On Oct 7, 2009, at 12:47, paul stenquist wrote:
My daughter has a custom built PC. It's about four years old, and
I'm not sure what processor is in it. It runs Windows XP and was
fine until recently. Now she can't seem to get it to boot, and she
can't afford to get help. I'm useless when it comes to PCs. Here's
her description of the problem. Can anyone give us a clue?
On startup I get this error message: "Windows XP could not start
because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS
\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM"
That's one of the three "registry hives". There are a few
possibilities:
1. A disk error is preventing that file from loading/reading
properly. If that were the case, a simple tool like
"spinrite" (approx $80 and lovely tool to have in your bag of tricks)
could likely fix the problem and you're on your way.
2. The file itself is corrupted even though the disk is good. If this
is the case, it's restore from backup or reinstall. But you've said
that the reinstall is not working either (which is weird), so
3. Could be a RAM problem, or motherboard problem - just hangs up
while reading the file even though that file might be fine. Hard to
fix. But if you download Memtest-86 (freeware!) and burn it to a CD,
you can run this software on that machine and see if there is a memory
issue. http://www.memtest86.com/ -- free download, just pull down
the ISO image and burn it yourself.
Last possiblity:
4. Some sort of virus is on the PC. You'd need to boot from some
other disc and scan the drive to remove whatever it is. This can be a
challenge.
Good luck with the Best Buy guys. Like any tech shop, there will be
smart folks and not-so-smart folks in the lab. It's kind of a
crapshoot which one will sit down at this machine to work on it,
though. Too bad you aren't closer to Minnesota - I'd take a look at
it for you for nuttin'!
-Charles
--
Charles Robinson - [email protected]
Minneapolis, MN
http://charles.robinsontwins.org
http://www.facebook.com/charles.robinson
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