missing Kernel.dll etc. etc. !!! no boot!!

[sweeper2]

about 2 months ago i put in a 30 gig HD and 2 new sticks of pc133 128mg =256mg
into a compaq pavalion system with a 500 mhz celeron. He was having problems with his system not working correctly, slow starts, windows 98 would hang etc.
Well last night he said his pc was all of a sudden going in a loop, shutting down andrestarting with an error of "no administator password or password corrupt", something onlong those lines, so, i tried, got around that, then it said missing Kernel.dll boot file. It restarted again then went into a blue screen with a bunch of codes i couldn't recognize. so i put in the win xp pro cd, booted from it, tried the repair and it said it couldn't load a certain driver and rebooted again. while rebooting i noticed the hd showed up, but it said 0 allocations/maxtor (model #'s) during the boot up while everything else showed up correctly like the 256mg ram/cd-rom etc. Then i tried another repair, only now saying it tried before, i could try again, so i did and the blue screen popped up during the repair showing more codes etc.
So i booted into safe mode, and it got to safe mode, then restarted again(didn't show desktop icons or anything, just the safe mode logos around the screen).
So i did a chkdsk and as soon as it started ,..the Blue screen again.

MY theory on this is i think it is a currupt HD or bad HD, So before i format and start from scratch, any other possibilities??? sry for long post, but thought i should put in everything i did. Help?

edit "also i might add, he said his daughter and freind were on it printing up a fathers day card from a web site and after that he went up to pay his bills and it was corrupt" Possible virus?? Could it wipe a HD ? He had an anti virus running? he also uses DSL cable internet access.

[phlatline]

I don't know of any virus that would cause. Could be a bad HD.
Have you tried Power Max? It's a utility disk that's saved my butt more than once. You can pick up the download for this at http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/dow...m?powermax.exe
Let me know if this helps.

[Elburn]

I had a similar problem on my old win98 SE box. One day out of nowhere I couldn't do anything because of the kernel error. I had to reformat the drive and reinstall windows.

-Elburn

[sweeper2]

Thanks for the replys....i am dreading the reformat if i have to. I will try out the disk first to see what happens...just got home from work..i will return later with answers or more questions....thanks

[Smidley]

Best to start from scratch, IMO. I hope important stuff is backed up...

[sweeper2]

nope....his pc was working fine for the past few months..he is a newbie I guess you would say to pc's. He said it just went kuput and started doing loops, starting and restarting, never getting to windows. Then files started missing etc. I did notice an awfull lot of heat comming from the back of his case (only 1 fan PSU). I did do a very good clean job on it before i put in the new ram and HD a few months ago, so it shouldn't be that dirty. Could the PSU have something to do with it or the heat inside the case??

[sweeper2]

I don't know of any virus that would cause. Could be a bad HD.
Have you tried Power Max? It's a utility disk that's saved my butt more than once. You can pick up the download for this at http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/dow...m?powermax.exe
Let me know if this helps.

okay, i did the Power Max check, HD 30gig maxter is fine, ran the quick and long test, both passed, i can get into formating the HD, then i get into the loading the neccessary files (using winxp pro cd). then it starts copying files to HD and that's when i get the errors of (can't copy "....files", hit enter to retry, same, so i hit esc to skip the file, it goes awhile loading files, then it hits another file (same error) then goes into blue screen saying check HDware/software etc. I tried another HD that worked, same, i even switched the cd-r to see if it would load up win xp.

Now seems like the win xp cd is messed up or something, it hits certain files that says it can't load them everytime.??

what's up ? anyone help me out here. do i have to get another win xp pro cd?

[Fr4gm4n]

It sounds like the disk is scratched/marked in some way

Steve.

[sweeper2]

It sounds like the disk is scratched/marked in some way

Steve.

I tried a different Win XP pro cd and still same thing, blue screen 1/4 way through loading of win files..

blue screen saying a bunch of codes and windows shut down as not to harm pc etc....

why won't it allow windows to load files? it allows for format, create new partition, setup, then when it starts to load files that's when the blue screen comes up? could it be a bad ide cable or bad MB?

tried diferent HD's and cd drives all do the same?

HELP

[sweeper2]

ok, so i put in a new IDE cable, different HD, different cd-r and different win xp pro disc. still, won't allow win xp to copy files to windows folder. hits certain files and then says it can't load them, then enters into blue screen

allocation error, load-page-fault ???

anyone have anysuggestions, I gave up on the pc as i do not know what else to do. I can't tell the person to start buying parts after parts...so i will leave this thread going for awhile to see if i can get some answers from you guys/gals..

thanks

[pickel]

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...&downloadID=58

Try this, might fix the drive

[sweeper2]

ok I will give a try, thanks

[sweeper2]

ok, another update...I thought the win xp cd was bad, so i tried another on the pc, same thing, won't allow a full copy of files...so, i had to put in a new MB in my daughters pc (another story), so i used same win xp cd...worked perfect..no problems...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaa


so on the messed up unit
tried:
different HD
different IDE cable
different cd-r
different win xp cd

still won't allow full copy of setup files...?????
could the MB be bad? This has be baffled..never have run into this problem?
could this board need a bios flash??1999 bios? didn't have to do a bios flash before when i set it up with new hd etc 2 months ago?
any suggestions again would be greatfull
thanks