I'm trying to recover a compaq laptop, 3200 series.

I have the recovery disc's and was able to make it through all four disc's but now, it will not start.

I have discovered that it says it is missing or corrupt WINDOWS/system32/config/system.

It says I can repair with the XP CD, which I also have, but it will not boot or start the cd rom.

All I get is a super fast blue screen flash, so quick you can't even see what it says.

I ran the fast test, and everything says OK, but the long test failed.

How the heck can I get this fixed?

Did you go into the bios and change the boot order?

When you first turn on the PC.. it will say somewhere like hit F2 or F12 or etc to enter setup
Hit it...

In set up look for boot devices. Change the order so it first goes to the cd rom. Then , make sure the xp disc is in. it will boot to it.

Can you og in with Safe Mode... quickly hit your F8 key when starting up

If you can then type MSCONFIG in Start-Run window... see if it comes up.

Check to see how the system is trying. Normal or Selective

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StaticFX

did you go into the bios and change the boot order?

when you first turn on the pc.. it will say somewhere like hit F2 or F12 or etc to enter setup
hit it....

in set up look for boot devices. change the order so it first goes to the cd rom. then , make sure the xp disc is in. it will boot to it.

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I have the cd-rom as the first boot source, but it stays on the start mode screen, safe mode,
Last known config etc etc etc and no matter which mode is chosen, it won't open the XP disc from the cd rom?

Well, it may all be for naught now, the damn thing just shut off, and I can't even get the power to come on now??

I took the battery out, unplugged the AC cord, and I'm letting it cool off as it seemed a little warm, the damn thing may have seen its last days??

OK.
I got the thing to power up again, re-ran the recovery discs, still have same problem.

You see the windows start up screen for about 1 second, then the blue screen with something indicated, but it only lasts about a half a second, then it goes to the start windows normally screen.

I cannot get it to start in safe mode, with or without command prompt.

The last thing on the page as it loads the drivers says WINDOWS/system32/drivers/atisgkaf.sys That is where it stops and goes back to the normal/safe mode/safe mode with command prompt etc.

I have it booting from hard drive first since I tried with the XP CD on hard drive and that didn't work either.


Any other suggestions??

Well, atisgkaf.sys is the ATI AGP driver.. (video) I know that much...
I'm really supprised it won't boot to the CD. I've never seen that fail!

You need to somehow make that work... try digging around the net for a XP Boot cd.
If you can burn it to a cd you may be able to do just a simple boot so you can run the xp repair.

OK.

I finally got the damn thing to boot from the CD.

I chose the Repair function, but I still end up with the laptop unable to start.

Is there a way to just wipe out the entire hard drive, and do an install from scratch?

I get to the screen that is asking which windows installation I want to log into?

I type "1" and I get a command prompt C:\windows>

What needs to be typed there?

This thing is about to go sailing across the room!!

SAIL IT>>> It's a COMPAQ haha

But no seriously, just delete the partition and do a fresh format and install,, this should fix the problem, if not its problay some write errors on the hd which can possibly be fixed if there is a low number, can you take out the HD? Tell me the manufacturer...

Yes you can wipe it.

Get it to boot from the cd again, but pick new install instead of repair.
When you get to the partition section. Delete the partition, then create new partition.
When creating a new partition, I would pick full format (not quick format)
-this will take a while, depending on the size of the HD

Once completed, then install XP on the newly created partition.

WARNING... THIS ERASES EVERYTHING! ALL OF IT! ALL GONE! ZIP! NADA! BYE BYE DATA! Lol

Its always good to wipe the HD once in a while anyway

Clean off the xp disk in straight lines, away from the center (not
In circles) with a soft cloth, looking for fingerprints, etc.

Please come back here for advice on how to prevent future problems.