HELP. Revive Trusted Desktop after BSOD

Hi folks, First of all im glad to find a Forum full of people who have an understanding of what i see at the moment as a world of complicated jargon. I am badly in need of some expert advice here which would be much appreciated.

As the story goes..

Since around 2005 I was the happy owner of an average Desktop (Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo P-320 Desktop) operating windows XP home edition. This computer served me well as specially the package it came with, Nero, Office, many programmes.
I looked after it well for years, I replaced the hard drive once with a slightly larger one back in around 2007 which worked fine without any problems.

HOWEVER in 2011 PC still in pristine condition, whiles watching a video on youtube one night the PC crashed, switched off, restarted with what i now know as the blue screen of death, no matter what i done I got these constant blue screen messages and codes, after a day or two, in a panic, I resorted to trying to reboot from the recovery disk which came with the system, off course in the process I lost ALL my files a lot irreplaceable which was devastating.
I tried to reboot a few times however each time the reboot was almost complete it would fail and say things like file esent97.dll was not copied ive included a few pics I took a the time of the messages.

Well I gave in baught a new windows 7 laptop which isnt bad but just does not match up to my old PC and XP. I have been using this since but miss my old desktop and recently thought surely it must be repairable, the whole thing is still in fine condition. So the other day I set it up and was planning to look at this problem again however as soon as I turn the power on a message now pops up on a black screen saying (NTLDR is missing press any key to restart) and when I do the same thing keeps happening.

I am confused and when trying to research i find there are many different people talking about many different systems and many different causes.

I am pleading with anybody to tell me if there is a solution to reviving this pc, like for example will replacing RAM and the Hard drive help.

if anybody could give me some experienced advice it would be much appreciated and so helpful.

Cheers

 

your best bet would be to burn a copy of Hiren's boot cd and run the recovery console with the /r parameter

chkdsk c: /r and run over and over until no errors are found and fixed

You will also want to run fixboot and fixmbr

one reason a recovery disk or repair install do not work is it takes you to a pre sp3 configuration and nothing works, if you have a genuine bootable disk it would be better to reinstall os, and we could have saved your data but it is probably too late now.

below are instructions for the hirens and after that links to learn about fixboot and fixmbr

Courtesy of Jose Ibarra:
Anywho, to make a Hiren's boot CD, do this:

I am going to recommend you use Hiren's boot CD (it will also go on a USB drive).

This is good for you because it has many more tools on it that on the XP Recovery Console CD, does not care about your Administrator passwords and you will not have to futz around in your BIOS if any afflicted system has SATA drives - Hiren's can deal with that.

You will have a whole bunch of cool tools that you don't have in the XP Recovery Console... a registry editor, password resetter, and a desktop that looks like Windows XP so you will feel comfortable maneuvering.

You can also easily copy your personal data (documents, images, music.) to an external drive.

From a working system, first download Hiren's Boot CD from here (it is a substantial download but worth it):

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ (look near the bottom of the page, do not click on any ads).
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/burning/
Instructions

Unzip the Hiren's to some folder where you can find it. There is a Hiren's.BootCD..iso in there that you are going to need next.

Hiren's has instructions to make a bootable USB that you can use, but it requires you to first burn the .iso to a CD and some other steps, so I suggest another way...

Download RUFUS 1.20 from here (read some stuff on the page so you can know more about it):

http://rufus.akeo.ie/

I will caution you to be careful that you don't accidentally format any of your hard drives - be sure your USB stick is in and know what the drive letter is! This part always makes me a little nervous, so be careful.

Launch RUFUS and all the defaults should be okay, for the Device, choose your USB drive letter, Quick format, FAT32, label it if you want to and in the Format options box, click the little icon that looks like a CD and a window will open. Navigate that dialogue to point to the folder that contains the Hiren's.BootCD.15.iso that you unzipped earlier and the box should change to say ISO image (RUFUS understands the Hiren's ISO file).

Double check you have the right Device selected in the top (NOT you HDD) Click Start, acknowledge the warning and let it finish (it will take a little while) as it copies the files. The Hiren's ISO is also good size.

When RUFUS is done, it will say 'DONE' in the bottom.

Put the USB stick in the afflicted machine and reset/reboot and press whatever key you need to press to get to a boot menu where you can select the USB as the first boot device (that is F11 for me). If you don't see a boot menu choice, you will have to adjust your BIOS to boot from the USB first instead of the HDD.

