Okay, so here is my problem. *VIDEO ADDED*

[MR2SUFI]

Okay..
So.
I got a 1g ram stick for my bday in June.
It worked perfectly normal up until last week.
Last week, I went to bed..everything was normal with my computer..
I woke up..to a dark..blank..screen.
I thought, "Hmm..odd.."
So I restarted, only to get BOSD.
So after tampering that whole day with the computer (formatting, etc etc,) next day I switched back to my old ram stick (my 512 stick)
Which, oddly enough, WORKED!
So..I go through that day, barely using the computer, and go to sleep that night with it on, like normal.
Wake up the next morning...to the SAME THING!!
Now it doesn't work!
I tried 2 other sticks of ram, nothing!

And now..this is what is happening.
(Please watch whole thing.)

YouTube - STUPID COMPUTER.

 

[carnageX]

After the BIOS screen comes up, and before it starts to try to load Windows, press F8 until a menu comes up. Pick the option that says 'Disable automatic restart on system failure" or something of that sort. Let it try to boot up again, and now when it gets to the BSOD, tell us the STOP code at the bottom (will be formatted as such: 0x000000##, where ## = some alpha-numeric numbers). Also tell us the words in all-caps at the top of the BSOD (eg, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL).

 

[MR2SUFI]

STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance.






That's exactly what the blue screens, now that I can read it.
Any ideas?

 

[Baez]

It means that your registry file that holds information on software is missing or corrupt.

You need to find your Windows XP CD first.

Boot your system with the CD in the drive. If it does not boot from the CD you'll need to go into your BIOS and set it to boot from your CD drive first and your hard drive second. Once you're at the setup screen, choose the Recovery Console.

A screen with a command prompt will appear.
Type in these commands. Press Enter after each command line:

md tmp
copy C:\windows\system32\config\system C:\windows\tmp\system.bak
delete C:\windows\system32\config\system
copy C:\windows\repair\system C:\windows\system32\config\system

If your drive letter for Windows is not C then type the letter it is instead.

Reboot the computer, and if it doesn't boot again, go back to the Recovery Console on the CD. Type these commands:

md tmp
copy C:\windows\system32\config\software C:\windows\tmp\software.bak
delete C:\windows\system32\config\software
copy C:\windows\repair\software C:\windows\system32\config\software

Again changing the letter C if yours is not. Hopefully that will fix the problem of it saying it can't load the software registry.

 

[MR2SUFI]

Yep, I went through a big long tutorial on doing that and got it to work.


Why does that happen?

 

[KSoD]

Why does Registry Corruption happen? Can be a list of things.

Installing just a single bit of software that isnt compatible or something that is corrupted will cause this. It can never be fully explained cause we were not using your machine at the time nor do we know everything that was done with the machine to give a accurate answer.

 

[Baez]

Yep Operating Systems are very complex pieces of work. We could write an entire book on small problems like this.