XP - won't boot and Windows Setup won't run

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pete
  • Start date Start date
P

Pete

For the past 2 weeks, I've had at first an intemittent and now consistent
problem.

Running XP SP2
- BFGRNF4U mobo
- AMD 3500
- Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550
- 1GB (2 x 512MB) Corsair RAM
- Maxtor 200GB HD
- Powercolor x800GTO video card

On boot, I get "Windows could not start because the following file is
missing or corrupt \windows\system32\config\system. You can attempt to
repair by starting Windows Setup using original Setup CD-ROM". This also
happens trying to boot in Safe Mode.

Running Windows Setup from CD, setup freezes at "Setup is starting Windows".
- I have the latest BIOS
- I tried BIOS in failsafe mode
- I tried disconnecting all removeable drives, USB printer, KB, and mouse
- substituted an older PCI video card
- tried memory sticks individually
Same result.


- WinXP floppy
- PowerMax utility finds no HD errors
- Max Blaster HD Installation utility locks up after (while?) loading
Caldera DR-DOS


Any thoughts
 
Pete said:
For the past 2 weeks, I've had at first an intemittent and now consistent
problem.

Running XP SP2
- BFGRNF4U mobo
- AMD 3500
- Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550
- 1GB (2 x 512MB) Corsair RAM
- Maxtor 200GB HD
- Powercolor x800GTO video card

On boot, I get "Windows could not start because the following file is
missing or corrupt \windows\system32\config\system. You can attempt to
repair by starting Windows Setup using original Setup CD-ROM". This also
happens trying to boot in Safe Mode.

Running Windows Setup from CD, setup freezes at "Setup is starting Windows".
- I have the latest BIOS
- I tried BIOS in failsafe mode
- I tried disconnecting all removeable drives, USB printer, KB, and mouse
- substituted an older PCI video card
- tried memory sticks individually
Same result.


- WinXP floppy
- PowerMax utility finds no HD errors
- Max Blaster HD Installation utility locks up after (while?) loading
Caldera DR-DOS


Any thoughts
Click to expand...

OOPs - I hadn't meant to send that message yet (still haven't mastered the
Outlook Express "Send Later" function.)

Anyway, it does appear to be a bad memory stick. One of the sticks works
fine. The other individually yields large funky graphics on boot. Both
together yield the aforementioned error.

Thanks anyway.
 
Yup 4 sure sounds like RAM issue, u see...If your Bank0 is bad, then u
get (garbage on boot, or no start, or OS Blue screen), but if your
Bank1 is bad then your system has at least 512MB to fill up before it
encounters an error...

Also about your HD-Util; alot of low-level hardware things do NOT work
in Caldera DR-DOS, as it is not exactly equiv to MS-DOS

--Glad if i could help
 
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