Windows 10: BSoD has Incapacitated Computer - Cannot Reboot

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...-32-64-bit-faq
To benefit from greater than 4GB RAM you will need 64 bit.
If it is 4 GB or less then 32 GB is fine.
If you use or plan to use 8GB then use 64 bit
Dell Optiplex 745 - Max CPU RAM etc - General Hardware - Desktop - Dell Community
is a dell optiplex 745 compatible for a 64 bit processor? - [Solved] - CPUs
According to the link there are 4 DIMM slots with a max or 2 GB in each slot for a total max of 8 GB.
So 64 Bit is better than 32 bit.

See if you can find a friend, relative, neighbor, public library etc. where there is a faster download speed to make a 64 bit windows 10 iso if you can benefit from it. Alternatively you could make the .Windows 10 iso overnight.

These are some troubleshooting steps when there is difficulty booting from a bootable USB flash drive:

If you have fast boot or ultra fast boot enabled in your UEFI firmware settings, then you will need to temporarily disable fast boot or ultra fast boot to be able to boot from a USB.

How to Enable Fast Boot or Ultra Fast Boot in UEFI Firmware Settings for Windows: Enable or Disable Fast Boot in UEFI Firmware Settings for Windows Performance Maintenance Tutorials

1. Try another USB stick
2. Try all USB ports (2.0 and 3.0)
3. Maybe when using UEFI Bios you have to temporarily switch to Legacy in BIOS settings
4. Turn off temporarily fast boot, secure boot, CSM if enabled

 

For Zbook:

It sounds as though you agree with Ztruker that I should download and try rebooting with the 64 bit Windows ISO. I'll try to download it on the same 16 GB Flash Drive that I have the 32 bit Windows ISO on. If that doesn't work, I'll buy another 16 GB Flash Drive on Tuesday.

Thanks for your help.

 

If you have an optical drive that is an additional option for the Windows 10 iso.
Keeping the Windows 10 iso on a drive may become useful again in the future as you can perform in place upgrade repairs and keep the files and applications for the repair. In case the Windows 10 iso does not work another option is a boot rescue and that would need another flash drive.
The Windows 10 iso can be used on any computer with Windows 10 so you could help friends, neighbors, etc. So keeping the flash drive in a drawer and knowing it is available could give you some backup options in the future.

 

Can you take a picture and post it of what you see when you press F12 to get the boot menu on the Dell Computer?

You should be able to boot a 32 or 64 bit Windows 10 installation flash drive.

If the Dell has a "C:\Program Files (x86)" folder then it's a 64 bit install of Windows 10. Weird I know but that's where the 32 bit software is installed on a 64 bit Windows 10 system.

This is from the manual for your computer:
====================================================
Changing Boot Sequence for the Current Boot
You can use this feature, for example, to tell the computer to boot from the CD drive so that you can run the Dell Diagnostics on the Drivers and Utilities CD, but you want the computer to boot from the hard drive when the diagnostic tests are complete. You can also use this feature to restart your computer to a USB device such as a floppy drive, memory key, or CD drive.
1. If you are booting to a USB device, connect the USB device to a USB connector.
2. Turn on (or restart) your computer.
3. When F2 = Setup, F12 = Boot Menu appears in the upper-right corner of the screen, press <F12>.
If you wait too long and the operating system logo appears, continue to wait until you see the Microsoft Windows desktop. Then shut down your
computer (see Turning Off Your Computer) and try again.
The Boot Device Menu appears, listing all available boot devices. Each device has a number next to it.
4. At the bottom of the menu, enter the number of the device that is to be used for the current boot only.
For example, if you are booting to a USB memory key, highlight USB Device and press <Enter>.

NOTE: To boot to a USB device, the device must be bootable. To make sure your device is bootable, check the device documentation.
====================================================

No mention of UEFI or GPT so it must ba a BIOS/MBR system. The Flash drive you have should be okay and selecting it from the F12 boot menu should work.

Press F2 to get into Setup then check Onboard devices, make sure the USB ports you are using, Front or Rear, are enabled.

