Reinstall XP Fatal Error

[FXP]

I am running a Dell and the system was really slowing down with Explorer churning at start up. Ran SFC and other stuff and then decided to reinstall Windows XP Professional to try and clean things up. The install went well, during reboot got the Windows screen, and my icons appeared but then I got a blue screen, Fatal Error in the "subsystem" and a dump. I rebooted and it did it again. I have the Console loaded but don't know what to look at. Would appreciate any suggestions and help at this stage. Thanks again.

Frank

 

[BadBigBen]

Note down the STOP ERROR code and post it here, that will help us help you...

have you tried to enter SafeMode? if so does it do the same?



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[FXP]

Thanks for the fast reply. The stop error is: C000021A and tried Last Known Good Configuration -- no luck. I can get into Safe Mode and opened the mini dump. It has the IMAGE_NAME: ntoskrnl.exe and FAILURE_BUCKET: 0xc000021a_c0000005nt!RamdiskBootDiskGuid+bb. I don't know what I'm looking at and could use some help. Thanks.

 

[linney]

Can you confirm that this is occurring immediately at the completion of Setup and not at some later time after finishing Setup and performing other tasks on the machine?

Did you use the correct XP Setup CD for your machine, perhaps something that was supplied by Dell, or involved a Recovery Partition on the Dell machine?

If you try running Setup again you could remove from the machine all easily disconnected hardware such as USB, Printers, external drives, etc.,etc.

Have you tried running ChkDsk from Safe Mode.

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right-click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking. Try it first by not checking either box (this will run it in a Read-only mode) to see if it flags any hard drive or file problems. If it does, restart it by ticking both boxes, and rerun it to allow it to attempt to fix any found problems.


The hard drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software that is bootable, or that may even run from within Windows, that will thoroughly check the condition of your hard drive.

Check your RAM for problems.

http://www.memtest86.com/

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

156669 - How to troubleshoot a "STOP 0xC000021A" error

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;156669&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

STOP 0xC000021a Caused by GoBack

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q316503

XP Pro...Opens in safe mode only. Restarts in other modes
thread779-1310257

Have you tried setting your Bios to Safe Default settings? Perhaps there is a Bios update available.

 

[FXP]

No, I never got a good start-up. After I reinstalled XP it got to loading the desktop icons and crashed. It paused for a second so I figure it was whatever it was doing next that crashed it. I ran a chkDsk last week and everything was fine and just ran some memory tests and came up clean. I'm assuming at this point it is a software problem. I can't seem to figure out which file is causing the problem. Thanks for the help.

- Frank

 

[linney]

Besides XP Setup are there any third party software, or any Windows Updates, that have been loaded on to the machine?


310353 - How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

316434 - HOW TO: Perform Advanced Clean-Boot Troubleshooting in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

310560 - How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560

 

[BadBigBen]

FXP,

did you do a clean install, and did you FORMAT the C: drive or did you keep the former FileSystem intact?

if you kept the FS, then that could be your problem...

if you did a Format and install, then something is amiss...

seeing that this is a new install, how about biting the bullet and doing it over, but before you do it, make sure you got your Data saved out...

when installing fresh, I usually nuke the drive first, meaning I make sure that former FS is totally gone, as format just cleans out the MFT (Master File Table) and leaves residue from the former installs on the drive... now it is very very rare that poses a problem, but I've seen it cause problems...

ever since that time I either use Active @ Kill Disk (Commercial) or DBAN - Darik's Boot And Nuke (Free)...

both will take a long time to complete, but afterwards the drives will be almost like out of the box...

Darik's Boot And Nuke

http://www.dban.org/

The Error code 0xc000021a, usually indicates a problem with the SYSTEM (not a USER. ADMINISTRATOR, or LOCAL) as to problems with permission to certain areas of the FileSystem...

keep us posted as to your progress...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[goombawaho]

Yeah, I saw ONE time where not doing a format caused a failed install (can't remember error) and a format gave me smooth sailing. Only happened to me once.

 

[FXP]

Sorry for the delay. I used the old file system because mistakenly I thought it would work. I'm sure you are right that is my problem. I have my data, albeit a bit outdated on a backup so I am tinkering with this problem for now. I didn't load any third party apps or anything for a while. The drive was just responding really slow on start-up and then kicked in and worked just fine. This gave me a false sense of security. Before the XP reinstall I ran several virus scans from different packages so I know it was clean. I really would like to know which program, if any, is doing this. The mini-dump is not helping. Thanks for all your advice.

 

[edfair]

There are things that are loaded over the life of the original install that are not overwritten on an "over the top" install and create issues when they are found. Can't give any instances but after living your nightmare several times I break out of mine to the point of deleting all previous partitions and creating new ones, forcing a format.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.