Argh! What a way to start a new year. XP

[Arithorn]

Hi all, and Happy 2002!
Not so happy for me: I went to take a shower this morning after being on the computer for a couple of minutes, and when I got back WinXP Pro was on a BSOD, one of those new fancy ones with
"Windows has been stopped blah blah blah and a 'dumping core memory'"
message at the bottom. Thinking nothing of it, I restarted, and have been trying to get into Windows ever since. Every time I try to start it up normally, it either gets a blue screen and suddenly restarts, or it runs diskdoctor, and says
"Invalid page fault blah blah blah", and procedes to "deleting corrupt attribute record (128, "") from file record segment XXXX"
and hangs after deleting about 10 of those. Right now it's on an endless boot up/restart sequence while I'm writing this. Running safe mode with any sort of options leads to a hang and restart, and choosing the last good settings has the same result as starting normally.

I'm at my wits end, and have no idea what to do. The only thing I changed was running tweak UI to change the autologon sequence (as it had two spaces instead of a blank password field). I hadn't changed any drivers, installed anything, or deleted anything. It's a 1.33tbird, Epox8k7a, 512mb Crucial DDR, Geforce2 Pro, Soundblaster MP3+ heat is stable at 37*C. I tried running windows recovery from the winXP Pro CD, but it asks for a system administrator password, and doesn't accept my password (which is to hit the enter key!).
Help!
Thanks in advance,

 

[Arithorn]

Now windows says that ntfs.sys is missing when I start up (this is after I removed one of my ram Dimms on a hunch). What does that mean? And why does the repair facility on the disk not let me enter in my password? Is there a default? Thanks

 

[BDawg]

Is your machine created from a disk image (ie Compaq, Gateway, Dell, etc)? If so, you have to run another setup program before Recovery Console will accept a password.

This happened to me and my Compaq laptop. I just found it easier to get a copy of an XP CD from a friend so I can run recovery console from CD when I need to.

 

[Arithorn]

Ok, this gets weirder and weirder: I put both 256mb dimms in, and now it tells me a DIFFERENT .sys file is missing. When I only have 256 in, the computer just goes on a rebooting cycle. I don't have a windows floppy other than 98, so I can't access any of the info on my main drive, which is NTFS rather than Fat32. Where can I get a boot disk for Win XP Pro?

 

[Arithorn]

No Bdawg, this is a self-built system and win Xp was installed onto a fresh NTFS partition. Any ideas?

 

[BDawg]

I would try automated system recovery from the CD. Then I would try repair console from the CD.

 

[spamsk8r]

Is your system overclocked? If so that might be the problem, I've had that happen to me

 

[JellyBaby]

Check the hard drive cabling and make sure everything is secure. Don't overclock and see what happens. Replace the memory and see what happens. Reformat and reinstall XP and see what happens.

 

[Arithorn]

Haha.. well, update: I pulled the newer of the two crucial dimms, and reinstalled XP. In the middle of a disk check after XP had installed, the thing restarted on me, and now tells me AGAIN that NTFS.sys isn't there. When I put the other 256mb stick in, it just reboots.
The computer is not overclocked in any way. This is still puzzling me.. I don't want to reformat my partition because I have quite a bit of stuff I haven't been able to back up.

 

[Aenygma]

Welcome to XP. I have it on 2 machines and it has done nothing but cause headaches. You will get it eventually tho... hang in there.

 

[extro]

Sounds like some part of the hardware went bad.

Looks like you've ruled out the memory being the culprit, now it's trial and error time for the rest of it.