Stop: c000021a {Fatal System Error} IDEAS?

Flintstone

I get the above error with the following subtext:

The Windows Logon Process system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0x0000135 (0x00000000 0x000000000)
The System Has Been Shut Down.


Anyone have any ideas?
XP Home SP2
NF7-S
XP2500+ Barton
1 Gig PC3200 Corsair
2x 80 Gig Hitachi SATA Raid-0
GeForce FX5900XT
Stock speeds

Safe Mode doesn't work (same error), Last known good config doesn't work

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Flint

Qeldroma

Are you using Roxio GoBack from a Symantec installation (I doubt it- this is a pretty old problem)? If so, disable it by pressing the space bar immediately after boot. Disable it, then Remove it.

If not there is also this Microsoft KB article-

How to troubleshoot this Error

Basically the system is crashing on one of two executives. This procedure may help run it down.

Hope this gets it

Flintstone

Thanks Qeldroma, I'd seen that. Obviously, being your standard lazy trouble shooter, I was looking for a quick fix!! Apparently, none exists!

Anyone think a repair install of XP would fix it? The knowlege base article doesn't, at least as far as I can see, say anything about it.

Thanks for any help anyone can give on this. It's the fiancee's computer, of course, and it'll be a real nice place to live until it's fixed!!

Flint

Qeldroma

Flintstone wrote:

Thanks Qeldroma, I'd seen that. Obviously, being your standard lazy trouble shooter, I was looking for a quick fix!! Apparently, none exists! ...

Haha! And I was too lazy to figure out a quick fix and just gave you the link!

I'll leave this to someone who might know then. .

pc0019

I seem to be having the same problem. I installed the latest nVidia driver, rebooted my computer, and then recieved this error. I've just printed off that document, and will try to fix my pc. Did you install anything like this, because it says that this is the most common problem. If it isn't, I'd try reinstalling Windows before anything else.
Queldroma, or anyone else who knows, how do you access the registry?
I guess you would type System Root\regedit.exe at MSdos. I copied the first bit from the Microsoft document, as I don't know anything about dos, but I presume that you replace System Root with C:\WINDOWS ?
And anyway, how do you access dos? The floppy disk drive is a bit dodgy, so may not run off an msdos boot disk, if there is such a thing, and the only cd writer is on the broken computer. Flintstone, press F12 at startup to choose to boot off floppy disk drive.

Qeldroma

Have you tried getting into Safe Mode (since this started with a graphics driver, you just may be able to)? If you can, you can try uninstalling the graphics driver first. Failing that, try to use System Restore. This assumes you had System Restore enabled.

There are a couple of ways to play with the registry in command-line mode, but my only experience has been to import and export registry files

Like this

You could use this to try- but understand, you are in the mud here and it's VERY easy to get burned. It's not a good idea unless you know eactly what to do- I'd steer away from this.

Try a driver uninstall first- then a System Restore. I would also go on to Using the Last Know Configuration option in the posted directions next. The name of the game is to get back to normal mode.

PS- Happy New Year!

pc0019

Happy New Year! Hmm. I cant get to dos. Any ideas how? If I boot off a floppy disk (which I can do now) I cant access anything. I tried booting using the 6-floppy-disk-windows-install method to get to the recovery console, but have no clue what to do there. I dont know how to open files (namly regedit) in msdos, if it is even possible, and your method (http://www.ss64.com/nt/regedit.html) doesnt seem to work. ('The command is not recognised. Type HELP for...'). I have tried other commands, like edit and vol but they are not recognised either. The only commands that I can use are the ones that are listed when you type HELP. Is there any way to access a normal MSDOS on an XP based computer (in my situation of course, so not from start>run)? The recovery console does not let you copy to floppy disk or go anywhere other than the drive directory and the windows folder. Why is that? Thank you for any help you can give me.

Flintstone

Mine would still boot off of a cd, so I did a repair install. That allowed me to get all of the docs and .pst files off the machine. But, it was nothing like a fully functioning system, in fact it was a little dodgy getting everything off of it, but I did. I has an ATI video card, and no chinset drivers were updated before the problem. I still don't know the reason for the problem, but I have since formatted and reinstalled XP. I ran memtest, and prime on the new install with no errors or hiccups of any kind so it wasn't a hardware issue.