When the Hiren's menu comes up, choose the Mini XP Mode and it will start loading (slowly from a USB drive) and eventually you should see a Windowsy looking desktop. You should recognize that part and feel comfortable, but it is not your desktop - it is the Hiren's desktop!

Remember: You did not boot on your hard disk - you booted into the Hiren's desktop

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http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/tp/recovery_console_commands.02.htm

 

Hi there Elizabeth, Thanks a million for this info

I have done exactly as you instructed and all has went well so far I have the USB drive prepared and have done as you said, I started the machine up with it, entered the Bios Set up and am now in system of blue screens with loads of settings

could you please tell me what to look for in order to Select the USB to be the primary boot device instead of the HD,

thanks

 

in fact an update I have now managed to change the settings to boot from the USB and have entered the Hirens boot cd 15.2 menu

I selected mini xp mode and it begins to load up however i receive the following message

File/ I386/SYSTEM32/NTKRNLMP/.EXE could not be loaded. The error code is 14

 

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

download to memtest 86+ you want to burn a cd for this to test your memory, test one stick of memory at a time

you should also check your harddrive, wht is make, model and model number of harddrive, there is probably a utility to check from the manufacturer.

all the searching has shown that this error is either memory or harddrive issues.

 

Hi there I did notice that the
one of the extra programmers in the hirensboot package was memtest86+, when I clicked this the programme started testing, quite a lot of jargon but i did notice it was logging several thousand adds under the "errors" section , and saying 0 passed.

my HD is a Hitachi Deskstar, Model HDT725032VLA360 it was a rather cheap one from pc world.

out of curiosity... if the problem is Hardware related like memory or ram, If i were to replace it, would I just attempt to boot it up in the same manor or would I need to take extra steps after connecting the new hardware

thanks

 

no if the hard drive is affected you would have to reinstall your os

memory should allow normal boot up. if it did not pass then it is faulty and you need to check the other memory stick if you have two, and you feel comfortable going into your pc. once several passes have been accomplished with memtest you can cancel, but all those errors seem to indicate a bad stick.

 

http://www.hgst.com/support/downloads/

this to test your harddrive,, evidently hitachi was bought out by western digital

 

hi elizabeth, ive had a little bit of progress here

i opend the tower took one ram stick out then retried the memtest86 loads of errors, however i decided to take that ram stick out and replace it with the other

mini xp has now loaded up and im on the xp looking desktop

can i assume this ram stick was the soul cause of my problems, and is there any steps i should now follow to get it up and running again
thanx


ps sorry for nagging you so much

 

when you replace your memory stick ensure it is the same as the other one.

1. see if your pc will boot up by itself now that you have removed the faulty memory,

2. if not run the recovery console thru hiren's with chkdsk c: /r

3. also, read the last link in my first reply to understand the commands fixboot and fixmbr as those should be run also.

4. on boot please give the exact error message if any and the complete stop message. if you get a blue screen

 

Hi there

Im delighted to say I think i have it now

I booted the system from the recovery CD, it formatted the partition, then begun to load windows, at the point it restarted I received a black screen error message saying Windows\System32\Hal.dll was missing or corrupt...

I followed an online tutorial how to repair this using the repair option in the recovery cd and comand prop (or something like that) what ever it was i went through a step by step process of commands etc then low and behold when i typed exit windows restarted and started loading up XP perfect, it completed and is working as if it is brand new.

I would like to thank you ever so much for your help, it is very much appreciated and has made me very happy. to think i had this PC sitting dormant for 2 year with no hope in it being repaired.

my last question is that I now plan to replace the lost and existing ram stick, I have looked at the specifications for my motherboard, the present ram stick it is using is a 512 DRR type, and was previously using 2 of these, I plan to update it to a pair of 1gb DRR's the specifications for my motherboard say it can handle up to 3GB, do you think this will run ok. And am I correct in saying that to install this ram I only need to unplug the computer and replace the sticks then power back on, or is there specific settings I must change etc.

and finally is there any steps I can take with this PC, the fact it uses XP home edition which is obviously outdated, is there steps to prevent modern programs or updates corrupting my system and over straining it etc to prevent further blue screen disasters.

