Step 1:
Right click My Computer and go to System Properties (Or, if you like the keyboard, Win+Pause/Break). Click the 'Advanced' tab.
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Step 2:
Click 'Settings' under 'Startup and Recovery'. Under the System Failure heading, uncheck 'Automatically Restart'.
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Now, when you BSoD, you'll actually be able to -read- the error message and try to solve the problem. In my case it was a corrupt vidstub.sys file.
UPDATE:
If you are unable to even boot in to safemode to get this done, there is help!
First, you need to download a boot disk that has a registry editor. I recommend:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
It's been a while since I've used it, but it has always worked for me.
Open up the registry editor (It's under NTFS tools) and edit this key (Odd formatting because of limit in width of the blog):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
SYSTEM\
ControlSet001\
Control\
CrashControl
Change AutoReboot key to 0
Hope that helps!
3 comments :
Thanks- that's some useful info.
Unfortunately I have just been given a friend's laptop to fix which is doing this split second BSOD, but I can't get it to start a GUI, even in safe mode, so there's no way to choose the option you mention.
Any ideas of how to enable this if you can't get Windows to boot in the first place?
Tar
Chillstar
Chillstar -
I've updated the post with a bit more info at the bottom that should help you out. Thanks for bringing it up!
-shockwaver
Thanks a lot shockwaver- that's really helpful. Great blog too- right after my own heart- I'll be checking in.. or maybe even get the RSS :)
Cheers and have a good weekend.
Chillstar
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