Got  a call a few days ago from an aunt who was on a business trip together with my uncle.  They called me saying that my uncle’s computer was not booting up to Windows, they had no recollection of what might have caused the problem.  Upon probing, I found out that it was a Blue Screen error.  I told them to try some basic troubleshooting like booting to Last Known Good Configuration and booting to Safe Mode but none worked.

They were in Korea that time and had none of the recovery disc for their Dell Computer.  I told them to just bring the system back here in the Philippines so that I can repair it myself.  My uncle ended up buying a new computer since he needed one for his business transactions.

Today, my aunt arrived (unfortunately my uncle had to stay) with the computer (and some other goodies.. ^^,).  I immediately got my hands dirty and started working on it.  The specific error was “STOP c000021a Session Manager Initialization fails with status 0xc000026c”.  I encountered this problem before and was sure that it was a Windows Update that caused it but can’t simply remember what it was.  Google to my rescue as always, and pointed my direction to  Windows Update KB925902.

So what needs to be done was to remove this update from the machine.  If the system were able to boot to safe mode, System Restore would have been the best option.  For this we had to boot to the Recovery Console to remove the update manually.  Here’s the guide on how I removed the Windows Update manually.

1. Boot with a Windows XP CD
2. Once on the Welcome to Windows Install screen, press the letter “R” to access the recovery console.
3. Upon entering Recovery Console it will ask you which Windows installation you want to log into, usually there’s only 1, so just press the number 1 then ENTER.
4. If asked for an Admin password, enter your admin password, or you can just leave it blank which is the default and press ENTER.
5. You will now see C:WINDOWS>, change the folder using this command CD $NtUninstallKB925902$\spuninst then press ENTER
6. Type this command: batch spuninst.txt
   
7. If the command executed properly, you should see a spuninst.tag file in the folder.  To check type DIR then ENTER.
8. Type exit then press ENTER to restart the computer.

After doing this the computer should now boot up properly.  Hope this would help someone out there encountering this problem.

Here’s an easy fix for a computer not booting up to Windows. It’s called the Last Known Good Configuration feature which is part of your Windows startup options. The Last Known Good Configuration allows you to start your computer by using the most recent settings that worked for your machine. Every time you turn your computer off and Windows shuts down successfully, important system settings are saved in the registry. We can use this saved setting to start the computer up normally when we encounter problems booting up our machine.

This is very useful specially when you have installed a driver or software which is causing some problems on your machine.  Doing this will not affect your files.  Here’s the guide on how to do this.

1. Power on the computer.
2. As soon as the computer start turning on, keep tapping the F8 Key.
3. You should now see the Windows Advanced Options menu.  (if you don’t see this screen, then turn the computer off and back to step 1)
4. From the menu options, use your arrow keys and highlight Boot to Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked), then press Enter.
5. If your computer has more than one operating system installed, use the arrow keys to highlight the operating system that you want to start, and then press ENTER. Windows will then resume starting normally.

This is the same procedure for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and even for Windows 7.  So hope this has been of help to you.

If you are planning on reinstalling the Operating System of your HP laptop, or considering on recovering your computer to HP’s default factory settings, HP usually includes a set of Recovery CD/DVD that you can use to restore the computer.  This contains the Operating System, drivers and the software that came with your computer.  However, if your laptop did not come with one,  then you may still create your set of recovery discs via the HP Recovery partition included in your system.  It may also be that you just want to have a backup in case you want to reinstall the OS of your computer, then having the HP Recovery CD’s is a must.  This guide will help you create your HP Recovery discs.

Step 1: Open HP Recovery Manager

• Click Start and type recovery in the search box.  Click on Recovery Manager from the list.  Click continue if prompted.  This Opens HP recovery manager.
• Alternately, click start > all programs > recovery manager.

Step 2: Click on Advanced Options. 

Step 3: Click on Recovery Disc creation, then click next.

Step 4: Follow the succeeding prompts.  The software will tell you the number of discs that you will need.  The disc creation process will take about 10 or more CD-R or up to 3 DVD-R or DVD+R discs.   The disk will burn, verify data, then eject each CD when complete. Take note,  it is advised not to use CD-R/W or DVD-R/W discs because the process will fail.

When the process is complete, you should have a working set of HP restore disks.  Make sure to label the CD after it is created and store them in a safe place.

Note: The software will only allow you to create one set of recovery discs.  If in case the Disc Creation process fails, you need to contact HP to request for a set of recovery cd.