PC Will Not Boot

[Syfo-Dyas]

Just this morning the pc just stopped working and rebooted by itself.
It got stuck and will not go past this point. It gives the error
message "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software may be
the cause. windows/system32/boot/winload.exe
status: 0xc0000098

selected entry could not be loaded because application is missing or
corrupt.

Problem is I cannot get to safe mode by pressing f8.
I cannot boot from my cd drive. It just goes back to this same error
message. So eventhough I do not want to re-install the OS , it appears
I am not even able to do that.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is a vista OS by the way.

 

[John Doe]

I cannot boot from my cd drive.

That is a BIOS or hardware problem, not Windows.

 

[John Doe]

There are other things going on here besides a possible BIOS
problem.

The other problems are between your ears, Ricky.

What we really need to see is the complete error message along
with what I wrote above.

You are a clueless ****turd, Ricky. He is using Vista as stated,
but that has nothing to do with booting to the CD drive.
--

 

[Jan Alter]

If you go into the bios and change the boot order to have the CD-ROM be the
first device an OS is looked for then you should get some satisfaction. If
after changing to CD-ROM first the OS is not being loaded then the OS disk
may be faulty itself you may have indeed have a bios problem. You could use
another startup disk, ie: XP or Linux to verify the CD-ROM drive is working
properly.

 

[Syfo-Dyas]

If you go into the bios and change the boot order to have the CD-ROM be the
first device an OS is looked for then you should get some satisfaction. If
after changing to CD-ROM first the OS is not being loaded then the OS disk
may be faulty itself you may have indeed have a bios problem. You could use
another startup disk, ie: XP or Linux to verify the CD-ROM drive is working
properly.

Thanks to all who have responded.
I did exactly as u mentioned. It starts to read the vista installation
disk and then goes right back to the error message. I am unable to get
to the c prompt and I cannot get into safe mode. The cd drive does
work as I tried another disk and it read it perfectly. I also opened
the pc and disconnected the hard drive and booted with the vista
install disk and got the same error.

 

[Jan Alter]

Thanks to all who have responded.
I did exactly as u mentioned. It starts to read the vista installation
disk and then goes right back to the error message. I am unable to get
to the c prompt and I cannot get into safe mode. The cd drive does
work as I tried another disk and it read it perfectly. I also opened
the pc and disconnected the hard drive and booted with the vista
install disk and got the same error.

So you're saying after you put the Vista install disk into the CD-ROM and
you have the first device listed in the bios as the CD-ROM it gives the
error that you referred to in your first query ?

It gives the error
message "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software may be
the cause. windows/system32/boot/winload.exe
status: 0xc0000098

If that's so then it sounds like the CD-ROM is not loading the contents of
the install disk but the bios is still set to the hard drive as first device
and looking for the boot files from your hard drive rather than going to the
CD-ROM.

 

[Syfo-Dyas]

So you're saying after you put the Vista install disk into the CD-ROM and
you have the first device listed in the bios as the CD-ROM it gives the
error that you referred to in your first query ?

Yes it does!

If that's so then it sounds like the CD-ROM is not loading the contents of
the install disk but the bios is still set to the hard drive as first device
and looking for the boot files from your hard drive rather than going to the
CD-ROM.

I would agree with that assessment, but I still dont know how to fix.

 

[Syfo-Dyas]

So you're saying after you put the Vista install disk into the CD-ROM and
you have the first device listed in the bios as the CD-ROM it gives the
error that you referred to in your first query ?

If that's so then it sounds like the CD-ROM is not loading the contents of
the install disk but the bios is still set to the hard drive as first device
and looking for the boot files from your hard drive rather than going to the
CD-ROM.

The CD-Rom is listed first, but it still goes back to the error
message!

 

[Pen]

The CD-Rom is listed first, but it still goes back to the error
message!

This really sounds like a memory error or some other
hardware issue. Have you run memtest86? Have you checked
that the memory DIMMs are seated properly? If there is more
than one DIMM have you tried using all of them just one at
at time.

 

[Alan Larsson]

I know you said the CD-ROM drive is set to be first boot. But while
watching the PC booting up are you still pressing the key it will tell
you to press to boot from CD? On some systems you still have to press a
key during boot. Look very closely at the screen next time.

Bob

The boot order makes no difference....

Read back above and you will see it had the same error when he
disconnected his hard drive to make sure it was booting from the CD.

 

[Syfo-Dyas]

This really sounds like a memory error or some other
hardware issue. Have you run memtest86? Have you checked
that the memory DIMMs are seated properly? If there is more
than one DIMM have you tried using all of them just one at
at time.

You are correct it was 1 memory chip. When removed it works perfectly,
when I put it back the error message comes back.

 

[Syfo-Dyas]

I know you said the CD-ROM drive is set to be first boot. But while
watching the PC booting up are you still pressing the key it will tell
you to press to boot from CD? On some systems you still have to press a
key during boot. Look very closely at the screen next time.

Bob

Yes but, that was not the problem. It was the memory chip.

 

[Syfo-Dyas]

The boot order makes no difference....

Read back above and you will see it had the same error when he
disconnected his hard drive to make sure it was booting from the CD.

Yup! The problem was a memory chip.

 

[Pen]

You are correct it was 1 memory chip. When removed it works perfectly,
when I put it back the error message comes back.

Glad to hear that it's fixed.