Windows XP May have killed my OS by shredding 2 software drivers, could use advice

[conceptualclarity]

I had been having blue screen problems with my old Dell XP. The programs WhoCrashed and BlueScreenView implicated a few drivers of non-essential software as the culprits. I examined the drivers module in AutoRuns (by Sysinternals) and carefully selected non-essential software drivers for disabling of their autostart status by unchecking the box in AutoRuns. (I avoided hardware drivers, Microsoft drivers, and drivers for actual autostart programs.) Three times when I restarted after this limited driver-autostart disabling I got the STOP: 0X0000007B blue screen. I was in effect forced to use Last Known Good Configuration on the subsequent startups, and this restored all the autostarts I had disabled. To test what was going on, I shut down my system without disabling any driver autostarts, and the system started normally.

I tried disabling via AutoRuns only two files in the system32\drivers folders that were implicated in previous blue screens : wrkrn.sys (associated with Webroot, which after expiration had continued on my system as an on-demand scanner) and vvbackd5.sys (associated with a FarStone program which I had not yet chosen to utilize). I got the STOP: 0X0000007B blue screen again. After this in my frustration I shredded wrkrn.sys and vvbackd5.sys.

Really bad move. After this I continually get the STOP: 0X0000007B blue screen when I try to start the computer. On the next try I will get the menu that offers "Safe Mode" and "Last Known Good Configuration", etc., but those options lead only to more STOP: 0X0000007B blue screens. I had deleted those two drivers previously without problems, but it had been after moving them out of system32\drivers. (And of course, the drivers had been recreated.)

I know it's academic at this point, but what do you think I could have done with those drivers without creating the mess I created? Maybe I should have just uninstalled the programs although I preferred not to.

I took my computer to one repairman, and he said it couldn't be fixed. I want more opinions.

I have a new computer I will be setting up soon, but I had really wanted to keep this one as a second computer to use for limited purposes, including substituting if the new one has to go to the repair shop.

I also want to recover everything off the old Dell. The repairman said he didn't think I would be able to recover my Outlook Express emails. What do you think? I could set up a virtual XP on my new computer and possibly get my Outlook Express emails that way, I think.

The repairman said I could use an IDE to USB adaptor to drag and drop files and folders from the old Dell XP to my new computer, although he doesn't think that will work for restoring Outlook Express emails. A good adaptor of this sort can be had for as little as $20 (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0063JN3WE/...p;linkCode=asn). Any advice about this procedure?

I have Laplink PC Mover Ultimate. I called Laplink support late at night. The technician said he that in order to use Laplink PC Mover Ultimate in this situation I would have to fix my old computer first. He said he could help me do that, interestingly enough. But he said I would have to sign up for a year of iYogi support for my two computers at $299. Ouch! And that's more than double the subscription price at http://www.iyogi.net/.

So do you think my old computer can be fixed? Any advice on any points raised here would be welcome.

I have heard some suggestions about using Hiren's Boot CD. I have Hiren's Boot CD on a flash drive or an external hard drive. I merely downloaded it, I've never used it and am not really familiar with it. I suppose I may need to burn it.



Computer: Dell System B3 Desktop
CPU: Intel Pentium 4-2667 (Northwood, D1)
2666 MHz (20.00x133.3) @ 2657 MHz (20.00x132.9)
Motherboard: DELL 0G1548
Chipset: Intel 845GEV (Brookdale-GEV) + ICH4
Memory: 2048 MBytes @ 166 MHz, 2.5-3-3-7
- 1024 MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM - Kingston K
Graphics: Intel 82845G/GL/GV Graphics Controller [DELL]
Intel i845G(L) Integrated, 64 MB
Drive: ST380011A, 78.1 GB, E-IDE (ATA-6)
Drive: HGST HTS545050A7E380, 488.4 GB, Serial ATA 3Gb/s <-> USB
Drive: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S, CD-R Writer
Sound: Creative Technology SB Live! Series Audio Processor
Network: RealTek Semiconductor RTL8139 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC [A/B/C]
Network: Broadcom 4401 10/100 Integrated Controller
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Build 2600 SP3

I made a post very close to this one earlier this week in Windows XP Help and Support and got no answers. Before posting here, I tried to delete the former post, but I did not see a way to do that.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi,
Since you asked a ton of questions; I'll start with the last one first. Yes, your Computer can be fixed! Depends on how much money and time you wish to spend to do so on a computer that's 9-14 yrs. old. You did get some bad advice however.

And you didn't perform the necessary tests on your hard drive and RAM to determine whether they have failed or not. **I can make some recommendations there for you; SEE BELOW**.

