Please Help with BSOD

[deerhunter]

My cousin brought over her HP zt1180 laptop for me to look at because it was running way to slow. It would take at least 15 minutes to boot up. Operating system WinXP. I discovered that the Hdrive was in PIO transfer mode. I installed Via Drivers and got the transfer mode back to UDMA. The hard drive is working fast again.
BUT....
Upon reboot I got a BSOD with a NDIS.sys file name.
I'm in the dark with BSODs, and anyone help?
Please... :(
All I can boot into is Safe Mode now.

[Tweaked!]

Try the recommendations in this thread:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2104

:)

[deerhunter]

Thanks for the thread recommendation.
I'm frustrated and embarrassed, and obviously not thinking properly.
I've seen that screen when booting to the install CD.
If I choose to Repair Windows, that will only install my Op system and not re-format my HD and lose my docs, correct?
I have all the program CDs I need to install but My Documents are vital and for some reason I can't back them up to CD.
ARGGGHHHh.

[TheDude]

Yeah...shouldn't lose anything except critical updates or other windows updates that you did after original install...select your install of XP and click on repair....once you get it all sorted out, it would be a good idea to create a system restore point in XP so that in the future to can roll back to a point before any problems started...it's a great feature and has saved my sorry butt more than once.;)

[deerhunter]

Thanks for the info.
But....
I'm at wits end.
The HP laptop/combo XP Recovery disks are install only you lose all data.
The thing that is perplexing me is that I tried several Restore Points as there were several available.
Nothing gets rid of this dang BSOD.
I've tried installing some HP drivers to no avail.
I guess Via drivers whacked her laptop and they are not affected by XP System Restore.
She has data for a book she is almost ready to publish on the Hard drive. Her last backup is a month old.
I can boot the laptop into Safe Mode no prob. Then I tried backing up her data to CD but, I guess the CD burner doesn't work in Safe Mode?
I'm about ready to reach for the BFH!:mad:

[Tweaked!]

I guess you can't get into add/remove and uninstall those via drivers, huh? If you can, then when you reboot, windows would be forced to reinstall the original set of drivers it came with.
As far as backing up her data, does she have network capabilities??? If so, just network it to your computer and transfer all her important data to yours. Then you'd be free to crash and burn if needed. I'll search through my computer at work today and see if I can come up with any revelations for you. But don't hold your breath.... ;)

[TheDude]

When you tried the restore...did you pass the install screen...accept the agreement and then select recovery? You don't want to select the very first option...that will wipe everything and reinstall.
Do you have another hard drive that you can set as slave and try to copy files to? Or even ghost an image over to? If the damage is physical that may work. Can you post the actual error codes for the BSOD?
That's a real bummer...I know what it's like to lose data...but part of a book she wrote! very sad.
There are professional Data Recovery people who can probably salvage most of her data for a fee if it's important enough to her.
There are several Recovery software programs that are very good at this and can restore data from hard drives that have been reformated and erased on purpose (FBI uses one to prosecute kiddy :banana::banana::banana::banana:), but again there is the cost factor.

[deerhunter]

Thanks for the info/replies. It is nice to know someone is there.
All the opinions and advice give a lot of ideas. We haven't lost any data yet.
The BSOD error is for the NDIS.sys file which I'm sensing has something to do with networking. She does not interface with any networks.
I'm gonna keep trying to remove and load different drivers.

As far as Recovering from XP CDs, can't be done. This proprietary HP laptop comes with three install/XP/HP CDs that are installed in order and there is NO option to repair, they only format and install the system.

Thanks for the ideas of interfacing with the HD in other manners.
Since I can only get Safe Mode and the CD burner doesn't work in Safe Mode. I'm wondering whether we can use a different port to copy the data from the Hard Drive?

As if I don't have anything better to do? Remind me not to offer assistance for friends or relatives on laptops ever again! :o

Dagnabbit, I'm not letting this thing kick my arse yet. Must that Marine Corps training, or I'm just a stubborn idiot. Probably a little of both.

I wish there was a connector to put this laptop as a Slave on my IDE cable!

[TheDude]

Are you getting something like this? NDIS.SYS.
"DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL"
If so, it has to do with IRQ levels and probably your Nic card...try uninstalling/reinstalling your nic and or updating the driver.