I guess I took the easiest way out, but listening to the fiancee was worse. It's FIXED!!

Flint

pc0019

Good good. I dont realy want to reformat the hard drive (130GBs of stuff), but I will try reinstalling Windows XP if I cant find out how to access a normal MS Dos

Qeldroma

Flintstone wrote:

I guess I took the easiest way out, but listening to the fiancee was worse. It's FIXED!!

Flint

Yay ! Thanks, Flint.

pc0019

Qeldroma, is there such a thing as MSDOS on XP computers other than the recovery console? Also, is their any way of accessing the c:\ via an msdos boot disk?

Qeldroma

First off, I think you have to try not to call it "MS-DOS" anymore. They actually call it Command Prompt (aka command line) anymore. This is mainly because without special code, standard MS-DOS does not support NTFS, large disks, etc. That said, Command Prompt still supports many of the DOS commands, etc and even uses the file cmd.exe in the %SystemRoot%\System32 directory.

However, you also in most cases can't put it onto a floppy and fly. You would also need to generate a boot disk with all your basic drivers, etc.

Rather than make you go down that path, maybe you'd want to try this:

Utility Boot Disk

Click on the Bootdisk button. This utility started out being an NT Admin password fixer and, if you read the version notes, has gradually evolved into a decent bag of utilities with a rudimentary registry editor for NT/2000/XP.

Not having done this in a couple of years, I'm not up on this, but there are many possibly superior off the shelf utilities and freeware that some of SM's members are likely more current + familiar with and would share with you- and may post with this bump.

However, my caveat still stands. I would not have an average user go here with these issues and urge you to be careful. I just know that developing in this area makes for a very tough skin.

I would have also thought that Flint's suggestions would have made a difference- did you try them?

Hope that helps

pc0019

Thanks Qeldroma. I will try that utility boot disk tomorrow. I'm a little tired from staying up til 330am yesterday trying to resolve this. Yes I saw Flint's post, and I will try reinstalling XP tomorrow - after the boot disk. I dont realy want to reformat the HD since the only other HD's in the house are 18.5, 18.5and 30gb's, so would have nowhere to back much up.
Oh yeh, I ran, or rather am running ramtest at the moment. It has been going for 4:13 mins, and has made 5 passes (on pass 6, test 7) with no errors. I saw somewhere that it should only take 2 hours. is this for the full 9 passes or just 1 pass? (I have 1xpc3200 and 1xpc2100, both 512)

Qeldroma

pc0019 wrote:

... Yes I saw Flint's post, and I will try reinstalling XP tomorrow - after the boot disk. I dont realy want to reformat the HD ...)

Ah, I think I see. I think Flint meant that there is a Repair utility on the XP installation CD that you can use to repair XP by reinstalling certain system files- NOT by doing a full format and reinstallation. There are directions for doing this:

What you will need is your XP installation CD and go through the process of installing XP UNTIL you reach where it says it has detected an existing installation of Windows XP (do not go into the Repair Console) on your computer. Choose to repair the existing installation. Be patient, because it can take a while.

If it succeeds you will need to run Windows Update when done.

?- Whether you do any repair/recovery operation, or a full fresh install, you should have any critical data files backed up- are you OK in that regard?

Best to you on this

Flintstone

Not to butt in on this, but doesn't the repair console that comes up upon running the cd in an existing install of XP, give basically the same opportunities to access the filesystem and data that a DOS disk would in Wdws 9X? I have personally never tried it, but it looks an awful lot like the cmd prompt and there is a list of commands available that allow manipulation of some of the system files, isn't there?

In any event, should you choose to do what I did, DON'T respond to the initial question to go to the repair console, continue the install. Then, when you would normally get to the point where you'd format a blank disk it'll come up and ask if you want to repair the existing install that it found. I hope that's a little clearer! If not, I hope I didn't cloud it up even further!!

