My PC.

[sparkyminer]

My computer won't start at all. I put in the XP disc to try and reload the system and I realised I could attempt a repair. To cut to the chase, it now when I try and start it, this message comes up. 'Windows cannot start, System32\DRIVERS\pci.sys is missing or corrupted. Use the original start up disk to repair it'
The question is how?

[bigcumba]

I see Glos is on the case already :)

[Elbarto]

I think if memory serves me right you can reinstall windows over the current version without losing any of your files. (I may be wrong on this and please correct me if anyone thinks i am)

What i think you need to do is go into the bios by hitting the key "F8" or "F12" when you first switch on your pc, then you need to change the boot up order so that your cd/dvd drive is top of the list, put in the xp disc itll ask you to reboot then it should load the windows setup, at this stage i think (and i stress the THINK part) that you can reinstall windows or attempt a repair. I messed up my system last year and had to do this, you can try a repair or reinstall xp again.

DONT TRY THIS TILL SOMEONE ELSE MORE TECHY CONFIRMS MY THOUGHTS

[sparkyminer]

I've done that Elbarto. It was that which told me what file was faulty. It's the next bit I need, how to get the good file from the disc into the PC.

[GlosRFC]

Well, I'll see what I can do. This is what I'd try first:

Open up a command prompt window and then navigate to the System 32\DRIVERS\ directory. You will probably start in C:\Documents and Settings\General User> so, at the prompt just type CD C:\windows\system32\drivers and press return. The prompt should change to reflect that you're now in this directory.

Now insert your XP CD and type D: (or whatever the drive letter of your CD is) and hit return. The prompt will now change to show that you're reading the CD. Now type CD i386 and return and the prompt will change to show that you're in the i386 directory.

If you do a directory listing by typing DIR PCI*.* you should see a file called PCI.SY_ listed. If so, type copy PCI.SY_ C: and hit return. Now go back to your C: drive by typing C: and return.

You can now remove the old file by typing ren PCI.SYS PCI.OLD and hitting return. Then rename the SY_ file by typing ren PCI.SY_ PCI.SYS and pressing return. Reboot and see if it works. If it does, you can use the command prompt to go back to the drivers directory as above and then delete the damaged PCI driver by typing del PCI.OLD and hitting return.

[Elbarto]

I've done that Elbarto. It was that which told me what file was faulty. It's the next bit I need, how to get the good file from the disc into the PC.

Right so the only thing i can think of is if you search the pc you are currently on copy it to a floppy, start up you bangjacksed pc in dos mode and copy the file over into the required folder.

Ill have to have a think and try and remember how to copy and paste files in dos mode

[GlosRFC]

Ill have to have a think and try and remember how to copy and paste files in dos mode

See my earlier post :D

[sparkyminer]

Open up a command prompt window and then navigate to the System 32\DRIVERS\ directory. You will probably start in C:\Documents and Settings\General User> so, at the prompt just type CD C:\windows\system32\drivers and press return. The prompt should change to reflect that you're now in this directory.



Err, how do I do that Glos?

[Elbarto]

See my earlier post :D

Just have you out posted me by two minutes. God im definitely reliving my youth (and im only 20) by remembering the days of Dos. Do you remember the old "Cub" or "BBC" computers that took the 5.5 inch floppy disks. Ah the good old days when viruses where something you went to the doctor to get medicine for and the only trojans we knew of was the trojan horse of troy.

[GlosRFC]

Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories and it should be listed there

[sparkyminer]

Just have you out posted me by two minutes. God im definitely reliving my youth (and im only 20) by remembering the days of Dos. Do you remember the old "Cub" or "BBC" computers that took the 5.5 inch floppy disks. Ah the good old days when viruses where something you went to the doctor to get medicine for and the only trojans we knew of was the trojan horse of troy.
Bugger memory lane. Let's sort my PC out. :D

[sparkyminer]

Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories and it should be listed there
Windows won't start mate. :geek

[Elbarto]

Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories and it should be listed there


But he cant start windows i think. In which case boot the pc up to install windows go into the repair the file piece and if memory serves me right it will put you in a command prompt. From there i think you can follow Glos's instructions on what to do

[Elbarto]

Bugger memory lane. Let's sort my PC out. :D

Quote of the day for me!!

