Who can fix my Laptop/XP Media Center?

jimmybuffit

jimmybuffit

That'll buff right out!
Well, I'm an idiot! The home computer updated itself on a restart, and now we get an error message "windows\system32\... indicating a corrupt file. It wants the the original CD to repair itself.



I can't find the original XP MediaCenter disc!!!



Is there a work around? I have an Windows XP Home Edition disk. Would that do more harm than good?



Jim
 
Restart the computer and while its booting press the f8 key. This will bring up a menu that will allow you to pick the last known good configuration. Try that.
 
If that doesn't work then try going into 'safe mode' then when the system comes up go into Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore



and see if you can restore to previous point from there.
 
Tried that, thanks.

When trying Safe Mode, it gives about 6 lines of code, and then reverts to the original error message...



I'm freaking!
 
One thing you might try is hitting F8 during boot-up to get to the Windows safe-mode startup screen (see Getting into Windows Safe Mode for some info). One of the entries on the screen should be "Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)". I'd give that a try; it should roll back to the last system restore point.



If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what you'd need to do next, because I don't think the XP Home disk will work for you. Do you know anyone else that runs MediaCenter? If so, you might try borrowing their setup disk. Still not sure if that would work because the 25-digit product "key" wouldn't match-up between the disk and the installed OS.



Good luck,

Tort
 
You can try using the XP Home Edition. Worst case scenarion is that you'll get a message saying it isn't compatible or something. Basically it is trying to repair itself by finding a particular file on the CD. Maybe that file(s) are located in the same directory on the CD whether is is Media Center or Home Edition.



If you don't need to retrieve any files on the machine, just pop in the Home Edition, boot from CD and reformat with that operating system. Hopefully it will have all the drivers.
 
Boot with the install cd and choose the recovery console.

At the command prompt sitting there type chkdsk c: /f /r

This will take a long while to complete, after that reboot and see if it helps.

It will run just a disk check and repair possible errors automatically, I have had good success just with this simple check on many misbehaving windows machines.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top