Member Avatar for RTB61185

Hello all:

I have been having trouble our home PC. We recently hooked it up to the Internet for a few days without a firewall or any virus protection out of obligation. Stupid move. The computer began running slower and slower as it had come down with several viruses. I ran Ad-Aware SE Personal and another virus program...I believe it was called Watchdog. Anyhow, everything seemed to be in working order. The computer was running at normal speed again, so I shut down the computer and left it overnight. The next morning, I turned on the power switch, and a black screen was displayed saying something to the effect of "A fatal error has occured," and it gave me 4 options:
1) Boot in safe mode
2) Boot in safe mode with networking
3) Boot in safe mode with command prompt
4) Restore computer settings to last working configuration

No matter which of the 4 options I choose, it begins loading what appear to be the drivers and stops. I'm rather confused. The only thing I can think of is that maybe one of the drivers was deleted while running the virus scans? I know that is probably a 1 in a trillion chance, but it's the only feasible idea I can come up with. What should I do? Should I reset the BIOS? Reload Windows? Any ideas would be much appreciated

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

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The symptom set reported by — an off-line malware cleanup followed by the F8 “Advanced Boot Options” menu and a hang while listing drivers — most commonly indicates one of three things: critical Windows system files or registry hives were damaged or replaced during the infection/cleanup, an early-start driver/service is crashing, or the disk has file-system or physical errors. Safe Mode stopping at the driver list and “Last Known Good” failing make simple driver-order problems less likely and push the diagnosis toward corrupted system files, a compromised Winlogon/csrss process (STOP c000021a in a related post on this thread), or disk damage.

Recommended sequence (non-destructive first):

  • Power down and disconnect the PC from the network and any nonessential peripherals to avoid further damage or spreading malware.

  • Make a sector-level image of the drive before repair attempts (an image preserves recoverable data and lets later attempts be retried safely).

  • Do an offline scan: remove the drive, connect it as a secondary (or in a USB enclosure) to a known-clean machine with autorun disabled, and run up-to-date antivirus + on-demand anti-malware scanners. This is the safer alternative to repeatedly booting the infected machine (echoing ’s suggestion).

  • From a Windows XP CD, use Recovery Console and run:

    chkdsk /r
fixboot c:
fixmbr
exit

    chkdsk fixes file-system problems; fixboot/fixmbr repair the boot area if corrupted.

  • If disk repair doesn’t help, perform a Windows XP in-place Repair Install (boot from CD, press Enter, then R to repair). That preserves programs and user data but requires reinstalling service packs/updates. Note: a Repair Install can leave malware in place if system files were trojanized, so prefer the offline scan/image step first.

  • If Repair fails or malware persists, restore data from the image and perform a clean install.

A few practical cautions tied to earlier replies: waiting for Safe Mode to finish is reasonable (), but multi-hour stalls indicate a real hang; OEM “Advanced Recovery” (F10, ) often wipes the partition — backup first; and while a reformat is sometimes necessary (), data-first rescue and offline scanning reduce the risk of losing important files. After recovery, fully patch Windows, install a current AV + firewall, and keep regular image backups.

Recommended Answers

All 12 Replies

Member Avatar for zelkea

It sounds like you need to reinstall windows. If you have data on the system you need you can take the hard drive out and put into another computer. BUT, be very careful only grab the data you need and scan for viruses before you access the attached drive. If you are not familiar with master/slave and hooking up a hard drive you can pick up an external hard drive case pretty cheap. http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=92

AJZ

Member Avatar for goldeagle2005

Wait a sec...does the list of drivers being loaded display on screen? If this is true, your system is starting up in safe mode. When doing this, after loading some drivers, the system does appear as though nothing is happening, while it is. Don't worry. Let the boot process continue. If after 5-10 minutes too nothing happens, restart the computer.

Member Avatar for RTB61185

If I choose any of the first 3 options, it displays the list of drivers on the screen and hangs endlessly. I let it sit for approximately 3 hours in hopes it would finally catch and boot, but it stays on the list of drivers screen. If I choose option #4--Restore computer settings to last working configuration--it goes to a black screen and stays there. I can't get any of the typical buttons (F2, F8, F10, or delete) to let me have access to anything, so when I restart the computer, it starts the whole process over again...4 options leading to the same screens. Any ideas?

Member Avatar for 'Stein

I hate to say it, but I think reformat is the only other option. ;)

Member Avatar for patrickahla

Have you tried Advanced recovery?If you have not .Restart you pc and press F10.And do the advanced recovery.If that doesn't work.Un plug your pc,and remove your ps's battery.Let it sat for about 10 minutes,then in stall the battery,and plug it in.
Then check if it will re start.
If it does not restart.Then try to do the advanced recovery.
The only thing I don't like about advanced recovery,Is you will need to down load all the microsoft updates.
That takes alot of time.

Member Avatar for 04ayasin

when i press f10 the following message appears
"Stop c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The session Manager Initialization process terminated unexpectedly with status of (0x00000000 0x00000000) The system has been shutdown

Does anyone know how i can resolve this error

Member Avatar for zelkea

04Ayasin,
You should start a new post, this thread is almost a year old. BTW you might want to add more information to your post if you would like a response i.e. OS, when the system hangs, any errors in event viewer, etc, etc.....

Member Avatar for perky1202

Hello all,
I am a newbie here and fairly new to pc repairs etc, I have been given an Intel Pentium desktop pc that won't fully boot up. It gets to the verifying pool data screen and shortly after that the system just dies and attempts to reboot again and again.

I just don't have a clue what to do with it can anyone help, the OS is windows XP home ed.

Thanks Kevin

Member Avatar for Jupiter 2

Windows XPHome Edition must be registered within 30 days (maybe 45 days). If you do not register, something bad will happen. Maybe this is the bad thing?

I suggest you set your CD Drive to boot drive, insert your setup disk and UPGRADE. Keep the same format. Don't change anything. Don't format. Just Upgrade. You don't lose any files except maybe audio and video drivers. During the setup process it will check for existing Video and audio but sometimes these files get deleted when a computer crashes. If so, it will boot in VgaSafe Video mode.

When you finally get to desktop, you can load your drivers, if required.

Member Avatar for perky1202

Windows XPHome Edition must be registered within 30 days (maybe 45 days). If you do not register, something bad will happen. Maybe this is the bad thing?

I suggest you set your CD Drive to boot drive, insert your setup disk and UPGRADE. Keep the same format. Don't change anything. Don't format. Just Upgrade. You don't lose any files except maybe audio and video drivers. During the setup process it will check for existing Video and audio but sometimes these files get deleted when a computer crashes. If so, it will boot in VgaSafe Video mode.

When you finally get to desktop, you can load your drivers, if required.

Hi thanks for your message. but its fully registered version and has been registered with microsoft already. but thanks again

Member Avatar for perky1202

Hi thanks for your message. but its fully registered version and has been registered with microsoft already. but thanks again

Member Avatar for caperjack

Hi thanks for your message. but its fully registered version and has been registered with microsoft already. but thanks again

ok, but you can still run the repair install suggested

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