Screen gives me this message.. and says if a driver is identified in the stop message disable it. There are 3 other numbers similar to above number in parentheses after that one.
However I can't get system to start up in either the normal or safe mode to be able to do anything.

I have Vista Home Premium 32 bit.

Hello dar60 and welcome to the forums

Do you have a Vista disc to hand?

Tom

Hello dar60,

That's great. Because your computer won't boot, I think the best option is to do a repair install:

Repair Install For Vista

Let me know how you get on

Tom

Hello dar60,

It should say on the disc whether it is SP1 or SP2. If nothing is displayed then it is likely to have neither included in the disc - which would occur if the disc was made before February 4, 2008. Is it a retail DVD? Not to worry if you won't know this - a retail disc should look like this:



Tom

Hello dar60,

Sorry for the late reply, I was asleep.

Originally Posted by dar60

No it is not a retail disc. The computer is a Dell Inspiron laptop I bought in the summer of 2006. I received several discs with the purchase...one being the re-installation dvd, a microsoft word disc and a superpack disc of some software that had been pre-loaded.

It has been a good computer until I encountered this problem. Any other time it went on the blink, I managed to be able to run in safe mode or normal mode and it fixed the problem. However this time, no success.

I hope there is still a fix for this?

PS I do have my critical files saved to an external hard drive.

Do you get any error codes when you try to boot into Windows - be it safe mode or normal?

The terms of my malware removal degree don't permit me to use most of the offline tools so I don't know whether we'll be able to fix this short of a clean install.

Are there any files on this hard drive that you would like to keep that you haven't backed up? If so, please follow this tutorial to back up your files using a Ubuntu live CD:

Recover Data Like a Forensics Expert Using an Ubuntu Live CD - How-To Geek

Originally Posted by dar60

"If the DVD is a older version, then you cannot do a repair (upgrade) install with it"

This is what concerns me in the link I read.
Isn't there some work around/bypass/trick to get it to boot ? Wave a magic wand over it or say some magic words? LOL

Lol, I wish! That would make my job much, much easier But unfortunately, there isn't - for now anyway. I guess you could try using a magic wand if you wanted, maybe even throw in an abra cadabra if you're keen enough Good luck if you do!

If it isn't booting, then something is either missing or broken in your system.

Originally Posted by dar60

what should I do now that the re installation disc I have appears to be without the SP1 or SP2 needed to repair the problem?

We're limited to doing a clean install with this disc, but I've just had a brainwave.

Just had a brainwave of things to try:

When you boot to this re installation disc, what options are you presented with?

Try doing a "Last Know Good Configuration (advanced)" boot:

Advanced Boot Options

Every time your computer successfully boots, it writes the configuration settings to the registry so that, in the event of an error, there's something to fall back on

Tom