram and pulled out the old one, nothing. Tried both memory bays, nothing.

I then reinstalled XP using the system recovery disc. It formats the drive, installs, asks me to remove the CD, then Windows XP boots up and goes into the setup routine where I insert region, time zones, etc, then input user names. At which point you're "finished", and it reboots.

Upon reboot, poof, same blue screen of death.

No idea what to do at this point as I can't even get into the Safe mode of Windows to trouble shoot.

Thoughts!??

 

BTW, I am running a scan on the hard drive (have it connected via a IDE to USB device) and no viruses on it.

Am at a complete loss on this one as to what to do next, given the hard drive appears to be fine as well.

I'm hoping it's not the motherboard? Just odd that when I reinstall Windows XP using the recovery disk all goes fine for a while, then when it says "finished" and reboots I can't get past the Windows XP boot up screen before it crashes with the exact same error message.

Doesn't appear anyone else has had that particular message either, given google can't find it!!

 

Try putting a Linux disc in (such as Ubuntu) and let it run via the Live CD. If it runs fine then it may seem like a rogue driver of some sort that's causing the BSOD rather than failing hardware.

During the BSOD does it mentioned the driver in question that's causing the problem? (Usually it says near the bottom with something like XXXXX.sys)

Also when you formatted the system did you just do a recovery or a complete full clean install? If you just did Windows recovery then the bad driver may still be present on the system, try doing a full format then clean install and see how it goes. Since you got the USB connectivity to the drive I assume you probably already backed up the contents.

 

No, it doesn't tell me what the driver is oddly enough.

Have never used Ubunto, so not sure what you mean by a Live CD?

I got the USB connectivity after I installed. I don't think I have an option of doing a clean install with the recovery disc? Hmmm ... I guess I could install my Win 7 on it to see if that works and if it is some bad driver?

 

Live CD basically allows you to run the Linux operating system off the CD, this allows you to try out Ubuntu without the need to install or commit to anything. Ubuntu is free too, you just need a blank disc, burn the image and boot the CD and not the hard drive.

Recovery discs usually reinstall the factory image of Windows back on again, but not all recovery discs work the same for all manufacturers. They may also limit options on how you can reinstall Windows since most Recovery Discs are not full Windows discs.

If you have access to a Windows 7 disc which you mentioned then just install that instead, you can just put it in trial mode by not entering a serial number and just test the stability to make sure it was a bad driver from XP and not the system.

 

Darn, just remembered the Win 7 disc is 64 bit, so won't work on this system.

I think I may have an old copy of Win 2000 as well .... hmmm

 

It's probably a lot more hassle then its worth installing Windows 2000 due to the lack of driver support. The Ubuntu method would probably be a much more better bet in my opinion as it does work surprisingly well with most devices out of the box.

Plus you can also split and create new partitions under Ubuntu then reinstall Windows XP via recovery on the new partition and see if that helps cure the problem.

 

I ran the Win 7 scan/check disk utility on the Toshiba's hard drive (using the USB to EIDE cable) and it said the drive was fine. So I reformatted it and tried once again installing WinXP using the recovery disk, same issue. But this time when I say "start up in safe mode" it actually doesn't give me a blue screen of death. It starts safe mode, but then says "Windows was not installed completely" or something along those lines, and when I click OK it reboots and then, yup, blue screen of death (again, with no driver listed as the culprit).

I'm going to try installing Windows 2000 just for the heck of it to see if I can actually get to a start screen, which at least will tell me the issue is not with the memory or connection to the hard drive??

If that fails, I I'll try the Ubuntu route, though at that point I'll have to assume the issue is on the mother board somewhere?

 

Okay, so it's clearly a driver issue with the XP. Loaded 2000 on the lappy, and it boots up fine. Unfortunately when loading XP, I can't get passed the bootup screen. So not sure what to do at this point.

I guess I'll have to resort to getting a torrent of Win XP and hoping it doesn't have malware on it? Then using my product key to install?

 

Bit of a touchy subject in terms of legality, while in my eyes it's the genuine license key that matters most (after all you paid for the license) Microsoft may think otherwise with this issue. So i'm not going to comment further on the source you got it from.

But if your laptop has a Windows XP COA key underneath from the manufacturer then most likely you need an OEM version of Windows XP. Obtaining a VL or Retail version of XP will not work with the OEM serial key so bear that in mind. Also you can't use the serial key if it's a different version from the one you're installing (i.e. XP Home key on a Professional install and vice versa).

