Corrupt system file, yea!!!

[A Person]

Ok, maybe some of you have had a problem with this before. You boot up and XP says it cannot not start cuz "\windows\system32\config\system is corrupt or missing" I have been searching all over the web and everyone just says to copy the reg files from the boot disk onto the hdd using repair mode. Well, this resets everything to what it was right when you installed xp, which sucks. It temporarily fixes the problem but 2 days later I get the same thing. I heard that it can be caused by some IRQ problems... whatever the hell that is.

Any of you got any suggestions?

[Rich]

If you can get into the recovery console, you can try to run the check disk command. I think if you use the /f switch, it will repair, but i am not sure. This is just a guess.

[MaNiAk21]

It doesn't give you a specific file that is missing? I have seen this problem, actually happened in times where my brother's PC would become instable due to heat and problems with his K7S5A knoick-off. The K7S5A is riddled with problems and a non-ECS carbon copy is even worse. Now he's got a greatly ventilated case and see's no more problems. It can also be a problem with the HD, if it's a WD watch out man, they like to crap out on you. Arghh... :evil:

[Rich]

If the system is overclocked at all, underclock it. I was messing with my settings and that was similar to error I got. As soon as I got the setting back to normal, all the problems dissapeared.

[ELiTE KiLLaH]

yeah, if its overclocked that error is usually due to the harddrive having troubles operating at the higher pci bus (as long as its not an nForce2 board, or an intel board that locks pci/agp freq)


other than that, get the hd manufacturers "test disk"...for the lack of a better word...which test the harddrives for any failures reported by s.m.a.r.t.

i nkow maxtor and wd have something to do this wtih, seagate probably does too

...could be the hd dying...

[A Person]

I just bought a new hdd last week cuz my last one (WD) died. Now I got a Maxtor. If this one is dying all ready I'm gonna give up on computers and go live under a rock for the rest of time.

I found a forum that was talking about this and it said that IRQ problems can cause this corruption. I have no idea what IRQ is but I have heard that my sound card (SB audigy) can cause IRQ problems. So I took it out, reset the registry, and am waiting for it to do it again.

[F|eA]

i got the exact same message on my brothers computer.
not overclocked one bit.
all stock settings.,

managed to fix it once by fluke cause it happened again the next day and i had to just format it to repair. not much of a real solution.
Didn't have rescue disks so i couldn't try that kind of repair.

[ELiTE KiLLaH]

if it doesnt happen again, IRQ conflicts may be to blame

check in themanual what the IRQ was for the pci slot uhad it in before, and see if it was shared wiht anything else

try running scandisk (chkdsk i think for xp/2k?) and see if it comes up with any bad sectors..

[A Person]

I will do that. But what is IRQ anyways? I allways hear people mention it but I don't really know what they are talking about.

[F|eA]

but why have irq conflicts after 1 year of installation?

[Rich]

From what I have seen in the past, IRQ conflicts were very common with the old ISA interface. Usually if you have a conflict it will occur when a new part is installed. With the newers OS's IRQ conflicts have been mostly eliminated. OF course I could be wrong.. :P

[A Person]

Without my scound card it seems to be doing fine. But I will give it another few days before I consider the problem eliminated. I'll probably sell my Audigy and get a SB 5.1

[ELiTE KiLLaH]

did u do a driver upgrade??

and IRQ = Interupt Request Line
more or less, hardware lines that devices use to send interupt signals to the processor

old comps had major problmes at times (needed to set them manually) but plug n play was supposed to eliminate the problem....somtimes it does, sometimes it doesnt

try the card in another slot as well...

[MaNiAk21]

Yes, that's what I would suggest, try the card in another PCI slot, are there any other PCI slots that are currently filled? Most mobos(if not all?) share the same IRQ with the first PCI slot and the AGP slot and that could defienetly cause some problems.

[A Person]

Sorry, I put the post in the wrong category. My bad. Thanks for the move.

[Hippy]

Hows it going now after a few days? Good me hopes.

Did you ever find out about IRQ? As far as i know (and i am more than likely wrong in this) each 'add-on' that interfaces with the motherboard (pci card, printer, graphics car etc...) gets asigned an IRQ number or range of numbers. But it is possible for two or more devices to get the same numbers by mistake, causing errors. I know you can change these numbers and set your own but normaly the computer does it all fine. NOt sure how though sorry :(. Maybe do a search in your OS help files about 'IRQ' or check out our mobo manual.

Not sure if i have been any help here :) but hey :roll:

[A Person]

After I got rid of my Audigy it has worked fine for a week. So I ordered a SB Live 5.1 Hopefully that won't cause any problems.

[ELiTE KiLLaH]

lol
i have an audigy with no problems at all
:?

what mobo?