 

This is what the Screen shows when I tap F-12:

Boot Device Menu
* USB Device
* Onboard SATA Hard Drive
* Onboard or USB CD-Rom Drive

* System Setup
* Hard Drive Diagnostics
*Boot to Utility Partition

Use Up/Down arrows go highlight desired item
Use Enter to select highlighted item.

My Comment:
I went to Setup by tapping F-2 (It's the first time I've ever done this.)

It has 64-bit Technology (Intel EM64T)
All USB Ports are enabled.
Installed Memory = 2.0 GB
Boot Sequence: I changed it so that USB Device is Number 1
TPM (Trusted Platform Module): Default position = OFF

My Comment:
Even with the USB Device in the Number 1 position, it still does not boot.

Plan: I can delete the 32-bit Windows ISO and download the 64-bit. That'll take about 8 hours. I'll try to boot the computer then with the 64-bit Windows ISO.

Update: I am now downloading Windows ISO 64-bit; it should be finished by about 6 pm est on January 1, 2018.

Of course, after I am able to boot it, I'll have to set about getting rid of the BSoD software.

Update: 6:45 pm, est: I tried booting with the 64-bit Version of Windows ISO, and it still does not work. First, I tried it with the USB Device in the number 1 position, and it doesn't work. Then I tried moving the USB Device to the number 5 position and it does not work.

The 64-bit Version of Windows ISO takes up 3.54 GB of space whereas the 32-bit Version takes up 2.73 GB of space.

 

I tried booting my BSoD computer with the 64-bit Windows ISO with the Flash Drive plugged into a USB Port, but it did not boot. I tried putting the USB Device in the first position on the Device Menu after tapping F-12, but that did not work.

I tried booting the computer I am now using with the 64-bit USB Device, and it did not work. I tapped F-12, the Boot Device Menu came up, I highlighted USB Device and pressed Enter. A blank screen came up. It appears that something is wrong with the Windows ISO download on the Flash Drive.

The Lexar 16 GB Flash Drive I am using is a 2.0.
All of the USB Ports on both of my Dell computers are Black and not Blue. It is my understanding that if the USB Port were a 3.0, then the inside of the port would be Blue.

 

1) See if you can find some flash drives that you can format.
2) Create a boot recovery flash drive:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums
3) If you have additional flash drives create them for:
a) memtest86+ version 5.01
b) Ubuntu/Linux: Ubuntu tutorials

This should allow you 4 different options to test and use the USB flash drives to troubleshoot.

In post #14 what happened with each steps 1 - 4 ?

 

For Zbook:

I'll look into the matter of formatting a Flash Drive.
I'll also look into the matter of creating a Boot Recovery Flash Drive.

I'll buy another Lexar 16-GB 2.0 Flash Drive tomorrow. They're on sale for $5.34 at Office Depot.


Regarding the points below from Post # 14:

1. Try another USB stick
When you wrote this, I had downloaded the 32-bit Windows ISO, which did not work. Since then, I downloaded the 64-bit version, and it doesn't work.

2. Try all USB ports (2.0 and 3.0)
Both of my computers are older, and they only have 2.0 USB Ports. The BSoD one has six Ports, all 2.0. I have read that 3.0 USB Ports are Blue on the inside whereas the 2.0 Ports are Black. As indicated above, the Lexar 16-GB Flash Drive is a 2.0 -- I think that's why they are on sale.

3. Maybe when using UEFI Bios you have to temporarily switch to Legacy in BIOS settings
I'll have to find out what and where a Legacy option is.

4. Turn off temporarily fast boot, secure boot, CSM if enabled
I'll need to switch power to the BSoD computer and go into Setup to see if I can find Fast Boot, Secure Boot, and CSM.

Thanks for the follow-up.

As indicated above, I am not a Techie, and I have to research the definition of many acronyms, as well as how they function. I likely will not have anything to report until tomorrow late afternoon.

If I am not able to reboot the BSoD computer, I am prepared to buy another one. I can have the one I am now using as backup in case there is another emergency such as this one.

 

Can you capture the Rufus window just before you click on Start to begin writing the flash drive, and posting it here please.