once again thanks ever so much

 

for the stick replacements I would get them from the manufacturer of your pc, I use 2 each of 2gb sticks for my pc which is a dell

xp can handle up to 3.5 anything else is a waste

I have a 39gb drive and only use 12 gb with office and several programs loaded so my system is running ok

here is a link to download sp3 as you need that before windows update will work:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=24
Service pack 3 download

if you give me the make, model and model number of your pc, I can find an online manual which will show you the steps to replace the memory sticks, but yes, it is pretty simple

1. turn off pc
2. unplug from the wall
3. hold power button down for five seconds
4. discharge yourself by touching metal case releasing any static charge
5. remove stick
6. place new stick in , make sure it snaps down and clips close securely without pushing, be careful not to touch the stick except at the edges
7. close up , plug in and restart, your new memory should be found by windows and integrated automatically, mine was,

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support ends in april 2014, but all previous updates will still be available, just no new ones will be issued.
to overcome this you can use a sandbox environment that locks the internet away from your harddrive so nothing can enter, but you would have to disable the sandbox to download anything.

I run Microsoft security essentials in realtime and Malwarebytes Anti-Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware, as on demand scanners, both are free as is MSE, and so far so good

If you practice sensible surfing habits and keep your scanners up to date and scan frequently then you have a good chance of keeping anything bad off your pc.

One program I have that you might like is WOT, the web of trust is a toolbar that shows whether a site is good or bad and you can even send in your own rating of the site if you find a bad one. here is the link:

http://www.mywot.com/

and if you keep your programs up to date and keep downloading the latest updates to your various programs this helps keep malware out also, I use Secunia for this and will let me know when a program is out of date since I can never remember to check myself, here is the link where you can read about it:

http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

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post back with any other questions.

 

http://uk.ts.fujitsu.com/rl/servicesupport/techsupport/consumer/accessories/Manual_uk.pdf

your manual is pdf form so you must have adobe reader or foxit reader installed.

 

thanks for all that info and links I will check them all out and am looking forward to reusing XP

those manuals will come in very handy im surprised I never received any of these with the pc.

so im assuming when I eventually connect this computer to the net again it will want to update quite a large quantity of data after I update the SP3 etc,

I dont know why but i have always been paranoid over windows update etc I think its because I was frequent user of windows movie maker on XP then I remember once after some adobe update windows movie maker would no longer save movies and after a small amount of research it seemed it was something to do with the update changing codecs or something.

but no doubt if I had kept everything else up to date like you say this would not have happened,

 

there are approx 170 updates, just keep updating and restarting until no more are offered, do not install any optional updates unless a Rootkit update is offered, and do not update any hardware offered, just do high priority updates and the optional rootkit updates.

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after high priority, then if you choose to do any optional such as silverlight or windows live essentials, then you can do so.

 

thanks that sounds easy enough to follow.

Iv noticed each time when I start the PC up, before loading XP it asks me to choose which version of windows I want to run, each times there are 2 options both exact same saying Windows XP home edition...

im guessing this is a backlash of when i had to repair the corrupt file whilst installing because I was asked at the last point to type in "windows xp home edition"

 

as said the first option of xp loads no problem. I tried selecting the second option of windows XP and it fails to load saying the same thing as the problem I repaired ie Windows\System32\Hal.dll is missing or corrupt, im guessing i must have created a second boot choice or something when I done the repair ... here is the link to the repair tutorial i followed http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330184

is there a way of removing this choice menu from start up (not that it is causing me any bother)

 

you can go to start, run, type in msconfig and press enter, go to the boot.ini tab, click the button to check all boot paths and answer yes it will remove the extra boot option, however it will not clear it off the harddrive, this happens when a parallel install is done and not wiping the drive, if you need the space later on you can use partition magic to add tht partition to your main c drive.

 

lol soz for posting AGAIN

just have to update my last message,
Your teaching has made me rather confident in attempting to research and repair problems..

I have done so on the above and used the tutorial on how to edit the Boot.ini file, and remove the second option of XP.. I saved my origonal boot settings in a folder etc, then removed the second problematic XP option from the Boot ini text

I then saved and shut down the computer and on start up i now do not receive this option and windows starts properly without prompting me to choose which system. everything seems ok .

 

okay, you seem good to go so far.

Start a new thread if you have any future issues.