As I was checking my web-based email, I got my first ever blue screen of death on WinXP Pro (I-Buddie XP Desknote system). The original message screen was complex and was running through things, talked about proceeding with a primary memory dump and gave instructions (as below) to reboot. I have tried rebooting under every boot mode and always ended up with the following blue screen:

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart yoru computer.

Technical Information:
*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF7C1F640, 0xC000000E, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)"

Unfortunately, I have never gotten to a command prompt or into the operating system to be able to run a checkdisk or virus scan, and I had not done anything with hard drives or drivers.

Also, occasionally instead of coming to the boot options screen, the computer will try to load MAC ADDR, fail, and tell me no bootable device is around. My CD-ROM drive stopped working a while ago, so booting on it doesn't work.

Also, the CMOS lists hard drive as AUTO, and only lists the size and sectors on the initial boot screen before the operating system.

Any ideas of what happened and what I can do about it? Was it a virus, or HD crash?

Thanks for any help.

Have you tried another hd?

Honey X 030811
k7S5a Pro rev. 5
XP 2400+ @2200ghz Thoroughbred-B
Crucial PC2100 ddr 768
Radeon 9000 64 mb
Maxtor 40g (32g)
Coolmax "Taurus" 450w PS
Asus QT CD/RW
Samsung DVD<br

Sounds just like a windows file was corrupted.....my best recommendation would be to hook up your hard drive (that now seems corrupted) into another computer to retrieve what files you need from it, and then reformat it. should easily fix the problem

Without a working CD-ROM drive you are not going to properly diagnose/repair the problem if it isn't a failed harddrive.
Without a working CD-ROM drive you are not going to be able to format/reinstal an operating system if it is a failed harddrive
Without a working CD-ROM drive you ...

Get a new CD-ROM drive and then try to fix the OS problem