Urgent Help Needed-Physical Memory Dump Blue Screen

RayAnn · 05 Dec 2010

Hi everyone,
I am new here and just registered as I need urgent help with my laptop. I wanted to watch a wmv file this morning, and WMP downloaded a codec file, upon installing which I instantly got the blue screen of death. I restarted my windows, a few seconds after its start-up, the ruddy screen appeared again. I ran it in safe mode; the very same thing happened. I can not run windows at all to uninstall the codec and fix the problem. I have tones of work documents on my C drive, so I cannot re-install windows. And I need to access them as they are work documents, and I need them tomorrow for a meeting.

what can I do? Is the only way left to copy those files through DOS and reinstall my Windows?

CarlTR6 · 05 Dec 2010

Can you boot from your Windows CD and restore your system to a date prior to installing the codecs? Can you do a repair install? Repair Install

RayAnn · 05 Dec 2010

I had not made a back-up file; I checked the restrore option, and it says it would restore it to a good few months ago. I would lose a lot of program archives. also, I did try repair install, but it did not find anything. I tried copying my files through DOS, but it would not copy sub-directories through XCOPY file destination /S /E

finally, I tried copying those files with safe mode with command prompt, but it showed the blue screen again. I am utterly desperate

CarlTR6 · 05 Dec 2010

A restore point only affects the system and programs. It will not affect your files. I think you have no choice byt to use a restore point. That is better than a clean install which is your next option. I encourage you to make regular images of your system and data when you get your computer stable again. I do so weekly using Macrium Reflect (free). I image to an external drive.

RayAnn · 05 Dec 2010

Thank you so much for your help, but I found the funniest way to copy my files. When running repair install, I tried to browse for an image file and instead tried copying my files to my external hard drive through the window.

CarlTR6 · 05 Dec 2010

It it works - success! :)

RayAnn · 05 Dec 2010

Hopefully :) the copying process has taken more than I expected it to--although the files were rather big:68Gb.

CarlTR6 · 06 Dec 2010

Now that you have copied you files, try a restore point.

RayAnn · 08 Dec 2010

I did it :) Not gonna risk going through the same thing--not again

CarlTR6 · 08 Dec 2010

Congratulations!! Good job. Let us know in a couple of days if the restore point did the trick. Please consider making a system image and do so on a regular basis. I image my system once a week.