Vista - System boots then blue screen, HELP!

Okay, all day I've been trying to sort this out but to no avail. I've searched Google like crazy, and whilst I've found that others have had this issue there's been no real resolution.

My system boots all the way up to the point of the loading bar, then it goes blue screen and restarts. I've found that it loads up in safe mode, and I can access all my drives (I've tried unplugging external devices), and I'm 99% certain that running a system restore would fix the issue. HOWEVER, safe mode revokes me of all rights to perform any system based tasks, so obviously it won't allow me to run system restore, regedit, pretty much anything.

Here's what I've tried so far:

-Running system repair through a boot disk, it didn't find anything wrong

-I tried running system restore through the boot disk but apparently there weren't any restore files (which isn't true)

I have no idea how this happened, I'm guessing a registry file's been affected or something. Every time I try to run System Restore through safe mode it gives me the following message 'System Restore had been turned off by group policy. To turn on System Restore, contact your domain administrator'

It's not UAC because I've disabled that, but I think if I can get around the group policy I can run it. I tried running gpedit.msc and gpmc.msc from the start menu search but they wouldn't open.

Please, please, please help, I really can't re-install Vista because I don't wanna go through the process of re-installing all my programs.

salri

since you can safe boot but blue screens in regular boot I suspect a video driver. the change in permissions is curious. what happened to cause the first BSOD?

we need you to fill in your system spec(lower left corner of your posts) so we know what hardware you have

ken
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I'm not too sure what couldn've caused it, I extracted some files from a winRAR compilation earlier in the day and I didn't get any notification of a trojan from my anti-virus. It worked fine for a while but it just went blue later on in the day. Upon restart it did the restart - blue screen cycle.

An update though, a couple of hours ago I started it up again and tried booting in normal mode, and it booted all the way up to the 'Please Wait' loading screen, but after a minute or so it went blue again, and it wouldn't do it again, so now I'm thinking it could be an issue with hardware. Even so, I would like to try the system restore before opening the case.

My specs are as follows
Intel Quad Core 2.40GHz
3GB DDR RAM
nVidia Geforce 8800GT

I also have 1 internal SATA HDD and 1 External (which I've tried on and off). I regularly update my video drivers, and it might be worth noting that there was a Windows Update available when this whole thing happened.

Thanks for the quick reply!

salari

did you install the update?

Are you the only user on the system?

As far as I know the update didn't install, and yes, I'm the only user on the system with UAC disabled.

Oh dear. By disabling UAC you have inadvertently left your system open to attack. Whilst some people consider UAC to be a nuisance, it provides good security in that if anything tries to install something surreptitiously you will be informed. It is likely that you have picked up some form of malware simply by browsing, and this has installed itself in the background without your knowledge.

You could try a system restore to see if that helps - remember to disable and then reenable it afterwards to erase any potentially infected points.

System Restore - How to
System Restore

Alternatively, try Last Known Good Configuration.

Advanced Boot Options

Another thing to try if that doesn't work is Startup Repair.

Startup Repair

System restore won't boot through Safe Mode due to group policy, running the repair through the boot disc doesn't work, and trying to run a system restore doesn't find any previous restore points, which I'm positive there are some.

So either it's hardware, or I need to find some way of disabling Group Policy in Safe Mode to run the System Restore, or ascertain what hardware's at fault.