Crap--- What am I going to do?! I'm gettin a 0x0000007B stop error that I can't get past to start WinXP. I know this means inaccessible boot device, and I know how to handle that- the problem is: I have tried starting in the three different safe mode options. I have tried restoring last known good config. No matter what I do, same error. Cant' get to my harddrive, windows doesn't boot. The REAL problem here is that this laptop has NO internal CDROM or Floppy drive. I only have an external PCMCIA cd-rom (which I never got to show up in My computer ANYWAY). The power to the PCMICA drive doesn't come up like it used to- I'm guessing because windows doesn't even boot. So-- What the heck am I going to do?! If this were a desktop, I'd set the BIOS to boot from CDROM and either reinstall windows or FDISK. I can do neither here. I HOPE TO HELL SOMEONE CAN HELP ME! I would hate to have to sell this right after I got it. I should also mention that I did not just install any new hardware or software. This problem came out of the blue (no pun intended). Thanks in advance - Meagan (meaganajohnson@hotmail.com)

Can you pull up your BIOS screen during bootup? If so the go to your boot order and set you first boot device to SCSI. That will be your CDROM drive. If not then try booting to the C:> prompt and type the following: scanreg /restore [enter] And restore to an earlier date. To access the BIOS try toggleing the delete key during bootup. If that doesn't work for you then you mwy want to do a search on google for a manual on the make and model of the problem computer, or search for "how to enter BIOS" for the make and model of the laptop you are having problems with. I'm sure you'll find some useful info about your laptop. Good Luck.

I got into the BIOS- it is sparse. There is no restore option (doh!). This external CD-ROM is not SCSI, it's PCMCIA. I set the BIOS to boot from ATAPI CDROM and I even tried removable device but it did not work. I don't even get power to the CD-ROM so I'm thinking it is not loading the driver to recognize it. I've done some research and it looks like I am going to have to get into DOS and reconfigure some files (autoexec.bat, etc). I am borrowing a floppy drive from someone that will hopefully work so I can do this. I think we figured out what went wrong (I just ran a freeware registry cleaner utility right before this happened). Which means the drive is probably not hosed- the reg just got so screwed up Windows can't boot. So - My plan for tonight is to get into DOS, try to load CDROM drivers and install another OS since I don't have a recovery CD and no WINXP cd.