webig5

Hi,

I recently agreed to help my mother-in-law hook up her router. She had purchased a Linksys router and also a wireless adapter from Dell. As part of the process, she needed the driver for the adapter so I downloaded from Dell. Everything worked fine but, her computer was a mess (outdated anti-virus, no Microsoft (MS) updates, etc) so, being a good son-in-law, I decided to help her out.

I began by downloading all recommended drivers from Dell and then went to MS updates and began installing the critical updates. During the MS update process, I got an error about virtual memory being low. I clicked okay and rebooted. Now, all I get when I try to power up is a black screen. I can't do anything-can't access safe mode, BIOS or anything else. The only thing on the screen is the mouse pointer (which moves like it's supposed to).

I tried repairing with the Win XP Professional SP1 CD but I get an error message that says "DSentry.exe-Application Error, The exception unknown software exception (0xc00000fd) occurred in the application at location 0x004034e7. Click on OK to terminate the program. Click on CANCEL to debug the program". Nothing happens when you click OK or CANCEL.

I tried also tried booting from the Win XP Professional SP1 CD. There are 2 beeps, then nothing else happens.

There's no floppy drive.

I don't know what to do. Please help-it's my mother-in-law's computer! Thanks!

Mike

TriggerFinger

Hi,

Do you still have the Dell Restore CDs? I suggest you use them to restore or install. If it is not a big deal, why not install XP from scratch. I believe it is easier done that way considering you have a lot of updating to do. That also helps discard the unneeded files and frees up a lot of storage.

The DSentry application I believe is a Dell application. I just do not know where it fits in the whole picture.

webig5

Thanks, I would love to reinstall XP but I can't get the computer to do anything other than show me the mouse pointer. Would you have any advice on how would I reinstall at this point? I'm at wits end. Thanks again!

TriggerFinger

so have you tried booting from CD (like when you did the XP repair)? if already done, at what point do you get a hang?

on the other hand if you have not tried to boot from CD drive using the XP CD, i suggest you try that first. choose to install instead of doing a repair. when asked to format the drive, format it (completely and not the quick format) with NTFS.

do post back what happens...

psamuels

Just curious if you ever figured this out. My wife's computer is doing the same thing. Hoping it is not a motherboard problem.

P-

TriggerFinger

Hi P-,

check your messages. i sent you PM (private message)