[GlosRFC]

Just have you out posted me by two minutes. God im definitely reliving my youth (and im only 20) by remembering the days of Dos. Do you remember the old "Cub" or "BBC" computers that took the 5.5 inch floppy disks. Ah the good old days when viruses where something you went to the doctor to get medicine for and the only trojans we knew of was the trojan horse of troy.

My first PC was a Sirius 1 (or Victor 9000) back in 1980. Came supplied with an 8035 4 Mhz processor, a 12" monitor, and both MS-DOS 1.0 and CPM/86. It had twin 5.25" inch single-sided floppy drives that only stored 600kb, 16kb ROM and 128kb RAM. Cost close to £3000 new and upgrading it to 640kb Ram cost another £5000!!

[sparkyminer]

But he cant start windows i think. In which case boot the pc up to install windows go into the repair the file piece and if memory serves me right it will put you in a command prompt. From there i think you can follow Glos's instructions on what to do
I did that but it kept saying it was an invalid command prompt. I think I may have buggered something up 'cos' I've just asked it to try and repair the installation and it's now copying setup files. It didn't do that before. :yikes: I've probably pressed the wrong button some where. :geek

[GlosRFC]

Quite right. When you boot up off your CD you will be able to select a start-up mode that provides a command prompt.

Failing that, select Safe Mode and then follow my instructions.

[sparkyminer]

Quote of the day for me!!
It helps to retain a sense of humour. It makes the old firm threads bearable. :rolleyes: :)

[GlosRFC]

I did that but it kept saying it was an invalid command prompt. I think I may have buggered something up 'cos' I've just asked it to try and repair the installation and it's now copying setup files. It didn't do that before. :yikes: I've probably pressed the wrong button some where. :geek

If it's copying the setup files, that's not a bad sign. It means that a) windows has loaded successfully and b) it recognises the existence of your hard drive.

If you ask me you probably buggered it up by pressing the wrong button the first time you tried to run the repair option :D

[Elbarto]

My first PC was a Sirius 1 (or Victor 9000) back in 1980. Came supplied with an 8035 4 Mhz processor, a 12" monitor, and both MS-DOS 1.0 and CPM/86. It had twin 5.25" inch single-sided floppy drives that only stored 600kb, 16kb ROM and 128kb RAM. Cost close to £3000 new and upgrading it to 640kb Ram cost another £5000!!

Ouch thats a fair whack of money especially back then. Well at the moment im waiting for my new PC parts to arrive to build my new PC. Itll be a Pentium 4, 3.0Ghz 2MB Cache, 250 Gb S-ATA Hard Drive with 16mb Cache, 256 graphics card, and 2Gb of Ram all for €900 including delivery. All i gotta do is put it together

[sparkyminer]

Quite right. When you boot up off your CD you will be able to select a start-up mode that provides a command prompt.

Failing that, select Safe Mode and then follow my instructions.
It dont start in any of them Glos. It gets to a certain point and gives the message about the 'system32\DRIVERS\pci.sys' being missing or corrupted.

[sparkyminer]

If it's copying the setup files, that's not a bad sign. It means that a) windows has loaded successfully and b) it recognises the existence of your hard drive.

If you ask me you probably buggered it up by pressing the wrong button the first time you tried to run the repair option :D
More than likely. :wink :geek :)
It's copying the files to the 'Windows Installation folders' though! :yikes:

[sparkyminer]

It's now initializing my Windows XP configuration. :yikes:

[Elbarto]

Its at this point that i would be quite tempted to just reinstall windows and remember not to go messing with xp again

[GlosRFC]

Sit back, relax, and let it copy.

In the meantime, take a look at this link http://www.computerhope.com/boot.htm#71 to see how to go about making both an ms-dos boot up disk (so you can boot straight into the command prompt next time you have a problem) and then download the appropriate file from Microsoft to create bootable Windows XP floppies.

[GlosRFC]

It's now initializing my Windows XP configuration. :yikes:

It will now do one of two things - either reinstall the original settings you had or else do a completely new install.

There is a third thing it could do but we won't dwell on that for the moment!

[sparkyminer]

Its at this point that i would be quite tempted to just reinstall windows and remember not to go messing with xp again
I think that's what has happened.
I've got the installation window up. It's asking for file 'asms' on Windows XP home edition service pack 2 cd.
Type the path where the file is located, and then click OK.