 

1) See if you can find some flash drives that you can format.
Under Properties: The File System for the Lexar 16-GB 2.0 it says: FAT32 (This must be the type of formatting.)
Do you mean that I should find Flash Drives that are not formatted? Should I format these Flash Drives myself?
All of the older Flash Drives I have read, under "File System", only FAT; one of them reads: NTFS


2) Create a boot recovery flash drive:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums
At this website, I downloaded >Winpese-x86-....iso< I copied it to a Flash Drive and tried to boot the BSoD computer -- it didn't work.

3) If you have additional flash drives create them for:
a) memtest86+ version 5.01
b) Ubuntu/Linux: Ubuntu tutorials
I don't have any additional Flash Drives right now, but I'll buy another Lexar 16 GB soon. The weather is very bad today, so I didn't go shopping.

From Earlier:

3. Maybe when using UEFI Bios you have to temporarily switch to Legacy in BIOS settings
I looked under Setup in the BSoD computer, and the term Legacy only came up once: "LegacySelect Features." There was no option that would allow me to switch to Legacy.

4. Turn off temporarily fast boot, secure boot, CSM if enabled
I turned off "Fast Boot," but it would not boot using any of the software.
I could not find "Secure Boot" and "CSM"


I was able to download Rufus 2.18 from the MajorGeeks.Com - MajorGeeks website with no problems.
I copied it to a Flash Drive and tried to boot the BSoD computer with it, but it didn't work.

From Ztruker:
Can you capture the Rufus window just before you click on Start to begin writing the flash drive, and posting it here please.
I don't understand this request. I downloaded the Rufus software to my alternate computer, then I copied the Rufus Download to a Flash Drive; I inserted the Flash Drive into the BSoD computer and pressed the power button. I tapped on F-12, got the "Boot Device Menu," highlighted the "USB Device" and clicked on Enter. It did not boot.

 

At times OP may use a 32 or 64 GB flash drive to backup files.
The Windows 10 iso and other bootable software may format the drive before installing the software.
This would lead to a loss of the files already on the drive.
So a drive that you can format was suggested so that there was no surprise loss of files on the drive.

The BIOS of each computer varies by manufacturer and model.
Using a camera or smart phone camera please take pictures of the BIOS menus and post images into the thread.

 

The Underlined Text is from zbook:

At times OP may use a 32 or 64 GB flash drive to backup files.

I only backup documents; however, I think I should backup Microsoft Word 13 because now I'm just working with Wordpad on my alternate computer.

The Windows 10 iso and other bootable software may format the drive before installing the software.
This would lead to a loss of the files already on the drive.
So a drive that you can format was suggested so that there was no surprise loss of files on the drive.

The website that I downloaded Windows ISO from advised that all files would be deleted before the download, that's one of the reasons that I bought a new Flash Drive. The other reason was that the only free Flash Drive I had was 2GB, and the website said that I needed at least 8 GB.

The BIOS of each computer varies by manufacturer and model.
Using a camera or smart phone camera please take pictures of the BIOS menus and post images into the thread.

Regarding BIOS:

I do not get any BIOS menus. When I try to boot, the only thing I get is the Dell Logo Page.

On the Dell Logo Page it says:
OptiPlex 745 Series
BIOS Revision 2.6.6

In Setup, I ran a Diagnostics Check: For the first time, the following message came up:

 

On the computer find the product or serial number.
Open the Dell website: Support | Dell US

Enter the serial or product number > post the URL or hyperlink into the thread.

DELL hardware testing: Resolve Hardware Issues With Built-in and Online Diagnostics (ePSA or PSA Error Codes) | Dell US


See if you able to run built in diagnostics.

If you cannot find a BIOS menu, run diagnostics, boot from a widnows 10 iso, or boot from a boot recovery flash drive it may require contacting Dell.

 

The Serial Number is: 4T97CD1

Support for OptiPlex 745 | Diagnostics | Dell US

I don't know where to go from this point.

The Error Code that I got a few days ago is: 0xc0000017
However, they are looking for an Error Code with four digits followed by four more digits.

The best clue I have is that "the system failed at Checkpoint [WRIT], but I haven't found a way to look this up at the Dell Support website.

 

This give any more info? And BTW....that code is 4 digits followed by 4 digits. They are "Hex" digits and "c" counts as a "digit"....just for your info...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...X4H2vVd2tjbX27