A crash and a blue but which fix to use?

wolfric

I hard restarted the pc while it was still loading a few times as i don't think the keyboard was working and i fried it (probably corrupted)
Normal mode: halt blue screen
safe mode: pauses on sptd.sys and then stop: blue screen
Windows xp home install cd: while just loading the drivers etc (haven't pressed anything) it blues on PCI.SYS (note this is an old cd without any service packs.
live cd sees the drive and can look inside the drive
I've had trouble running fdisk and would rather not invest time trying to figure out if it's my linux skills or the computer.

I think my drive needs additional drivers to use. I've downloaded and extracted the files via dell support. I've stuck em on a cd but i can't load them without a floppy drive using the windows install cd. ( i have 2 cd drives but the install disk doesn't give me an option of grabbing them off a cd drive)

I googled this a bit and "pci.sys" seems to be something to do with service packs being needed for support of pci-e.

First question: does anyone know where to stick drivers on the drive if they were going to be used? (i'd boot from live linux cd and copy them over with my second cd drive)

Second question: Should another operating system ( pro or vista etc) work? Perhaps with a service pack installed it'd have drivers needed.

Third question: can i just simply download (legally) a windows reinstall/boot cd from the internet with the service packs included? (i've got alternative methods if it turns out i do need this and i can't get it. and i have my cd keys still stuck to the pc) This theory is based on what i read which requires me to have either a working driver on the hard drive (which might have been corupted) or the service pack on the cd.

Fourth question: Any sugestions?

VaPz

First Question: i doubt a linux live disc would install the drivers properly and from what you described it doesnt sound like you need drivers to be fixed.

Second Question: Yes they would work, Drivers are the only problem.If your machine is XP, usually the drivers are compatible with all XP machines. Vista would boot up, but depending on your drivers depends how much you can use vista (Sound being the main culprit)

Third Question: No, you can download a copy of windows (illegally) and burn it to a disc. You are legally allowed have 1 copy of each disc you own. So after you burn it you could potentially say its yours.


From the sound of it i reckon a chkdsk would fix it. Boot into a windows CD, press R for recovery console. then type "chkdsk /r" without the quotes. Failing that a simple reinstall / format should fix it.

wolfric

Used my vista install cd to load up and access cmd prompt (previously a different version didn't see the c drive). Ran chkdsk and it ran fine.

So much for that long post.

IvySlayer

wolfric wrote: »

Used my vista install cd to load up and access cmd prompt (previously a different version didn't see the c drive). Ran chkdsk and it ran fine.

So much for that long post.

I loved the title rhyming