I have been without a computer for 3 weeks, and I still can't figure out what is wrong with it. It was completely fine one day and then the next, I turned it on and I got the error; windows/systemroot/ntoskrnl.exe file is missing or corrupt. My brother who works on computers for a living, told me that he thought the IDE controller was bad. I disabled that, and put in a new one. Now, I have no power. I can't turn it on or nothing. It is not the power supply as I just replaced that this year in May. I was able to turn it on but just kept getting that error. I tried using a boot disk from Knoppix that he gave me, and that didn't even work. I am at the library typing this so not sure when I will be able to get any responses unless I can get it up an running. The only thing next that I am thinking is either the processor, or the Motherboard. Any help anyone can give would be appreciated. I am extremely frustrated, as you can imagine, and I'm tired of not being able to use our computer.

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So, does this machine actually turn on and have you got a Windows or Recovery disk to hand?

Can you get into the BIOS?

Any error beeps?

Are all unnecessary peripherals uplugged? Indeed, what happens if you try booting with nothing in except the mains? Make sure you unplug the mains for a while when trying that test.

Is the boot sequence correct if the machine wouldn't boot from the Knoppix disk?

What exactly happens when you turn it on? Anything? Or nothing?

If anyone calls with this problem (or one similar) where I work the first line of attack for us is usually to get a full recovery done as soon as possible, then - if it yields a working machine - run some diags on HDD and RAM.

I'm surprised you attacked it the way you did. Disabling things on a machine which is clearly telling you the current problem at least is on the HDD (missing or corrupt file) is heading off in a different direction.

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