 

Darn, wish I read this before I downloaded as I downloaded a retail version instead of an OEM one (didn't realize they were different).

 

Well, installed the OEM Retail version and XP worked fine for a bit, until I installed the Intel wireless driver, then I got the blue screen with an error file of w22n51.sys.

So since I couldn't use that Retail version for more than 30 days, I decided to install off the recovery disk again. Did that, then ran into the blue screen of death, and this time it gave me that same driver name/error.

So I then hooked up the disk to my other laptop via the USB cable, deleted all instances of that file, popped the drive back into the Toshiba laptop .... and .... no blue screen of death!

Unfortunately, all it does is get past the Windows XP boot screen, then a window pops up telling me that the version was not installed entirely and to "run" setup again.

Which is useless, because the recovery disk will just reinstall the same darn driver.

So I'm back to square one, which is needing an OEM version on a bootable disk. What a PIA, as most torrents are of course "cracks" which I don't want, and the one I thought was legit (said "not a crack so you need a valid key") ended up being slovakian language!!! Argh.

 

Since you know it's the Intel Wireless driver (w22n51.sys) that is playing up, first uninstall the driver if you can. You can also try and turn it off physically if there is a switch then uninstall to prevent it running. If not, try the BIOS also to disable the wireless if available.

I assume you're using the Toshiba M30 (judging from the other thread ) which uses the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG card. Don't install the driver provided by Toshiba, instead install this driver by Intel which should be much newer. Hopefully this fixes the strange bug that's causing the BSOD all the time.

 

Can you disable the wireless in the bios? Or maybe remove the wireless card if you know how and have easy access. This should bring you through the set up process.

I guess your wifi card might be broken.

 

I had this exact problem a few years ago and eventually gave up and bought a new laptop. Soon I started mucking around with the old one trying to get it to work again and it just woudn't, the I stuck a hoover on the fan and the inside of the computer, and hey presto I now have a full working desktop again.
Bloody amazing. And this was after re-installing windows, putting another 1gig if memory checking sound cards the lot.

 

Unfortunately no, can't disable the wireless in the bios (only the LAN card), and can't uninstall the driver (as I can only do that if I could get passed the bootup screen!). No switch either.

I did download a version of XP, but it's about 30 or so .rar files, so not sure how to make this into a bootable CD as of yet.

This is turning into an interesting challenge!

 

Well, that one didn't work either, so trying on final XP disc. Otherwise I'm going to just get a Win 7 32bit upgrade disk that my sister gets on a great deal. Problem is Toshiba didn't support this M30 laptop post XP, so finding drivers (if needed) will be an issue.

Holy frustrating Batman!

 

This MAY have done it. Booted it up with this version of Windows XP and validated the OEM key on the back of the computer. Installed the driver noted above for wireless, and so far so good. Slower than I would have thought (my old Dell C640 seemed way faster for some reason) but I can fool around with the settings. Could be the video driver.

Wow did that take some time. Hoping for no blue screens!!

 

Let's hope it all works out for you, since you pretty much cleaned installed it there should be some good XP tweaking guides on the forum that make the old lappy run smoothly.

It's a long winded process but you get there in the end. Frustrating maybe but you can be proud to have solved a computing problem if it all works out fine. It's all part of the experience, you take it in and who knows when those skills may be handy again in the future? Maybe your fixing your friend's computer or doing it as part of your job as an IT admin in the future!

 

Much faster after installing the NVidia driver and going through the XP Tweaks on NBR.

I think I can give this back to my parents, finally. Just trying to think of anything I need to install first. Have done Adobe Reader, Flash, Java, all Windows Updates. Hmmm ....

 

The only thing I can't seem to do is install the newest BIOS off of the Toshiba website. Keeps saying I need to be Admin to do it. So I've logged in as Admin in Safe Mode (only way you can with XP HE), and then it tells me I need to install Toshiba Common Modules (which I did under my mother's login name) and so I reinstalled it there, rebooted back into safe mode as Admin, and keep getting the same darn error. Posted in the Toshiba forum as hopefully someone will know the trick to getting this installed.

Nothing is easy with this lappy!!

 

It works in its current state. Don't mess around with the BIOS unless something's wrong, otherwise you might end up causing another round of headaches.