Can't get into Windows due to Fatal Error STOP: c000021a

[Guest]

Yesterday after installing 4 Windows updates, upon trying to restart my
laptop, I get the BSOD:

STOP: C000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process System process terminated unexpectedly with a
status of
0xc00005 (0x00000000 0x00000000)
The system has been shut down.

I've read everything in this forum and Googled c000021a, but cannot get past
the BSOD and into Windows.

The laptop is a Dell Latitude D600 with 1GB RAM, running XP Pro SP2. I got
it used on eBay so have no startup or recovery CDs. It has worked flawlessly
for the three months I've owned it.

Does anyone have a suggestion, or should I just go out, buy a retail XP and
do a complete re-install?

 

[Rock]

Yesterday after installing 4 Windows updates, upon trying to restart my
laptop, I get the BSOD:

STOP: C000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process System process terminated unexpectedly with a
status of
0xc00005 (0x00000000 0x00000000)
The system has been shut down.

I've read everything in this forum and Googled c000021a, but cannot get
past
the BSOD and into Windows.

The laptop is a Dell Latitude D600 with 1GB RAM, running XP Pro SP2. I got
it used on eBay so have no startup or recovery CDs. It has worked
flawlessly
for the three months I've owned it.

Does anyone have a suggestion, or should I just go out, buy a retail XP
and
do a complete re-install?

Sorry I don't have a resolution for your problem. If you can't boot into
safe mode to run a system restore, then the next fix would be to do a repair
install. But for that you need an installation CD.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

For it to have been a legitimate transfer of the XP license along the with
sale of the computer, the computer should have come with the installation or
recovery CD. Or it could have a hidden partition on the hard drive that has
an image of the system as received from Dell. If that recovery partition is
not on the drive, and you did not receive any CD's with the computer, then
you don't have a valid license for running XP and you'll need to buy a copy
of it.

Another option, if there is a sticker on the laptop, usually on the bottom,
that contains a product key, that should work with a generic OEM XP
installation CD of the same type. You could borrow such a CD from someone
and use that to do a repair install. You could make a copy of it and use
that in the future.

The CD has to match the product key on the sticker in that it must be a
generic OEM CD and match as to
Home vs. Pro
Language version.

Without any means to restore the system, what would have been a good idea
was to image the system using something like Acronis True Image Home,
version 10, saving the image on an external hard drive. Image regularly and
before making any system changes. That way when a software problem like
this occurs just restore the most recent image and you have a working system
in short order.

Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, the sticker on the laptop says Dell
Windows 2000. And there is no recovery partition on the hard as well as no
install or recovery CD. So I guess I'm screwed (ya gets what ya pays for!).

Fortunately, I have no critical files on that drive. And, for all the
installed software I have the CDs. And I use Open Office and Firefox, so can
just download and install those once this problem is resolved.

If I can't find someone with a Dell OEM XP Pro CD, I don't mind paying for a
retail XP Pro. Would I be able to try a repair install with the retail XP Pro?

 

[Rock]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, the sticker on the laptop says Dell
Windows 2000. And there is no recovery partition on the hard as well as no
install or recovery CD. So I guess I'm screwed (ya gets what ya pays
for!).

Fortunately, I have no critical files on that drive. And, for all the
installed software I have the CDs. And I use Open Office and Firefox, so
can
just download and install those once this problem is resolved.

If I can't find someone with a Dell OEM XP Pro CD, I don't mind paying for
a
retail XP Pro. Would I be able to try a repair install with the retail XP
Pro?

<snip>

I think you should be able to but you'll need to enter the retail XP Pro
product key.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, the sticker on the laptop says Dell
Windows 2000. And there is no recovery partition on the hard as well as no
install or recovery CD. So I guess I'm screwed (ya gets what ya pays
for!).

Fortunately, I have no critical files on that drive. And, for all the
installed software I have the CDs. And I use Open Office and Firefox, so
can
just download and install those once this problem is resolved.

If I can't find someone with a Dell OEM XP Pro CD, I don't mind paying for
a
retail XP Pro. Would I be able to try a repair install with the retail XP
Pro?

You can try, but it probably won't be successful. The retail key will not
be the same as the Dell OEM key, and the Dell key will very likely be
rejected.

HTH
-pk

 

[Jim]

<snip>

I think you should be able to but you'll need to enter the retail XP Pro
product key.

Would the OP not still need the Dell driver disk no matter which version of
the XP CD he uses?

Perhaps what the OP really has is a boat anchor.

Jim

 

[Rock]

Would the OP not still need the Dell driver disk no matter which version
of the XP CD he uses?

Perhaps what the OP really has is a boat anchor.

Yes, he'll need the XP drivers. They might be available on the Dell website
for download.

 

[Ron Martell]

Yesterday after installing 4 Windows updates, upon trying to restart my
laptop, I get the BSOD:

STOP: C000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process System process terminated unexpectedly with a
status of
0xc00005 (0x00000000 0x00000000)
The system has been shut down.

I've read everything in this forum and Googled c000021a, but cannot get past
the BSOD and into Windows.

The laptop is a Dell Latitude D600 with 1GB RAM, running XP Pro SP2. I got
it used on eBay so have no startup or recovery CDs. It has worked flawlessly
for the three months I've owned it.

Does anyone have a suggestion, or should I just go out, buy a retail XP and
do a complete re-install?

Will it boot into Safe Mode? If so then you can use either uninstall
the last updates or use System Restore to go back to the most recent
restore point that is prior to the installation of the updates.

If you are faced with a need to reinstall Windows XP then you need to
know the version (retail upgrade, retail full install, OEM) of the
installed XP Pro and the product key that was used to install it. You
can then use a borrowed XP Pro CD of the same version (except possibly
OEM) to reinstall using the laptop's product key.

If you can boot into Safe Mode then you can use Magic Jelly Bean
(http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml) to extract the
product key. The product i.d. code which is reported on the last
line of the licensed to section of Control Panel - System - General
will tell you if your installed XP is an OEM version - it will read
OEM in the second segment. If the second segment is numeric then you
have a Retail version but it could be either Upgrade or Full Install
although Upgrade is far more likely. It could also be Volume License
but that is much less likely unless it is one of the pirated volume
licenses in which case you be having WGA problems as well.

If you can't boot into Safe Mode then you could recover the Product
Key by removing the hard drive and installing it temporarily as a
second hard drive in a functioning computer using a 2.5 to 3.5 drive
adapter cable and then using
http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/windows-xp-product-key-recovery/
to find out the key. The product i.d. code should be recoverable from
the registry files on the laptop hard drive but I am not sure as to
exactly how to do this in XP.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2008)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Plato]

Yesterday after installing 4 Windows updates, upon trying to restart my
laptop, I get the BSOD:

STOP: C000021a {Fatal System Error}

http://www.updatexp.com/stop-messages.html
http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm
http://www.theeldergeek.com/stop_error_messages.htm

 

[Guest]

Thanks to all of you for your help. I finally gave up and took it in to my
local computer geek shop. No report yet as to their success.