Underneath is a drop down box that says copy files from:
GLOBALROOT\DEVICE\CDROM0\I386

My mouse has gone and there's like a green bar scrolling across the bottom right hand side of the screen.
And guess who hasn't backed up his data this week. ;fire

[sparkyminer]

It will now do one of two things - either reinstall the original settings you had or else do a completely new install.

There is a third thing it could do but we won't dwell on that for the moment!
I think it's doing the latter. :wiggle: The third option sounds scary. :)

[GlosRFC]

As soon as it restarts Windows, do a virus check - specifically for the Klez worm or one of its variants. That's known to deliberately corrupt the pci.sys file.

Even if it's done a new installation of Windows it might simply have overwritten the existing system files - leaving all your data files intact. It doesn't sound as though it's done a clean format or you wouldn't have reported back so quickly.

If your PC has done a new installation, then all is well and there's no need to reinstall the pci.sys file from the CD as it would have done that for you. You might have to press ignore when it asks for SP1 or 2 files but you can download them again from the Windows site.

Your mouse has "gone" because Windows didn't install the mouse driver when it started. It will have copied over a generic mouse driver to start next time your PC boots but, until that happens, you won't have one.

[Elbarto]

Wait a minute before you go installing XP again. If you have your profile in XP password protected you wont be able to access it again namely "My Documents" . Or at least thats what happened to me when i reinstalled xp what ever way i set up my profile it was lost on the pc and the folder with all My Documents was locked away in my old profile and i cant get at it.
Glos you dont by chance know if there is any way of getting at it do you

[GlosRFC]

Here's how to get round the ASM error message:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;311755&Product=winxp

[sparkyminer]

I'm beginning to suspect a virus. My daughter was on Sims and she turns the AV off when she's playing. I think, she decided to go online and forgot to turn it back on.

The CD I'm using to re-boot has SP2 included.

[GlosRFC]

Wait a minute before you go installing XP again. If you have your profile in XP password protected you wont be able to access it again namely "My Documents" . Or at least thats what happened to me when i reinstalled xp what ever way i set up my profile it was lost on the pc and the folder with all My Documents was locked away in my old profile and i cant get at it.
Glos you dont by chance know if there is any way of getting at it do you

Yes :)

[Elbarto]

Yes :)


How?? :doh

[sparkyminer]

I cancelled the request and it said a fatal error had occurred one of the elements needed to contine setup has not been installedand turned off. I've restarted and it's said setup is continuing and asked for the same file again.

[GlosRFC]

Okay, here's how.

When you reinstall Windows, it creates a new account with a new Security Identification Number. That SID will be different so you won't be able to access any of the files created with the old SID. However, if you have administrative rights, which you should if you own the CD, you can access it:

XP HOME:
First start in Safe Mode and log on with an account that has Administrative rights.

HOME AND PRO:
You need to take ownership of the folders. Right-click the folder, select properties. Go to the security tab and click advanced. You can take control of the folders on the owner tab. For the security tab to appear in a WinXP Pro system, you must disable simple file sharing in the control panel/folder options/view tab.

This provides a more detailed overview http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308421

[GlosRFC]

I cancelled the request and it said a fatal error had occurred one of the elements needed to contine setup has not been installedand turned off. I've restarted and it's said setup is continuing and asked for the same file again.

Did you follow the advice in the microsoft link I posted? http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;311755&Product=winxp

Method three may well apply as I suspect the ASM folder is on the original XP disc.

[sparkyminer]

It's not password protected.
I've got an original XP disc if you think it would be better to use that.

[sparkyminer]

Did you follow the advice in the microsoft link I posted? http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;311755&Product=winxp

Method three may well apply as I suspect the ASM folder is on the original XP disc.
Yes I'm doing it now.

[Elbarto]

Okay, here's how.

When you reinstall Windows, it creates a new account with a new Security Identification Number. That SID will be different so you won't be able to access any of the files created with the old SID. However, if you have administrative rights, which you should if you own the CD, you can access it:

XP HOME:
First start in Safe Mode and log on with an account that has Administrative rights.

HOME AND PRO:
You need to take ownership of the folders. Right-click the folder, select properties. Go to the security tab and click advanced. You can take control of the folders on the owner tab. For the security tab to appear in a WinXP Pro system, you must disable simple file sharing in the control panel/folder options/view tab.

