Dont know how, but my old Dell that has been serving as a Folding box got royally screwed up after I gave it to my mom for a few weeks. I know she didnt do anything to cause this, because it was working perfectly when I took it back.
I hooked it up to test it out after getting it back and it was hanging up on Mup.sys for some reason (only thing I did was remove the sound card). I rebooted, chose Last Known Good configuration, and it went into Windows just fine. I rebooted and this came up before it started loading drivers:
edit: Heres the boot menu (where you can go into safe mode, etc):
This box is more or less disposable, so I'm just gonna do a repair install and call it great. Never seen anything like this before though
WTF! I noticed that it was doing it even when I put in the XP CD and where it normally says "Press any key to boot from CD" etc, it was the same jumbled garbage... I cleared the CMOS and it boots just fine!
Look at the message closely, specifically the part referring to "pbh.rxr". Some of the letters are what they should be, the others are shifted one back in the ASCII table. For example:
vhNDnvr = wiNDows
bntLD = couLD
NnT = NoT
rT'rT = sTarT
etc.
Here's the translated message:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
System32\DRIVERS\pci.sys
You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup...
After that it gets really weird. Is your machine overclocked/using a hacked BIOS? The problem seems to be with your PCI controller.
ah its a dell. well thats solved that mystery they live in another world anyway and you just stumbled into their secret code by mistake. if you soon get a knock on the door from someone in black suits and claiming to be from dells customer support, start running
What is so bad about Dells? Ive had like 5 and installed ~ 10 of them. I've:
added extra HDs
added extra RAM
added CDRW
added NIC
added video cards
None of this was very hard or problematic. Is it possible you are dumping on Dell where Windows (ick) is at fault?
Since I know nothing about MBs and BIOSs I'm not saying you are incorrect, Im just saying I haven't had problems. Also found their driver CDs to be better than the HP disks Ive seen. I gave up trying to straigten out a friends HP becuase the resources shipped with it were such sh_t.
Ned
PS - Dell doesn't install Windows well. If you get one new, format it and reinstall. It will run 5x better.
I have purchased Dells for the government and found your phone people to be incompetent, disorganized, poorly networked, and sometimes rude. Sometimes if they can't figure out what to do they will just hang up. . .oops. Shame on you. If this junk continues, Dell buyers will flee. My friend who owns a computer business confirms the incompetence and "ooops hang ups." Shame on you Dell. Get a grip.
I can't count how many times someone having a problem with thier system where a reformat or a dirty install might be needed and all I can tell them is "sorry, your hosed." Then I explain what Test said in another thread about Thier Dell or Compac being proprietary. So that new vid card they bought is totally useless blah blah blah ...
Well the garbled text came back, so I yanked a stick of RAM and it looks like that fixed it... we'll see what happens.
JFTR, its a L700cx with a 700mhz Celeron and 256 (formerly 384mb) RAM. The stick that I yanked just now was the original 128mb stick that came with the computer.
you were affected by the Dell jarjar syndrome, where the bios reverts to the Programers orginal language. They altered the language and provided 4 dell indicator lights to overcome this archaic style. These lights would allow visual cues for the 1st grade level 1 Dell techs in there attempt to assist customers with their long winded scripts. But every once in a while it rears it's ugly head. Most do not notice the indicator lights in the back are using morse code with the phrase "All your BASE"
