Three days ago my computer failed. I only bought it the end of last year. If it lets me I will attach a picture of the weird blue screen it shows. Can someone tell me they have seen a screen like this before and can tell me what it means? ..... Well, I guess I don't know how to show a picture here... Hmmm now what... [img][/img]

To show us the image, you will need to have it hosted on line. I use Tinypic. you can set up a free account. Upload the picture to the hosting site and they will give you a url.(web address) It is that url that you need to put between the img tags.

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Well, okay... I was even going to ask the post be deleted after the answer(s) I got to save room. Hmm... Well i guess i'll make an account somewhere. Feel free to delete the thread so it doesnt distract people.

That took an incredibly long time. There is no Tinypic Android app, and the website made me upload twice then erase everything, close the account etc. What a waste. So I now have Photobucket. Hopefully it didn't mess everything up too. If you push Enter or F8 it gives a similar message with a different error code. The third choice opens the BIOS. I have screenshots of those too. It just took hours to get even this far showing one lousy picture...

Now we see how well five other pictures load:

It states plainly that your OS has corrupted itself. You MUST use the Install Disc, OR the Media Recovery Set created through the OS, to Repair the install. If Repairing the install does NOT fix the issue, you MUST reinstall the OS from scratch!

As it stands now, your system is HOSED! If you do NOT have the original installation disc for the OS, OR did NOT create the Media Recovery Set, you will need to contact the maker of the PC for assistance. You will need to send the machine to the maker to have them reinstall your OS. If you choose to send the machine in to the maker of the PC, they are NOT responsible for your data; in which case when they reinstall the OS, your personal data will be lost.

You can choose to take the PC to a specialized repair center. (I recommend a small mom and pop type store, NOT Geek Squad.) My local shop is Central Computers in Pleasanton, California. They're NOT cheap when it comes to this type of work; but, they WILL get your data off to either a USB Flash Drive, or to a DVD Disc.

If you choose to take the computer to a third party location to repair the system, they will also check the validity of the hard drive to see if in addition to reinstalling the OS that the hard drive is still in good order, or may need replacing.

Good luck.


TL

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

Mojo let me point you here
https://neosmart.net/wiki/winload-efi-missing-corrupt/
Hope this helps.

Although the first screen you posted looks more like the hard drive itself might be the issue.

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***GASP***

My laptop computer came with things installed and the power cord. That's all. No disk. No instructions. No mouse. Nothing. I bought it at Best Buy as a matter of fact. And I brought it there yesterday. She looked at the screen, was shocked, angry, then an unreadable expression. And rather vague about what it might be. She looked... umm... shaken, not stirred? They will look at it in three more days...

Test the drive with the stand alone boot testing software from the drive's manufacturer or test it plugged into another PC with the drive's manufacturer's OS dependent diagnostic software.

If it fails then check to see if you can still RMA it.

Cheers.

***GASP***

My laptop computer came with things installed and the power cord. That's all. No disk. No instructions. No mouse. Nothing. I bought it at Best Buy as a matter of fact. And I brought it there yesterday. She looked at the screen, was shocked, angry, then an unreadable expression. And rather vague about what it might be. She looked... umm... shaken, not stirred? They will look at it in three more days...

So are you saying that you didn't make the backup DVD's or USB thumb-drive that the laptop recommended when you 1st started it up? :-O

Cheers.

If it ever suggested that, then no, I never did. My last one would just repair itself from something on the hard drive that I couldn't access but it was set to look inside. That was a Vista laptop and this is a MUCH faster 8.1 laptop. I actually prefer Vista, 8.1 is just weird by comparison. But if Vista could repair itself then why can't 8.1??? Unlike you guys (I bet) I am not an IT guy and not a programmer, just a bumpkin strolling along gawking at all the purty lights....

If it ever suggested that, then no, I never did. My last one would just repair itself from something on the hard drive that I couldn't access but it was set to look inside. That was a Vista laptop and this is a MUCH faster 8.1 laptop. I actually prefer Vista, 8.1 is just weird by comparison. But if Vista could repair itself then why can't 8.1??? Unlike you guys (I bet) I am not an IT guy and not a programmer, just a bumpkin strolling along gawking at all the purty lights....

That sometimes hidden repair partition is sometimes hidden, but all laptops that I know of when being reset back to "out of the box" software condition all laptops will give you a hint somewhere to make a backup just in the case of hard drive failure (and I've done hundred's of the things since manufacturers stop supplying backup media). ;-)

Cheers.

