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Vista x64 will boot in safe mode, not Normal

xazraelx

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Okay, well, while I was at work today my girlfriend called me and told me that my computer had a blue screen error and restarted, she didn't touch anything, her and my roommate were just talking when it happened. I come home tonight, and the screen that says "windows did not shut down correctly, please choose one of the following boot up options, safe mode, safe mode w/ networking, safe mode w/ run prompt, last known good, normal.

Obviously, I click normal boot, I get a blue screen error. I choose last known good configuration, I get the blue screen error. Here's the curious thing: The blue screen error comes AFTER it loads the vista login screen. When it starts loading everything (before the desktop is displayed, but after I log in), it throws a BSOD.

So I click safe mode. Boots fine. Restart, safe mode with networking. Everything's fine. So obviously I'm thinking nvidia, lol. I go to nvidia's website, download the latest driver, and install it. Download successful, install gets to agreement to terms and usage, start installing, and then another BSOD. I tried to do a system restore, but when the computer was shutting down after "getting ready for system restore" it threw another BSOD.

I'm kind of concerned as to what I can do to resolve the problem WITHOUT formatting. I know that's the easiest solution, most common option, but it's such a PITA.

Anyone have any ideas/solutions I can try? It would be greatly appreciated,

William

Edit: I haven't recently installed new drivers that I'm aware of, and vista is set to not install automatically. I did, however, install CoD4 about three days ago, but have played it multiple times (fun game, btw).
 
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I'm not entirely sure about Vista, but there should be a repair windows option when you load the cd. Correct me if im wrong, but there should be. Try that.
 

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The repair option in Vista is for Boot related junk iirc...

If you gotta boot cd for Memtest now would be the time, Vista is very picky about instability, if you can't even get into normal mode, I would say try memtest first...then remove your OC next, and try again.
 

ViciousXUSMC

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I just got COD4 today! It is a great game.

Anyways you may have to take the PITA route and reinstall windows. I had to do it the other day after a issue with my bios flash on my video cards conflicting with my display drivers. For some reason I could not install or uninstall the ATI drivers in safe mode :(

I just hope its windows and not something else, Im thinking that safe mode uses less resources than normal mode and the crash could be the signs of a hardware failure surfacing. RAM a prime candidate. I have had it fail on me out of the blue for no reason before but before it died totally it became incredibly unstable first.
 
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Are you overclocked? Your clocks might just be THAT unstable.
 

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The repair option in Vista is for Boot related junk iirc...

If you gotta boot cd for Memtest now would be the time, Vista is very picky about instability, if you can't even get into normal mode, I would say try memtest first...then remove your OC next, and try again.

I definately stand behind the Memtest and what I previously said... plus noticing that you are also running 4x1GB, what speed? timings? voltage? what's their rated speed, timing, voltage (advertised)? I had a lot of stability issues running 4x1GB with a Q6600 on my P35, I had less issues but still had issues with an e6300 on my P35, both were severely hit in comparison to 2x1GB (and 2x2GB for the quad). This required more relaxed than rated timings, more voltage, and higher NB/MCH voltage to keep things stable...if Vista detects any instability which it works harder at than XP, then you will run into issues such as this...I actually don't mind it as I'd rather not be in the middle of a game match or something and have the issue happen then if it could be detected and cause issues before I get the chance.

4x1GB is a lot more demanding than 2x1GB or 2x2GB, I know this from experience with P35 boards...you may want to increase your vRAM a notch and NB/MCHv one notch also...see if that helps...but again I do STRONGLY recommend you look into creating a bootable CD w/Memtest or if you have one, do it..Memory failures seem to be one of the top causes of issues anymore, DDR2 is not as hearty as DDR1 in my experience, but when it runs fast, it does a great job...if you find errors, I would suggest removing a kit (2x1GB) test again, if no errors after 100-200% 1-2 full passes, test the other kit...if no errors, relax timings, set TRFC to 54, increase vDIMM/vRAM voltage and try with all 4 again.

:toast:
 

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its software.

Something is starting with windows causing the BSOD.

RUn in safe mode, open the run dialog and type MSCONFIG

run that, go to the startup tab and turn everything off. you can start them back up 1 b 1 later and see whats caused the problem. my guess would be that instead of 'just talking' they installed something they shouldnt have.
 

xazraelx

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It was two gigs of my RAM. About a year ago (maybe a little less) I bought the newegg edition of the Ballistix tracers...GREAT ram btw. Well, about three months ago I bought another two gigs of Ballistix...the single-sided chipset. Ran memtest on them after buying, worked out okay, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I feel somewhat stupid for not running memtest first off, considering the history of the RAM.

So now I'm running 2x gskills, 2x old style ballistix tracers, got rid of the problem, everything is functioning better now. I guess I'll attempt to RMA the ballistix...is it possible to REQUEST the double-sided chipset ram? Because if they send me the same crap, I'm just going to craigslist/ebay it, because it's worthless to have imo.

Besides, I kind of need/want to move into 4x2GB of RAM, any suggestions (I know this isn't the hardware forum, but I'm sure someone has some knowledge of recent advancements by companies).

Thanks a million TPU.
 
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