pc crashed, don't know what to do

daniel91

i turned on my pc, which is a dell dimension 9200 with windows xp. a black screen then came up saying : "windows could not start because the following file is misssing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM.
my computer has crashed on previous ocassions and i solved it by re-insatlling windows using the operating system disc. so i tried this and when i booted the disc a blue screen came up with windows setup at the top and at the bottom it says setup is loading files. when it finished loading the files another blue screen came up with a stop message:
"0x0000007b (0xf78e2524, 0xc0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000"
usally when i booted the operating system cd, i could repair or re-install windows but now i get this. also i cant start in any 3 of the safe modes either as the original message just comes back up when i try to do so.:mad:

i'm not worried about losing all my saved files, i don't mind staring from scratch i just want my pc workin again.

any suggestions on how to fix this problem would be greatly appreciated!!!
thanks!!

docmol

Hi, first things first, have you tried swapping out the ram?

daniel91

docmol wrote: »

Hi, first things first, have you tried swapping out the ram?

dont know what you mean, can you explain?

docmol

Looks like your pcs ram (memory) may be acting up. Removing all the ram and then putting one stick back to see what happens is standard practice. If this dosn't work try the other stick. Very quick and easy check to do. Here is a video tutorial:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/video/342/how_to_remove_ram_on_a_computer.html
If it is the ram it's easily and cheaply replaced.

EKRIUQ

To mr it sounds like the harddrive has failed, I replaced a hardrive on a friends computer last week which had a similar problem windows would start then the blue screen would appear. You could try testing the diaognostics with the statup repair disk.

Antar Bolaeisk

To ascertain whether it is a hardware or software fault could you try using a Ubuntu Live CD which will allow you to boot straight from the cd without havig to install it?

The blue screen could have been caused by a damaged install disc and the start-up fault may be caused by corrupted files neither of which would be related to hardware failure.

You could then try resolving your boot issue using the recovery console if it does turn out to be a software problem.

You can get Ubuntu here

Some links to info about it here

ImgBurn which you will need to burn the Ubuntu .iso to a blank disc

Finally (this will only be relevant if it does turn out to be a software fault), repair of Windows XP using the Recovery Console

daniel91

docmol wrote: »

Looks like your pcs ram (memory) may be acting up. Removing all the ram and then putting one stick back to see what happens is standard practice. If this dosn't work try the other stick. Very quick and easy check to do. Here is a video tutorial:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/video/342/how_to_remove_ram_on_a_computer.html
If it is the ram it's easily and cheaply replaced.

tried this and no joy. but when i press f2 and go into setup, under boot sequence it says "onboard SATA Hard Drive (not present)" could this be the problem? ive checked that all the wires are properly connected to the hard drive.

docmol

That would be a problem all right, your harddrive was working in your original post, but seems to have bitten the dust now. You have checked all the cables but maybe try another cable/sata socket (not holding out much hope, but worth a go) If your optical drive is sata as well just remove the cables (both power and data) from it and plug it into the hard-drive. Do this with the power off. Restart pc and go into bios. Does it detect hard-drive now? If not you probably need a new drive. If your optical drive is ide, look at where the hard-drive data cable connects to the motherboard. There should be extra connectors there and you might try one of them. The good news is hard-drives are cheap these days:rolleyes:. If you need any help, reply, DM.

IrishSideOfMoon

daniel91 wrote: »

i turned on my pc, which is a dell dimension 9200 with windows xp. a black screen then came up saying : "windows could not start because the following file is misssing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM.
my computer has crashed on previous ocassions and i solved it by re-insatlling windows using the operating system disc. so i tried this and when i booted the disc a blue screen came up with windows setup at the top and at the bottom it says setup is loading files. when it finished loading the files another blue screen came up with a stop message:
"0x0000007b (0xf78e2524, 0xc0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000"
usally when i booted the operating system cd, i could repair or re-install windows but now i get this. also i cant start in any 3 of the safe modes either as the original message just comes back up when i try to do so.:mad:

i'm not worried about losing all my saved files, i don't mind staring from scratch i just want my pc workin again.

any suggestions on how to fix this problem would be greatly appreciated!!!
thanks!!

Hi Daniel,
Turn on your PC and at the Dell Splash screen Press F12 which should bring up a boot menu. Select diagnostics from there you should have an option to test ram, hard drive, motherboards etc. If the tests all pass get your hands on a windows XP CD. Put the CD in your optical Drive and at the Dell Splash screen again press f12 this time selecting to boot from cd drive. A message will appear on the screen to presh any key to continue so do just that, but be quick as the message only stays for a few seconds. Then follow the instructions on this Microsoft Knowledge base Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

Hope the above is of help

---

Regards,

Shane
http://irishsideofthemoon.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/IrishSideOfMoon

IrishSideOfMoon

daniel91 wrote: »

tried this and no joy. but when i press f2 and go into setup, under boot sequence it says "onboard SATA Hard Drive (not present)" could this be the problem? ive checked that all the wires are properly connected to the hard drive.

If your system is still booting to the error message in your first post then that above is not your problem. Your original error message in most cases is corrupted system files or corrupted registry. The reason i suggest you first run the inbuilt Dell diagnostic is to make sure all your hardware is ok before you spend time attempting a repair that has hardware as an underlining issue, cause if this was the case any repair attempts would include replacing faulty hardware

---

Regards,

Shane
http://irishsideofthemoon.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/IrishSideOfMoon

daniel91

just wondering is a operating system cd the same as a recovery console cd?
im using a operating system cd, if i get my hands on a recovery console cd would it be of any use because the only other option i have at the minute is to buy a new hard drive.
thanks!

MarkR

As above, you can press F12 to choose to boot from the diagnostics partition. If you have the drivers cd, it is also possible to boot from that to do this. This cd will allow you to test various things through a symptom tree, and give you error codes to help you diagnose the fault.

daniel91

MarkR wrote: »

As above, you can press F12 to choose to boot from the diagnostics partition. If you have the drivers cd, it is also possible to boot from that to do this. This cd will allow you to test various things through a symptom tree, and give you error codes to help you diagnose the fault.

tried this it just says it's not available:(