If it ever suggested that, then no, I never did. My last one would just repair itself from something on the hard drive that I couldn't access but it was set to look inside. That was a Vista laptop and this is a MUCH faster 8.1 laptop. I actually prefer Vista, 8.1 is just weird by comparison. But if Vista could repair itself then why can't 8.1??? Unlike you guys (I bet) I am not an IT guy and not a programmer, just a bumpkin strolling along gawking at all the purty lights....

That sometimes hidden repair partition is sometimes hidden, but all laptops that I know of when being reset back to "out of the box" software condition all laptops will give you a hint somewhere to make a backup just in the case of hard drive failure (and I've done hundred's of the things since manufacturers stop supplying backup media). ;-)

Used to. Today many don't ship with anything to make a backup with! Cloud is the only choice. But that is beside the point. If windoze is hosed it should have gone to the recovery partition. Oh as he just bought it one day ago it isn't likely to be full of irreplaceable documents.

I'd push BB to Lemon Law it and replace it, not attempt a fix.

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I bought a HP PC with Windows 8 installed, no disk. It was soon updated to 8.1 via Internet and I made a repair DVD. It then was updated by Microsoft to Windows 10 and I made another repair DVD. When the PC crashed, I used the repair DVD and now it is working without all the HP installed software, just Microsoft. I am using it as a Virtual Box platform to run CERN programs, plus three Virtual Machines, Solaris, SuSE Linux 13.2 and SuSE Leap 42.1. They all work.
Tullio

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OH. MY. GOD.
I had my first experience with Geek Squad today.
You think I'm clueless? Probably right... But...
No, they can't fix it. No he doesn't know why, the one who looked at it went home (it was only 10am today). No it doesnt really say why. We will have to send it away. It might take one to four weeks to get it back. No we cant just put the software back on. No i dont know why that person is already gone home. No they might not fix it when its sent there either. They might just send it back here. No the manufacturers warantee wouldnt cover it if the hard drive failed even though you only bought it at the end of October. No Best Buy wouldnt replace it either, that was only for fifteen days after someone bought it between Black Friday and Christmas. No your two years of Geek Squad protection you paid $300 for doesnt cover it either thats only for us to look at it and for shipping out of town. No the manufacturers warantee doesnt cover this, they would just ship it back if the screen was damaged and they didnt make the screen any more. Yes i onow you are saying there is no physical damage to the computer but if the computer was like ten years old then they would have parts for it because it was too old. No you only bought it new at the end of October so its fairly new but they might send it back not repaired because they cant fix it either. No they wouldnt replace the hard drive if it went bad. No you would have to pay us to replace it plus what the hard drive cost. No the warantee doesnt cover the computer going bad. No Geek Squad coverage doesnt cover it. No you would have to pay us to fix it. No that is just for us to look at it and for shipping. So, do you have any other questions i could help you with?
AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

You know I've heard people trash Dell here.

I'll say this, when work had one fail soon out of the box, their next day onsite service did sent someone out next day. He replaced what seemed to be the failing component. It wasn't. They were back and ended up replacing the CPU and motherboard. That fixed it.

Mind you BOINC saved the day. If the computer was idle, it failed. If BOINC was pushing it hard and warm, it was happy. Go figure.

Reminds me, I need to blast the dust bunnies.

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AFAIK all computers now a days have the OS installation on a hidden partition.
Try change setting the BIOS boot order to other sources than the default Windows partition.

Had similar problem about a year ago, so here are two questions.

Did you install anti-virus or internet protection software?

What is the network connection wired or wifi?

In our case it was originally setup to use the wifi connection, and one of the first things we did was to install the internet protection s/ware.

The internet protection we found out didn't allow all updates to install correctly, which produced a similar result to yours.

We were a bit luckier in that it was installed with win7 and had it came with a 8.1 updated CD. We did the update which worked and then did the same thing, crashed after the first batch of updates.

We then started asking questions and someone suggested connecting by cable with the wifi switched off to force the changeover.

A second attempt with the win8.1 cd worked , but we never found a way to get back to win7, even though we did find it in a hidden directory.

I'd start putting the screws to Best Buy and threaten to contact your local TV stations to see if they'd like to do a story on it.

Unless there is something I am not catching, a computer purchased in October should still be under full warranty, and the special service contract you purchased should be protecting you as well.

Meow?

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

The guy at the Geek Squad was abusing you. Here is a link to the extended warranty. It looks like your are covered. If not then just drop it. You have 100% accidental damage coverage, Geek Squad Protection Plan

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