Will a Boot CD solve my problem?

[AndreaD]

Please bear with me!  My knowledge of computers is limited, but I'm working on that!

I have a Gateway 834GM with Windows XP Media Edition.  Yesterday morning it started inadvertently restarting.  I was getting all sorts of messages, some of which went something like this; "Checking File System on D", "A Serious Error has occurred...", "Thread stuck in device driver", "Windows installer...".  It was then that I realized I had no anti-virus protection (doh!) and proceeded to dl Norton Internet Security.  It took hours to dl because the computer continued to shut off and restart constantly.  Once I finally got NIS installed, I wasn't able to run the virus scan because, again, the computer kept restarting early on in the scan.  Then, during the rebooting process, I started to see "Bios Setting F2" and "F11 System Recovery".  After spending hours getting nowhere with the tech support from both Windows and Symantec, I decided to hit the F11 and try to do a system recovery.  I've only had the computer for about a month, so there isn't a whole lot of personal stuff that I cared about losing.  During the system recovery, it kept stopping and saying something like, "problem extracting  (such and such file)" and I'd hit "OK" to continue.  Then, when it was about 70% complete, it stopped and there was a blurb about Windows shutting down to prevent serious damage to the PC.  The stop was 0X00000024, and suggested I do a chkdsk /f (though I have no clue how to do that).  Then, it would no longer reboot.  I got the "NTLDR is missing" message, which I Googled and that's how I ended up here.  I read the page on this site regarding this problem, and figured the "Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file" was my best bet.  It instructs me to "Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer", only I tore my house apart (in the middle of the night) and can't seem to locate such a disc.  Is this something that comes with the pc??  So, I finally came across 5 discs with my husband's writing on them that said "Recovery" on them.  Now, my husband knows less about computers than I do (sadly enough) so I'm not sure how he made these discs or if he knew what he was doing.  He can barely attach a picture to an email without assistance.  Really.  But, I ASSumed at that point it couldn't hurt to try.  I loaded the first disc and it prompted me to choose "R" or "I", I believe.  But, it wasn't anything like the instructions on this site, so it guess it wasn't the "boot" CD being referred to.  Anyway, I chose "R" and it proceeded to recover the system.  Got all the same "problem extracting" messages, only this time it finished recovering and spit the disc out.  So, NOW (and bless you if you're still reading this) my computer is even MORE screwed up.  Windows is loaded now and I no longer get the F11 thing (still getting the F3), but Windows is HUGE.  The font is huge, everything's huge.  And it doesn't work.  It keeps saying "The system has recovered from a serious error".  So, I'm guessing my husband's "recovery" CD wasn't any good??  Please tell me, what do I do now?!  Do I need to buy a Boot CD?  And if so, where?  I checked eBay, but I'm not sure if that's the best route. Once I put that in will it get rid of all the other garbage that's loaded on there now and start from "scratch", or am I going to have Windows installed on my computer 3 times? Will it magically get rid of the virus or will I still have to figure out how to get rid of the virus while my computer continuously restarts?  Is there somewhere I can buy a boot CD with instructions on how to fix my problem?  I would really appreciate any help at all!!

Thanks a lot,

Andrea

[Mac]

I have a Gateway 834GM with Windows XP Media Edition.  Yesterday morning it started inadvertently restarting.

I was getting all sorts of messages, some of which went something like this; "Checking File System on D", "A Serious Error has occurred...", "Thread stuck in device driver", "Windows installer...".

It was then that I realized I had no anti-virus protection (doh!) and proceeded to download Norton Internet Security.

It took hours to download because the computer continued to shut off and restart constantly.  Once I finally got NIS installed, I wasn't able to run the virus scan because, again, the computer kept restarting early on in the scan.  Then, during the rebooting process, I started to see "Bios Setting F2" and "F11 System Recovery".

After spending hours getting nowhere with the tech support from both Windows and Symantec, I decided to hit the F11 and try to do a system recovery.  I've only had the computer for about a month, so there isn't a whole lot of personal stuff that I cared about losing.  During the system recovery, it kept stopping and saying something like, "problem extracting  (such and such file)" and I'd hit "OK" to continue.  Then, when it was about 70% complete, it stopped and there was a blurb about Windows shutting down to prevent serious damage to the PC.

The stop was 0X00000024, and suggested I do a chkdsk /f (though I have no clue how to do that).  Then, it would no longer reboot.  I got the "NTLDR is missing" message, which I Googled and that's how I ended up here.

I read the page on this site regarding this problem, and figured the "Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file" was my best bet.  It instructs me to "Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer", only I tore my house apart (in the middle of the night) and can't seem to locate such a disc.

Is this something that comes with the PC?  So, I finally came across 5 discs with my husband's writing on them that said "Recovery" on them.  Now, my husband knows less about computers than I do (sadly enough) so I'm not sure how he made these discs or if he knew what he was doing.  He can barely attach a picture to an email without assistance.  Really.  But, I assumed at that point it couldn't hurt to try.

