blue screen of death (bsod)

[daninmystic]

I am having the most frustrating time with Dell. Their tech support diagnosed a bad hard drive and sent a replacement under warranty. After I installed it, the operating system failed to load. They said the system disc was bad and sent a new one. It still failed to install. I got this error code:

STOP: c0000221 UNKNOWN HARD ERROR
\SystemRoot\System32\ntdll.dll

In subsequent calls to tech support, they said the memory was bad and sent new cards...same error code. They sent out a tech guy with a new motherboard...again same code. They had me send the laptop back to their depot for repair and they shipped it back to me today. The repair card said they put in a new motherboard, fan, heat-sink, and sound card and that the repair "fully restored your portable to working order". It further said the problem was limited to customer's software. (Of course that was the new operating system disc they had sent me a few days before). I tried to install the operating system, and got the same bsod error code.

Does anyone know what that error code means? Dell tech support just scratched their heads when I asked.

Thanks folks.

 

[yoshiemaster]

All you have to do is replace the corrupt file, and if you can't find it, just reinstall xp.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314474


welcome.

 

[junglemike]

From your post it is not clear whether your tried to install a new operationg system (probably XP) over the old one, or to a new formatted partition.
Because if first is true - you definitely wasted your time replacing hardware.
Supposing your XP cd is bootable, boot from it, when it detects existing windows install do:
1) if you have precious data on prev. winxp partition - refuse to repair existing installation when prompted, and set up new (second, third...) partition, format it to ntfs, and let the windows install there.
2) if No precious data on the drive refuse to repair existing installation when prompted, - just delete all existing partitions, re-partition your drive as you want (say, c: 10gb, d:20gb, e:30gb), and re-format your new boot partition to ntfs (probably c

 

[daninmystic]

Thanks Yoshie, the post helps. I guess the problem is with the new operating system cd Dell sent.

And thank you too Mike. I should have been more clear. The error code first appeared after I installed the replacement hard drive Dell sent. I never got to install the operating system. I got the error during setup. You are right, it's XP. And in everything I did, I was on the phone with Dell tech support. I assumed they knew what they were doing.

In the hours since my original post, Dell tech support has decided to simply send me a new laptop. Go figure. Too bad they didn't see your reply Yoshie. While I expect it's a little cheaper for them to send me a new cd, I didn't argue when they said they would replace my 2 year old laptop with a brand new one. It's no wonder their share price is down 25% this year.

Thanks again, guys.

 

[yoshiemaster]

Thanks Yoshie, the post helps. I guess the problem is with the new operating system cd Dell sent.

And thank you too Mike. I should have been more clear. The error code first appeared after I installed the replacement hard drive Dell sent. I never got to install the operating system. I got the error during setup. You are right, it's XP. And in everything I did, I was on the phone with Dell tech support. I assumed they knew what they were doing.

In the hours since my original post, Dell tech support has decided to simply send me a new laptop. Go figure. Too bad they didn't see your reply Yoshie. While I expect it's a little cheaper for them to send me a new cd, I didn't argue when they said they would replace my 2 year old laptop with a brand new one. It's no wonder their share price is down 25% this year.

Thanks again, guys.

Congradulations man, that sounds like a great deal.