Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) installation causing blue screen upon reboot

If you have installed SP3 onto your new HP, and are now experiencing a blue screen upon rebooting, you need to boot into safe mode by continuously hitting the F8 key upon starting your computer.  Then, click on the start menu, select “Run.”  Next, type in regedit and hit enter.  Look for this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Intelppm\Start

Upon doing this, you need to change the hex value for “Start” from 1 to 4.

Complete these steps, restart, and you should be able to get into your computer with no more blue screen.

6 Responses to “Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) installation causing blue screen upon reboot”


  1. 1 Kyle Hotchkiss

    Hey! you just saved my moms computer! awesome!

  2. 2 consult71

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Ryan is da man, worked perfectly. On a dell dim 8200.

  3. 3 Mitts

    This didn’t work for me. We have an alienware lp with a raid stripe set up.

  4. 4 Mitts

    Any ideas. When this did work for the current control set, I checked the other two control sets and made sure they also set to 4…Help would be appreciated.

  5. 5 Greg

    I have a dell isnpiron B130, i loaded service pack3, get the blue screen of death, and cannot get into safe mode, I get the blue screen there also! Any ideas?

  6. 6 Ted

    I have a Dell XPS400 and after loading sp3 I also got the blue screen with a STOP: 0×000000FC (0xBA5038E8,0×0AA71963,0xBA503848,0×00000001) error. The error also states there was an attempt to execute non-executable memory. I can’t boot in safe mode or by CD. Bad,Bad day.

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