I DON'T BELIEVE IT - HELP ME SOMEONE PLEASE

[Suninfrance]

I'm back on the old PC asking for expert help solve a problem on my laptop which completely died yesterday.  I put it on, answered a couple of e-mails, started to prepare dinner and when I turned round, my screen had gone completely blank except for an error message which said

C:\windows\System32\ntdsapi.dll is corrupt

 

I ran safe mode but after a lot of System32 files listed it hung.

I rebooted and it ran CHKDSK and got to stage 3 then hung with 0% completed after half and hour.

Ran debugging mode - black screen

Ran Last Known Good Configuration - reverted to CHKDSK where it hung.

Tried the Recovery Disk - rebooted about five times but would not re-install original configuration

 

I tried again this morning and got more corruption messages including

 

Application failed because winsrv was not found.  Re-installing this application may fix this problem, and

 

The image CRYPTUI.dll is possibly corrupt.  The header checksum does not match the computed checksum

 

What do I do.

 

HELP!!!!

[thunderhorse]

It could be any number of things - hard drive failing, boot sector virus etc.

There is a very quick and simple solution, but it depends on whether or not you've backed up your important personal data: zero the drive, format it, and reinstall your OS. If you haven't backed up and don't want to lose data, then you may have a long haul. Are you on XP? Can you run recovery from the install CD?

[Pierre ZFP]

Sounds horribly like a virus.  Can I put in a plug here for Norton Ghost? Costs about 30 quid and is worth its weight in gold.  I have all our machines at home, including a network file server that has a raid array,  backed up at least once a week.  I just can't say how much time this has saved just in the past year and takes away one more bruggeration factor in life to know I'm more or less fireproof.

[Suninfrance]

I have most of my stuff backed up and I was worried I would have to zero the drive, but as I've never done that before, I don't know where to begin.

I am on XP, but I can't get to a point where I am able to run the install CD.

[fulcrum]

Suninfrance

You should be able to boot to the install CD. Your BIOS has to be enabled to Boot from a CD though.

[Suninfrance]

My BIOS - sorry - total computer numpty here - can you explain in simple terms please

[Pierre ZFP]

Before you nuke your hard drive there are many other things you can do.  Check which manufacturer mad eyou disc and go to their website, for example Seagate who has excellent diagnostic advice HERE.

Low level forma is the LAST resort.  It probably won't come to that.

[Suninfrance]

I almost managed to get into safe mode but now have a message

 

"Isass.exe - Unable to locate component

This application has failed to start because NTDSAPI.dll was not found.  Re-installing the application may fix this problem".

........... but where do I find this file.  I have mu Advent 7098 Driver & Utility disk - will it be on there.

 

[Pierre ZFP]

BIOS = Basic Input Output System  i.e. the machine code that tells your PC what it is and what it should be doing.  It's held in a non-volatile memory chip and although you CAN mess with this, if you don't know what you're doing, please don't.  It will also initiate the POST on BOOTing

POST = Power On Self Test (the bit it's doing while you mutter 'come on, come on'

BOOT = short for BOOTSTRAPS as in 'Picking itself up by its own ......'

[fulcrum]

[quote user="Suninfrance"]My BIOS - sorry - total computer numpty here - can you explain in simple terms please[/quote]

Suninfrance

I didn't get the impression that you were a numpty from your original post.

The BIOS is the bit of the computer that lets the Windows XP Operating System access all your particular PC's hardware.

Try putting the XP CD into the drive and then restart the PC. If the BIOS is enabled to boot from CD then it will tell you to press any keyboard key.

If this doesn't work then you will have to find out the keyboard keys that let you have access to the BIOS.

 

Edit:  The Delete or Del key usually does it. Once in you will have to find the section that deals with Boot devices and their order of preference.

Anyway it may be better to follow PiereZFP's advice as this could get a bit messy.

[Pierre ZFP]

NTDSAPI.dll is a Microsoft Windows system file and it must be in place for it to run more details HERE - Surprised you can't get Safe Mode though.  Looks like you may have to re-install XP.  You could try finding NTDSAPI.dll on your XP disc and copying it to /windows/system on your PC

[Suninfrance]

Right got to my choices window:

 

Safe Mode - hangs

Safe Mode with Networking - Don't think that's it/

Safe Mode with Command Prompt - get that NTDSAPI message and nothing else happens.

Enable Boot Logging - What does that do?

Enable VGA Mode - ?

