BleepingComputer.com: Stop error during boot

This is someone else's PC, so some info I don't have. Anyway, it's a Dell Dimension 4300 running winxp. Reportedly someone clicked one of those "your computer has a virus" things (so it was assumed malware) and then would no longer boot.

I get it and when booting you get a stop error (0X0000008E, 0XC0000005, 0X804D92C2, 0XF97C65C4, I didn't write down last number of error), this happens if you boot normally, safe mode or last known good.

First step I tried to boot from an XP disk and it wouldn't boot (said, and I don't remember exact wording, "unable to boot from device press f1 to try again or f2 to enter setup).

Next I tried an xubuntu disk I had laying around, it booted so I assumed the other disk was bad.

Tried a second XP disk, wouldn't boot.

Tried xubuntu again, wouldn't boot.

Tried a Win2k disk I had, it booted.

Tried another XP disk, wouldn't boot.

Tried another XP disk, wouldn't boot.

I tried several more times, using both the CD burner and DVD drive. Tried unplugging one or the other. Nothing I did would get it to boot again.

Tried the CD burner in my computer, the burner worked.

Put the HDD from the Dell in my computer, booted to XP recovery console, ran chkdsk on the drive, it found no errors. I also took this opportunity to check for the pe386 service as some had reported a similar stop error because of some malware, but it didn't exist.

I plugged everything back into the Dell and tried several more unsuccessful boot from cd attempts.



I'm thinking bad IDE controller? Does that sound about right, or is there something I didn't think of or that I missed.

The only other thing I can think to try is a floppy boot disk and trying to run XP setup from the CD that way, but I'm not sure it would do any good.

This post has been edited by Burns11: 14 December 2009 - 07:08 PM

Hmmm..."wouldn't boot" doesn't tell us anything about the error message received on these attempts.

Error messages are trying to point the way to what is perceived to need correction.

8E STOP error info at http://www.aumha.org/a/stop.htm, click 8E on the left.

Louis

When I say wouldn't boot, it gives the same error: unable to boot from device press f1 to try again or f2 to enter setup.

I guess the stop error is likely caused by the malware, but that doesn't explain why it won't boot from a CD even when I tell it to. I guess that is the problem I need to fix first, getting it to boot from a cd.

Did you try setting the default settings in the BIOS?

Did you try disconnecting the hard drive and just booting a bootable CD...to see that the CD itself is not faulty?

Louis

hamluis, on Dec 15 2009, 10:49 AM, said:

I have not tried disconnecting the HDD and booting from a CD, but I have tried all the CDs in another computer and they boot fine.

I have also not tried resetting bios to defaults.

I will try both of those tonight.

I solved my problem, the DVD drive was flaky, I disabled it in the bios and was able to boot from the CDR drive. From there it was bitefender rescue cd, then avira cescue cd because bitdefender crashed every time the scanner tried to load. After that, I was able to boot into windows so it was malwarebytes and updated antivirus. Everything clean and back to normal.

Glad you resolved it, thanks for the feedback...happy computing .

Louis