Windows won't start and BSOD comes up.

I have a Dell Power Edge 400SC computer running windows XP. There was some errors on the hard drive that I went ahead and fixed via Disk check. Unfortunately since then I have not been able to get into windows. My system starts up and goes to the screen that says Safe Mode, Last Known Good Config, Windows normally. All of those options do not work and as soon as I choose any of them I get a blue screen. The BSOD is on the screen for 2 sec and I can't really read any of it. Then computer restarts and it does the same thing again. I don't think there is anything wrong with the hard drive as I have tried it in another system and it works fine. I even reinstalled the OS by putting the drive in another system. For some reason I am not able to boot from a CD/DVD as the initial screen pops up immediately and doesn't take me to the CD. What are your thoughts and things to try. Thanks.

On most Dell systems you need to press F12 when the Dell logo appears on the screen to get to a boot menu.

I have done that to select disk drive. For some reason it just doesn't want to boot from the CD. Any other ideas? Thanks

Maybe try another CD?

Under Drive Configuration in the Bios the Hard drive and the floppy are the only one's listed. The primary Hard drive is my H.D. Shouldn't my Disk drive be the Primary slave drive. Thoughts.

ps it is not the disk as I have tried many bootable one's

If the CD drive is not recognised in the BIOS then maybe it's faulty.

I was able to prevent restart when I got to the blue screen and the error below was listed.

stop:0x0000007b

What do you think?

This error means that Windows cannot "see" the boot device.

I would double-check all your cable connections to make sure everything is connected and seated correctly.

Everything seems to be connected properly. Is it possible that I have a boot sector virus. My hard drive is fine when I put it in another PC. Maybe I should try another Hard drive in the problem computer. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Even if it was a boot sector virus I don't think this should prevent you from booting from a CD.

It wouldn't hurt to try another drive.

Thanks Budapest for staying with me on this topic. I need to be able to boot from the CD. The connection seems okay and I have tried other CD drives in the machine. The light comes on and the CD drive opens up. I don't see the CD drive located under Driver sequence in the Bios. This is strange as the Hard drive and the floppy are there. I have diskette drive listed in the boot sequence and have selected this to be the 1st option. It just seems like the start up screen with safe mode, start normally comes up so quickly the machine doesn't have time to boot from the CD. Shouldn't I still be able to boot from the CD even with a boot sector virus. Not really sure what else to try. Ideas.

When you hit F12 at boot, is there an option to boot from the CD?

It says Boot from the diskette Drive. I guess this is the same as CD/DVD drive?

The Diskette Drive would refer to a floppy drive. The CD drive should be list as IDE CD-ROM Device.

Edited by Budapest, 10 November 2009 - 09:03 PM.

That means that the CD drive is not being recognized in the Boot sequence or in the Bios. I have tried other CD ROm drives without any luck. I am at a loss as to what to do?