Also, I would completely remove the webroot after you complete your hardware testing, and prove your hard drive and RAM are still usable (I doubt that this is the case due to the age of the computer). Webroot is not a proven A-V program and often has conflicts with many other programs and Motherboard drivers.

As far as the Outlook Express E-mails; that's easy, if you know where to look. Sounds like the Tech doesn't know what he's doing. As long as your Hard Drive is working correctly it's quite easy to pull all those E-mail files and the address book from that hard drive and copy over to your new machine. I do it all the time. You mention that you will be getting a new Computer and want to reintegrate your E-mail. If your new machine has Vista or newer (Win7, 8, 10) you will not be able to continue to run Outlook Express, you will have to run one of it's replacements; Windows Live Mail or use the full version of Outllook that comes with Office and that entails expert export/import procedures; that's gonna cost you big bucks in most cases. I was an E-mail administrator in multiple companies and have done this professionally. E-mail conversion from OE requires expert-level skills and the average Computer Tech just doesn't have the knowledge to do so. This person must be an E-mail specialist with special training.

For the hardware testing; you need to test your RAM sticks first. Download the free MEMTEST RAM checker program (google it), which is an ISO image file. Next, download the free IMGburn program (google it), and burn the MEMTEST program to a bootable DVD blank disc or USB stick. Remove all RAM sticks except the DIMM0 stick and run MEMTEST for a minimum of 8 passes. If MEMTEST returns any errors, that RAM stick has failed and must be replaced. Remove the 1st RAM stick, replace with the 2nd RAM stick in DIMM0 slot and repeat MEMTEST; again if MEMTEST returns any errors, that 2nd RAM stick has failed and must be replaced. Repeat this procedure for each and every RAM stick you had in the machine until you have tested all RAM sticks individually in the DIMM0 slot with 8 passes. Once you have done this, repeat MEMTEST one final time with ALL RAM sticks installed for 8 passes. If MEMTEST returns any errors here, you have a mismatch of RAM type or speed and you will need to replaced the sticks in MATCHED PAIRS with replacements 1 pair and 2 pair until MEMTEST returns zero errors with both either 1 pair or both pairs installed.

Download the free SEATOOLS program from seagate.com which is an ISO image file. Next, download the free IMGburn program (google it), and burn the SEATOOLS program to a bootable DVD blank disc or USB stick. Reboot the computer and run BOTH short and long tests. If SEATOOLS returns any errors, that drive has failed and must be replaced!! Set aside the failed drive for data recovery and post back here for further instructions on how to do that. *Bear in mind that most desktop hard drives are only designed to last 3 years Max. Many last 5 years or longer, but if that Seagate 80GB is original to that Dell machine there is a VERY HIGH probability it has failed and will need to be replaced. **THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: YOU MUST DISCONNECT ALL SECONDARY INTERNAL IDE, SATA, AND USB EXTERANL DRIVES YOU SHOW CONNECTED TO YOUR PC WHILE CONDUCTING THE SEATOOLS TESTS!!!***

If you aren't able to wrap your brain around all this testing, I suggest you find 1 or more competent licensed Techs to do the work for you and pay them to do so. Fewer and fewer Techs out there are rebuilding XP machines and no one wants to buy those or use any longer due to the lapse of Microsoft support and represent a high-security risk when attempting to use on the Internet. For Tech recommendations, make sure your Techs are A+ certified and licensed or better. Remember finding an A+ Tech is easy, there are tens of thousands of them in all major cities. Finding one with hardware repaire knowledge and E-mail proficiency is going to be tougher to find and much more expensive. You may wish to have the PC rebuilt buy one Tech, and then find an E-mail expert or consultant to help you with the E-mail conversion. This will not be a pleasant process, so be prepared. You might consider checking with your local Computer Club as many experts like me who have been doing this for 30 years or more often hang out there, and that's a great place to find a reliable Tech or Consultant who can do it all.

Post back your test results and we can advise your further.

<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[kemical]

I had been having blue screen problems with my old Dell XP. The programs WhoCrashed and BlueScreenView implicated a few drivers of non-essential software as the culprits. I examined the drivers module in AutoRuns (by Sysinternals) and carefully selected non-essential software drivers for disabling of their autostart status by unchecking the box in AutoRuns. (I avoided hardware drivers, Microsoft drivers, and drivers for actual autostart programs.) Three times when I restarted after this limited driver-autostart disabling I got the STOP: 0X0000007B blue screen.

The above bugcheck is for inaccessible boot device:
https://neosmart.net/wiki/0x0000007b/

If you zip up your dump files and post them we can debug further.

