BSOD on boot (Even safe mode and trying to boot Vista DVD)

[hans030390]

I'm trying to help my friend out with a problem. He's getting a BSOD each time he tries to boot his computer (Vista 32-bit). The error code is usually 0x0000007E (I think it's always the same), and sometimes he'll get an error regarding disk.sys along with it.

He is unable to boot the Vista recovery disk along with it. It will say "Windows is loading files", start the green scrolling progress bar, and BSOD.

He hasn't made any hardware changes. He said a few days back, he was prompted to install Vista SP1 (he just recently had to reinstall Vista due to a bad HDD), which apparently broke a bunch of his drivers (sound, for example). Another Windows Update took care of those.

He said the computer started doing this while he was simply checking his email. Hasn't worked since.

Any ideas?

 

[Atheus]

Can you boot and run a memtest disk?

 

[mechBgon]

Is it possible that his SATA controller got flipped from Native mode to AHCI mode, or vice versa? If the CMOS got reset to defaults, intentionally or otherwise, that could happen. I'm assuming a Serial ATA HDD here, in the absence of any hardware information.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Is it possible that his SATA controller got flipped from Native mode to AHCI mode, or vice versa? If the CMOS got reset to defaults, intentionally or otherwise, that could happen. I'm assuming a Serial ATA HDD here, in the absence of any hardware information.

Originally posted by: hans030390
He is unable to boot the Vista recovery disk along with it. It will say "Windows is loading files", start the green scrolling progress bar, and BSOD.

Doesn't the inability to load files off the boot CD indicate it's not the HDD? I mean it's only loading into memory, not using storage at that point, right?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Is it possible that his SATA controller got flipped from Native mode to AHCI mode, or vice versa? If the CMOS got reset to defaults, intentionally or otherwise, that could happen. I'm assuming a Serial ATA HDD here, in the absence of any hardware information.

Originally posted by: hans030390
He is unable to boot the Vista recovery disk along with it. It will say "Windows is loading files", start the green scrolling progress bar, and BSOD.

Doesn't the inability to load files off the boot CD indicate it's not the HDD? I mean it's only loading into memory, not using storage at that point, right?

The "Windows is loading files" bar is monochrome white-on-black if he's booting Vista Setup from the DVD on the first stage, not green, so I wasn't sure how to interpret that, but it sounded like what I get with Vista if I switch the SATA controller mode, so it's an easy thing to check and mark off the list of possibilities