Flint

Qeldroma

Please butt in! Yes there is, but I thought he didn't want to use it? However, if you need to use it but have the system Admin password locked + can't remember the password ... oh well. It does have a fairly limited command set. I've generally done all my registry editting either in Safe or Normal Mode, but here is a description of the ARC

Recovery Console Operation

pc0019

Yeh I can get into the recovery console, the only reason I didnt want to use it is because you can only use some commands. In reply to both of you, I wil eventually try to reinstall windows, but you said I will need to back up important data. Is this becuase sometimes the install can go wrong? Also I just had a thought: perhaps I could create a second disk partition, and install windows and all the other cd's that came with it (drivers and utils etc) on that partition, then boot from there. This would fix the problem, but could then do what Richie says in his first post, roll back the driver: http://forum.tweaks.com/forum/Topic186252-4-1.aspx . In his second post he mentions the DISABLE command. I was worried about doing this because I thought it might mess up the screen.. ie black screen, but evidently not, if he's reccomended it. Thanks for that link to the RC. I will try to disable the driver before I do anything else though.

When I typed listsvc, the only ones that looked like nVidia drivers were nv, nv4 and NVSvc. I presume its the last, probably standing for nvidia service, but ill go through them all.

Update: Tried disabling NVSvc. Still doesnt work.

pc0019

Just tried the registry edit function of that ntpasswd program. Got it working, but still confused about how it works. Seems to be a different layout ot the regedit in windows (knew it wouldnt be straightforward). I am just reading through copias amounts of instructions for it on the site, but as of yet have not found an answer to my question: how do I find this: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon ?
The MS troubleshooter says that the problem is probably the nVidia driver replacing a file or something there.
Reading it, I think the value should be Msgina.dll, but is anything else if it is the problem. By the looks of it I can delete the value and it will use the default. All found on http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;156669

pc0019

Have tried NVSvc and nv4 now. disabling either driver does not help, although I doubt that they will anyway since reading about the GINA thing.
If I can locate and replace any other value with Msgina.dll (in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon) I think that will fix the problem.

**EDIT** I have managed to navigate to the Winlogon subkey thingy. I cannot find the value GinaDLL (I presume GinaDLL would be the name and REG_SZ would be the type). I realy hope this doesnt mean that it isnt the problem.
Should I try making the value?

pc0019

Just reread the MS article: If this value is not present, the system uses Msgina.dll as the default GINA DLL. Which probably means that the problem is NOT the gina thingy, which is just great. I'm going to try and reformat my old HD so I can transfer the important files over, then will reinstall/repair xp. If was to repair windows, would I have to boot of the SP2 six-floppy-disk method, because I have updated my computer to SP2, but the windows CD is SP1 or before? Thanks

You ever get the feeling your talking to yourself? (I'm GMT)

Flintstone

When you do a repair install, your computer will be back at the original update level of your install disk. My suggestion is to then go to the Windows update site, do the custom critical updates and xp updates before it tells you to do the SP2 update. I've tried it a couple of ways as I have SP2 on a cd and have found that it goes better if you do the "small" updates prior to the SP2 rollup update package. For some reason it screws things up less to do it this way.

Also, don't try to open any of the other programs on your computer until after you've updated XP all the way. Remember they last worked with the updated version and may have been tweaked and may not function properly with a partially updated OS.

And by the way, if I've been able to start a repair install of XP, I've never seen it destroy data. Of course there have been times when a repair wouldn't even work, but when it did, the data was always there.

Good Luck,

Flint

pc0019

Hmm thanks. Took it into work today and the techies finally decided that a reinstall/repair was the only fix. They wernt too sure if I would lose my data, but said that the chance was greater than 0. What I will do is buy another HD (needed one anyway- if you know any cheap, very reliable drives, please say. Size preferably ~130GB, but price over size), install windows onto that, then use that as the boot drive. Not sure if all programs will work (registry etc) but I shouldnt lose any data. Although I backed up the realy important stuff on two different PCs. Will back it up on CD now. Thanks for the help everyone.