Last Known Good Configuration - ran it and it looked like it was going to work then got failure message

Directory Services Restore Mode - got some CHKDSK messages then it hung

Debugging Mode - Didn't work

Disable automatic restart on system failure - don't think that's the one I need

Start windows normally - tells me of system failure

Reboot - back to square one

I've started up the computer after installing my Driver/Utililty Disk and nothing has happened

What is the Enable Boot Logging one for?  Should I use that?

[fulcrum]

Suninfrance

Can you boot from your XP Installation disk as I outlined above? This is not the drivers disk but the disk that the OS actually came on. It will have a silver hologrammed surface and say Windows XP.

[Suninfrance]

I give up - now when I restart the PC the message

"A disk read error occurred

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

and guess what, I just keep getting the same message.

Good job I'm booked to go back to England on the 24th, I shall be straight down to PC World to get my money back - the machine is only 8 months old.

[Suninfrance]

I have just been through all my disks and I can't find it - I have a sneaky suspicion, PC World might still have it.

Long story, made short.  Brother purchased PC for me and CD drive failed while trying to make the recovery disk.  He took it back and they gave him another - same thing happened.  He took it back and they fixed it.  I have the Utility Disk, the Power DVD disk, the User Manual Disk and the Recover Disk which doesn't appear to work, but no XP disk.

I've just got one more place to look and that's the original box in came in which is in the barn, so I'll be back shortly.

 

[fulcrum]

[quote user="Suninfrance"]

I give up - now when I restart the PC the message

"A disk read error occurred

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

and guess what, I just keep getting the same message.

Good job I'm booked to go back to England on the 24th, I shall be straight down to PC World to get my money back - the machine is only 8 months old.

[/quote]

This link may help you. It has the complete recovery instrauctions for your PC. You may not need the XP disk and there is a possibility that it didn't come with one.

http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/laptop/7098.htm

You will need to go down the page until you reach

Using the HDD Recovery System

 

 

[Pierre ZFP]

You often don't get the Microsoft disc these days, especially from PC World. They'll probably tell you that you need to buy Vista now for mega bucks.  Don't do it, PM me if this seems your only option and we'll work something out.    

It is now sounding more like hard disk failure, which is unusual but not unheard of, and is easy to fix, annoying though.  My mate who runs a computer repair shop absolutely LOVES PCW - he gets so much work from their customers.  I have one Dell, which is OK but has some funny quirks, the others I built from scratch with the best parts I could reasonably afford, good fun doing it that way too, would never go to PCW.

[Suninfrance]

Am in the process now of running System Recovery and it is currently copying files.  However, there is a problem with the extraction process in that many files cannot be opened (in fact, it looks like all my Windows files cannot be opened.  This could take a while as 15 mins already gone and only 4% done

[Suninfrance]

44 mins and only 7% surely that's not right?

[fulcrum]

It may not seem like it has done much but I would let it run. Perhaps you should have a cup of tea or somesuch.

[Suninfrance]

Made a cuppa, had a fag, done the ironing, washed up, put more logs on the fire, stroked the cat - me stressed [:'(] 

Seems like all my files cannot be opened including AutoRecovery - shall I let it keep running.

[Pierre ZFP]

Yeah, let it run, overnight if necessary (no I'm not kidding).  It can do no harm.  Really looking like a dodgy hard drive though.  If it's not under garantee it will be 50 odd quid for 250 Gb disc or so and a few hour's work putting everything back on.

[fulcrum]

[quote user="Suninfrance"]

Made a cuppa, had a fag, done the ironing, washed up, put more logs on the fire, stroked the cat - me stressed [:'(] 

Seems like all my files cannot be opened including AutoRecovery - shall I let it keep running.

[/quote]

Stroking the cat is very important.  [:D]

As Pierre says. Leave it running overnight. If it hasn't done the right thing by then maybe try one of the advanced options and stroke the cat again.

[Suninfrance]

It's still going and still on 7%.  I think one of the advanced options other than the non-destructive recovery.

Cat stroked again - he loves it.  Got to go and search for other cat who I haven't seen all day and worry about her since she broke her leg last year, then I've got 4 more of the little darlings sitting on the doorstep waiting for their dinner.

Maybe I will have to keep the laptop chugging away overnight but if it's saying (as it is) that my windows files cannot be opened - is there any point in continuing?

[fulcrum]

If it's still on 7% then you may have nothing to loose by restarting with one of the advanced options. Try the first advanced option to copy the old files but you may have to do the second option and quick format.