 

[Ralph Bromley]

If you really need a computer that old to work and actually function without being behind in updates and security just switch to Linux as there's no practical reason for you to stick with XP even if you use office there are ways to install it. There plenty of Linux distributions out there to support old machines like this such as Lubuntu which is lightweight has a user interface similar to XP and is up to date as is other systems such as Linux Mint MATE. Well you're wasting money by paying technicians to fix a old out of date operating system. It's not worth it man leaving yourself under fall to all the security flaws that XP has. Or if Linux scares you there's always windows 10 which should actually run on this kind of hardware without being crazy on the upgrades.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

@Ralph: Not a bad way to go, however, most of the folks who live in my area * a mountain resort town*, are seriously behind on technology and are deathly afraid of Linux as they think it's only an OS for Geeks or Tekkies (as it used to be). The comment you made about Win10 is not quite accurate; as a Windows10 insider tester, I've done work with Win10 since last September, and tested many older configurations with it. What I've found and corroborated with other testers, is that XP-era hardware built prior to 2006 will NOT run Win10--at least on the Tech Preview up through build 10065. I've tested with both Dell & Gateway desktop machines, both with Intel & AMD processors. (you can check the Window10 forum here for my testing reports). Basically, machines built for Vista compatibility at the harddware level all seem to work, if the hardware was built in 2007 or later. XP machines built in 2005 and earlier--I tested XP hardware built back to 2002; and none have yet taken Win10 installs. Of course, it's possible that the released version, Windows10 RTM, out on July 29th of this month, may address those problems, but I doubt it. It's not worth Microsoft's time to go back to 10 year old hardware and older and rewrite all those changes to their OS to do so, even it were possible, which I'm hearing on the tester grapevine that it's not.
This is certainly no surprise, as most XP-era machines would not install Windows8/8.1 starting back in 2011. Microsoft's specs indicated that Win8/8.1 would support XP-era machines, but I never got one running at all, even after upping the RAM and Hard Drive to the Microsoft minimum spec. Effectively, Microsoft would tell you through onscreen error messages or links to pages on their websites, that your XP-era hardware was obsolete *at only 6 years old*, and you must upgrade/replace your hardware in order to run Win8/8.1. So, a good test of whether your computer will run Win10 is to attempt to install Win8/8.1 on it; if it fails, Win10 will NOT install, as for the next 12 months, Microsoft has publicly stated that they are continuing to support Win8/8.1 drivers on all hardware. So, no Win8/8.1 install, no Win10 install--even though of course it's free for the 1st year.

@conceptualclarity: If you've taken Ralph's advice and taken the Linux plunge-good for you! It's a great alternative as he says. But, please read my warnings on trying to update your XP-era hardware to Win10. It's very unlikely to work, even if you upgrade your RAM and Hard Drive. This will save you a lot of $$ paying Techs trying to get your 10 year old machine to work with Win10. Most Techs especially in retail stores have not tested it as I have, nor are they testers for Microsoft, so they will take your money, and then after weeks of effort and possibly charging you for parts, they will come back to you with a conclusion that your hardware is obsolete and won't work.
I just wanted you to be aware of this.

Best of luck,
<<<BBJ>>>

 

[Trouble]

Much of that old hardware does not support some or all of PAE, NX, and SSE2 some or all of which have actually been a requirement since Windows 8 RTM.
I remember I had been testing Windows 8 preleases and when the RTM was finally available, it wouldn't install. Took me a while to find out it was the NX bit not support in the BIOS.

 

[Josephur]

You do know that Autoruns can be ran against an offline system right? You can run it from a functioning computer with your hard drive attached, fire up autoruns and go to File, Analyze Offline System. You should be able to re-enable the items you unchecked. (please tell me you didn't right click delete them)

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Much of that old hardware does not support some or all of PAE, NX, and SSE2 some or all of which have actually been a requirement since Windows 8 RTM.
I remember I had been testing Windows 8 preleases and when the RTM was finally available, it wouldn't install. Took me a while to find out it was the NX bit not support in the BIOS.

>>>Good info, Troub--makes sense that some of the CPU functions in older single Pentium & Centrino chips did not have these newer capabilites; most found in DuoCore or DualCore CPUs (and of course Quad-Cores like my Dell Core 2 Quad Q8200 CPU (Yorkfield 45nm) from July 2008). I'm pretty confident it will run Win10 as it's a Vista-era machine! Also interesting to note that Intel didn't implement the SSE2 until CPUs/machines until 2004, and AMD did so a year earlier, in their Opteron & Athlon64 CPUs in 2003. No surprise then that Intel & AMD based CPUs of the XP-era (2003-2004) and earlier didn't work. For those interested, here's the wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSE2
<<<BBJ>>>