I loaded the first disc and it prompted me to choose "R" or "I", I believe.  But, it wasn't anything like the instructions on this site, so it guess it wasn't the "boot" CD being referred to.  Anyway, I chose "R" and it proceeded to recover the system.  Got all the same "problem extracting" messages, only this time it finished recovering and spit the disc out.

Now my computer is even MORE of a mess.  Windows is loaded now and I no longer get the F11 thing (still getting the F3), but Windows is HUGE.  The font is huge, everything's huge.  And it doesn't work.  It keeps saying "The system has recovered from a serious error".  So, I'm guessing my husband's "recovery" CD wasn't any good?

Please tell me, what do I do now?!  Do I need to buy a Boot CD?  And if so, where?  I checked eBay, but I'm not sure if that's the best route. Once I put that in will it get rid of all the other things that are loaded on there now and start from "scratch", or am I going to have Windows installed on my computer 3 times?

Will it magically get rid of the virus or will I still have to figure out how to get rid of the virus while my computer continuously restarts?  Is there somewhere I can buy a boot CD with instructions on how to fix my problem?  I would really appreciate any help at all!
 
Thanks a lot,
 
Andrea

Click the link below and then on the first link and run a full system scan and see what that does.

[Mac]

STOP 0X00000024

[Mac]

If it has a diskette drive as per the illustration...

[Mac]

FORMAT DRIVE AND PERFORM FULL SYSTEM RECOVERY USING GATEWAY SYSTEM RECOVERY WINDOWS XP RECOVERY CDs

[Mac]

Quite often the CDs just need to be carefully cleaned to prevent read errors. Are the Recovery CDs which were made CDRs or are they CD-RW?

If they are CD-RW I would use a good computer to copy them to CDR as CD-RWs are notoriously unreliable. It is just as well to scan the CDs for virii because if they were made when a virus was present they might be unuseable and need to be treated before copying to new CD media.

With the method outlined by Gateway you should first press 'R' and then press 'F' to Format and perform a Full recovery.

[Mac]

Even with a new computer you may have transit problems caused by carriage. My own computer had a loose sound card and the RAM modules needed to be re-seated. There were also some plugs which had not been fully pushed home until they - click.

Just as well to check and then run MemTest86 on the RAM modules to see if there are any errors and also obtain the drive manufacturer's drive diagnostic diskette and run a drive test. (You will need a floppy diskette drive for those.) If you don't have a floppy drive you should ask someone to burn a bootable CD called UBCD to a CDR and run the appropriate tests from the CD.

If any hardware components are faulty you should be covered by your warranty.

[AndreaD]

Hi.  Thanks so much for your replies.  I used the instructions you linked from the Gateway site, and did the system recovery.  Everything worked perfectly and I was able to follow each step until I got to #12.  I hit "restart" and it began.  But then it said "Press F11 to start recovery" and a timer that counted 3, 2, 1 then the screen goes blank.  Nothing but black.

[Mac]

Did you press F11 ?

Does your computer come with a floppy drive?

Just how big is the drive, and can you get hold of an XP CD to use for partitioning and formatting?

[AndreaD]

No, I didn't press F11 this time, but I did do the F11 Recovery last night, if that makes a difference.  No floppy drive.

"Just how big is the drive, and can you get hold of an XP CD to use for partitioning and formatting?"

I don't know?!?  Sorry!

I realized that I still have the internet connection plugged in the computer when I did the recovery.  So, I disconnected the internet and tried again.  In the middle of disc 5 it suddenly shut down.  Now it's back to the "HTLDR is missing" and it won't start Windows at all.

I'm about ready to throw this thing out of the window!  If all else fails, would I need to take it to a professional?  Or buy a new hard drive or something?

Thanks again.  

[Mac]

No, I didn't press F11 this time, but I did do the F11 Recovery last night, if that makes a difference.  No floppy drive.

"Just how big is the drive, and can you get hold of an XP CD to use for partitioning and formatting?"

I don't know?!?  Sorry!

I realized that I still have the internet connection plugged in the computer when I did the recovery.  So, I disconnected the internet and tried again.  In the middle of disc 5 it suddenly shut down.  Now it's back to the "HTLDR is missing" and it won't start Windows at all.

I'm about ready to throw this thing out of the window!  If all else fails, would I need to take it to a professional?  Or buy a new hard drive or something?

Thanks again.

Gateway 834GM Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz (HT) / 1GB DDR / 250GB SATA HDD / DVD±RW Dual-Layer / Media Reader / Windows XP Media Center 2005

How old is yours? Is it still under warranty?

The way to start is to run a memory check and test the hard-drive. If opening up the casing is not your thing then I would take it to a professional.

Is there someone local?

[GX1_Man]

It sounds new enough that it should be under warranty. I would contact Gateway in any event. They have your money. Let them prove why you should (or should not) be  a repeat customer.

[merlin_2]

You need the disks........