This provides a more detailed overview http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308421


Ok i am about to try that now but quick question if the original account had Administrative Rights also will this affect my wish to copy over the files?

[GlosRFC]

No, because you now have the administrative rights too. You can do whatever you like but you just won't be able to read encrypted files.

Sparky, using an original Windows XP disk should do the trick.

[sparkyminer]

Talking of which, none of the above have worked.:(

[GlosRFC]

We'll have to continue tomorrow as I'm up early...back at work and all that jazz now!

I'll have a think and see if we can resolve it. If you can get into Windows at all, I'd just send you the pci.sys file.

[sparkyminer]

Cheers mate. I'll continue trying to re-install.
Just a quickie.
Do I install on top of the old one.. DElete the partition or create a new partition.

[GlosRFC]

If you delete the old partition you will lose all of your prvious stuff....if you create a new partition, you will take up more space on your hard disk. If you get the choice, install over the old one as it should only copy over the files it has on the CD into the old partition, leaving your data files intact.

[sparkyminer]

Cheers mate.

[Elbarto]

Wahey just finished de passwording the old files thanks very much Glos for all the help. Take some reputation for all the help

[silax]

ok i have a cunning plan
rught you are speaking to us so one of your pc's is fine.
right now take the faulty one to work with you tomorrow leave it in the pit a bit hidden some one else will find it and well now its there problem.

[sparkyminer]

I'm on my laptop. And you're obviously on something very strong.:D

[Win2Win]

All I ever do is boot on the Windows XP disk (just done this to fix the kids comp), wait for the blue screen menu......Then select to Install by pressing Enter.

When it gets to the screen that says 'You already have a version of Windows Installed', and it lists it at the bottom of the screen, it gives you the option to Reinstall, or Repair. Select REPAIR, and it'll reinstall it leaving your current version with it's settings.

Failing that, do the above again, but select INSTALL instead of Repair.

If those two fail, you'll need to do a clean install, and then copy your Favs, Desktop, Documents, etc to the new user folder it creates.

[sparkyminer]

I've done all that and it's re-installed. All my old files are still on the pc, but I can't find them. I'm not sure if I've got Service pack 2 installed. The busy bar at start-up is a sort of pee- greeny yellowy colour whereas it used to be blue. And every now and again the mouse freezes, and does like doorbell on mogadon noise, double clunk thingy.:(

[Win2Win]

Old files are in Documents & Settings

[sparkyminer]

Cheers.
Any idea on the mouse noise?

[Win2Win]

Delete the mouse driver ...Control Panel>System>Hardware, and reboot. This usually happens when it clashes with something else.

[sparkyminer]

I definitely haven't got SP2, but when I got to the microsoft website it says all my system is up to date?

[Win2Win]

Get it here http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/xpsp2.html

[sparkyminer]

Cheers again mate.

[Elbarto]

Bloody typical all the PC parts arrive today, yet one half of the case at the back is smashed in so i cant set up my new pc, sent off photos and everything to the company i bought the parts from and still waiting for a response

[Win2Win]

I'm waiting on loads of parts to upgrade mine to a dual processor this week, then move the AMD 64 from mine to the spare, from the spare to the kids, then spread the leftovers arounf the family!!

[sparkyminer]

Well, I think I'm back up and running. Still getting a new one though.:)
Thanks for all the help chaps. Very much appreciated.:)

[GlosRFC]

Good to know.

[sparkyminer]

Me and my big gob. My mouse is doing the double clunk thingy again.:(

[Win2Win]

Give it some cheese.....

[sparkyminer]

::swear ::swear ::swear
Just got the bloody thing working correctly on Wednesday. Wednesday night, lightning strike took the f :censored: ing thing out again. Keith and Glos are going to come on now and preach about surge divertors and mains protection etc, etc. I know, I know ;fire I can't even use the argument about,'It always happens to someone else.' In the last 10 years lightning strikes have cost me 2 aerials, 3 tv's, 1 video, 1 satellite system and now a computer. You really think I'd learn wouldn't you! :geek :yikes: You'd think my insurance company would insist on it. :rolleyes: :wiggle:

[Win2Win]

You can get a surge protector for less than a fiver form Argos :D

[sparkyminer]

You can get a surge protector for less than a fiver form Argos :D
Yes and you know what you can do with it. :D

[Win2Win]

Vegy your KY is required :D