Help!: Win XP Home Edition BSOD Problem

[KC]

My father-in-law installed the latest MS Win XP patches and an HP officejet print driver on a Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop and now gets the BSOD when booting.  He gets this error:

STOP: c000021a (fatal exception error).  The Windows logon process system terminated unexpectantly with a status of 0x00000080 (0x00000000 0x00000000).  The system has been shut down.

We rebooted the system and hit F8 and tried the safe mode, last known good config, debugging and command prompt options and got the same error.

I assume that we will need to reinstall Windows.  Can this be done without having to reinstall the other programs on the computer? 

Also, my father-in-law didn't get a Windows disk from Dell.  His Windows product key is on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop.  Can I use a Win XP disk that I have with his product key to reinstall?

Please help!  Thanks in advance for the advice.

[Knightshade Dragon]

Unfortunately it is worse than you think, more than likely KC -

0x00000080: NMI_HARDWARE_FAILURE
"This general indication of a hardware failure is often quite difficult to pin down. Follow usual hardware troubleshooting protocols, in particular: Roll-back any recent hardware or driver changes; ensure that RAM sticks are matched and undamaged; check for viruses or hard drive damage; run ChkDsk to identify file system problems; ensure that all connections are sound inside the computer and all cards well-seated. In tough cases you may need to consult a professional shop for hardware diagnosis and repair."

I'd start with the RAM.  It is the usual suspect.  Go down to one stick and start from there...

[KC]

How do you do that with a laptop?

[Knightshade Dragon]

Well, if it only has one stick of RAM, you won't.   There should be a panel on the bottom of the laptop with a screw.  If you take off that small cover you may or may not have a second stick of RAM in there.  THe problem is that this is a very general hardware Stop error.  You might try uninstalling the printer if you can get it to boot, even into safe mode.  Something may have gone awry there.

As far as reinstalling Windows without reinstalling everything else, you might try this tutorial to go through a repair -
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=STKGFAI0KVUKAQSNDLPSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=189400897

[Destructor]

As far as reinstalling Windows without reinstalling everything else, you might try this tutorial to go through a repair -
(giant link that breaks the forum formatting here)

That's actually a very impressive little feature of Windows there. One that I (for whatever reason) didn't actually know about. Now to make sure I never forget this little tidbit.

[AgtFox]

Oops...nevermind what I said.  I see you tried Safe Mode and it didn't work.  Try the above thing said by Ron though, that is also useful.

I talked about System Restore, but it would be difficult to do without Safe Mode even coming up.