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Missing or corrupt file (1 Viewer)

Keith Dickinson

Well-known member
Opus Editor
Hi I'm looking for a bit of help. My wife's laptop has developed a fault and will not start up. It goes into the scan screen with the white blocks across the screen, as though windows hadn't been shut down correctly, and then brings up the message.
Windows cannot start because this file is missing or corrupt

system32\drivers\pci.sys

You can repair the file by running the original CD Rom and selecting repair, unfortunately the laptop didn't have a CD Rom, there is a partition on the hard drive with a system recovery in it but this will loose all the info so not something I want to do just yet.

I have found this file on my oiwn desktop, if I was to copy this to my usb memory stick, is there anyway I could use it to replace the missing file?

The laptop is a Dell machine running XP home, my machine is a HP Pavilion running XP Home.

Grateful for any help as Sheila has loads of pictures that she hasn't backed up so doesn't want to loose them.
 
Can't help I'm afraid, other than to give your post a bump, I had something similar happen to mine years ago and I can't for the life of me remember what I did, Win98 anyway.


Mick
 
Hi Keith and Sheila,

I have my doubts as to whether this is actually software-related, I think this may be hardware that's the problem here; RAM, CPU, motherboard or hard drive could be involved - that's bad news ...



The first thing to do is get Sheila's data backed up from the hard drive; this will need to be removed and connected to another machine, either via a USB or an IDE adapter (eg. http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.asp...1161&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11161&InMerch=1 or http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.asp...de=1&NavigationKey=11161,4294954828&InMerch=1 ) so you can pull off the data then test/repair the hard drive and data (and copy the file that's missing from the laptop drives own WINDOWS\system32\dllcache folder into WINDOWS\system32\drivers).



Easiest to test (and fix) is RAM - providing you have two modules! You just open the cover, remove one stick, test - if no good, replace the stick and remove the other - each stick needs to be tried in each slot, individually.

If you find a combination that works, fine - if it's a slot that's defective, buy the largest stick you can for the Dell model you have to fit in the working slot. If it's just a RAM stick that's died, buy a replacement (or bigger one?).



Could you give me the laptop model details so I can try to find a way around the repair/reinstall problem, please?

Cheers,

Andy.
 
Thanks Andrew,
The laptop is an Inspiron 1300, with 512Mb of Ram and a 40Gb Hard drive. Cannot remember the processor type other than it being a centrino one.
 
Keith Dickinson said:
You can repair the file by running the original CD Rom and selecting repair, unfortunately the laptop didn't have a CD Rom, there is a partition on the hard drive with a system recovery in it but this will loose all the info so not something I want to do just yet.
I misread this part earlier - so you have a CD or DVD drive but not a repair/reinstall disc? You can burn CD's though?

If so, there should be a way of creating a CD from the files ready prepared on the machine - unfortunately, you need to access Windows to do that ... (first thing I do on any machine now is to check whether the CD/DVD has been created).



Take a look at the instructions at http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1300/en/sm/upgrades.htm#wp1105389 - do you have one or two memory modules fitted?
 
Andrew
There are 2 memory modules of 256Mb each.
Had a look at the link and whilst it appears simple I have ruined a desktop machine in the past by accidentally touching the wrong thing.LOL. So my wife is not too keen on me prodding and poking in her laptop.
Looks like I'll have to take it into a PC repair shop.
Thanks for your help so far.
 
Andrew,
I have removed and replaced the memory modules, changed the order of them as well. This had no effect, it's still coming up with corrupt or missing file.
 
Keith Dickinson said:
Andrew,
I have removed and replaced the memory modules, changed the order of them as well. This had no effect, it's still coming up with corrupt or missing file.
No change at all in the error message? Pretty much rules out the RAM as the main factor then (but not 100%, unfortunately).

The next step is to ensure the data is safe, before going any further. This can also be done by yourselves, you'll need to order an adapter/external case as mentioned earlier - again, not very tricky, just take your time and follow the instructions that I'll furnish you with.

If you want to skip that step!!! - all you need to repair Windows is a CD from another Dell - your number (underneath the notebook) should work fine to install it. I think the CD will need to be a Service Pack 2 version or it may refuse to install.
 
Thanks Andrew, I'll study those sites and have a bash this afternoon.
edit
Just had a look at the sites, cheers I think I've got all the info I need now.
 
Last edited:
Many thanks Andrew, I've got the data transferred to my PC and the hard drive back into the laptop without b*****ing it up. Just waiting for the disk from Dell now to try to repair the file. If not I should be able to run the system reset partition. Once again many thanks for your time.
 
fyi, I had a similar issue with my sons pc recently, Microsoft have a memory test program which when downloaded and expanded on to a floppy disk (or CD) acts as a start up disk and runs a comprehensive memory test. After this past I changed the graphics card and checked I could read the hard drive in another PC which it did, just wouldn't boot. Finally tried the hard drive in my PC and hey presteo same fault.
So repaired windows on my pc using my copy of XP that came with my PC, plugged it back in to the sons box and it worked.
Took me a couple of days to sort it and probably got a tad frustrated but if at 1st you don't suceed............
If you have a norton disk you can boot from this.

Steve
 
Thanks for the tip Steve but I won't let norton anywhere near my machine.
I've got the important stuff from the laptop, I thought about copying the files from my machine but mine's a HP, the laptop is Dell unsure whether the files would be the same.
 
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