pci.sys

[Bob S]

I have an Acer Travelmate 737 TLV which originally came equipped wtih Win 98
SE. Later I upgraded to WinXP Pro (now with SP2). Everything has worked
fine for years. Recently, I did a cold boot and received a message
something like:
Windows could not load because the following file was corrupted or missing:
c:\system32\Drivers\pci.sys . You can attempt to repair this file by
running setup.exe from the original Windows CD and selecting the option "R"
on the first screen to repair the file.

When I pressed the spacebar, windows did load. So, at the desktop I put the
instalation CD for Win XP in the CD Rom drive and pressed Start\Run and ran
setup.exe from the CD Rom. Surprisingly, there was no "R" option on the
first screen, nor on the second screen after choosing "Perform additional
tasks".

Can someone tell me what the problem is and how to solve it? Thank you.
Bob

 

[Terry]

On 1/4/2005 12:32 PM On a whim, Bob S pounded out on the keyboard

I have an Acer Travelmate 737 TLV which originally came equipped wtih Win 98
SE. Later I upgraded to WinXP Pro (now with SP2). Everything has worked
fine for years. Recently, I did a cold boot and received a message
something like:
Windows could not load because the following file was corrupted or missing:
c:\system32\Drivers\pci.sys . You can attempt to repair this file by
running setup.exe from the original Windows CD and selecting the option "R"
on the first screen to repair the file.

When I pressed the spacebar, windows did load. So, at the desktop I put the
instalation CD for Win XP in the CD Rom drive and pressed Start\Run and ran
setup.exe from the CD Rom. Surprisingly, there was no "R" option on the
first screen, nor on the second screen after choosing "Perform additional
tasks".

Can someone tell me what the problem is and how to solve it? Thank you.
Bob

The system32 folder isn't located off of the root of C: (unless you
didn't type the path correctly). If the path is correct I would look
into two old system files, WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI and see if there isn't
a reference to the missing file there and if so place a semicolon at the
beginning of the line to see if that takes care of it.

Did you perform a search of C: and see if the file exists? I have the
file located in my c:\windows\system32\drivers folder. I also have a
copy located C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 dated August 3, 2004.
Check to see if you don't have it there also and you can just copy the
file into your \system32\drivers folder.


--
Terry

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[Bob S]

Thanks Terry. You certainly are correct about where the system32 folder is
found. And I bet you are correct that I just did not remember the full path
the message gave. I was surprised that when I pressed the space bar it went
on and loaded Windows (even though it said it was not able to do so). So I
did not remember the message completely.

I found the file on my disk exactly where you said it was on your disk and
copied the file located at C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 to the location
c:\Windows\system32\drivers. I hope that takes care of it.

One other question. The problem seems to be intermitant, in that it happens
only rarely and when it does (twice) I could still load windows with hitting
the space bar. Do you have an idea why this would be? Do I need to do a
scan disk or something?

Thanks for your advice.
Bob

 

[Bob S]

Thanks Terry. You certainly are correct about where the system32 folder is
found. And I bet you are correct that I just did not remember the full path
the message gave. I was surprised that when I pressed the space bar it went
on and loaded Windows (even though it said it was not able to do so). So I
did not remember the message completely.

I found the file on my disk exactly where you said it was on your disk and
copied the file located at C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 to the location
c:\Windows\system32\drivers. I hope that takes care of it.

One other question. The problem seems to be intermitant, in that it happens
only rarely and when it does (twice) I could still load windows with hitting
the space bar. Do you have an idea why this would be? Do I need to do a
scan disk or something?

Thanks for your advice.
Bob

 

[Terry]

On 1/4/2005 9:51 PM On a whim, Bob S pounded out on the keyboard

Thanks Terry. You certainly are correct about where the system32 folder is
found. And I bet you are correct that I just did not remember the full path
the message gave. I was surprised that when I pressed the space bar it went
on and loaded Windows (even though it said it was not able to do so). So I
did not remember the message completely.

I found the file on my disk exactly where you said it was on your disk and
copied the file located at C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 to the location
c:\Windows\system32\drivers. I hope that takes care of it.

One other question. The problem seems to be intermitant, in that it happens
only rarely and when it does (twice) I could still load windows with hitting
the space bar. Do you have an idea why this would be? Do I need to do a
scan disk or something?

Thanks for your advice.
Bob

Hi Bob,

I haven't run across that problem before. I did a Google search and came
across one possibility here relating to bad RAM:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/pci and ntfs dot sys errors.htm

MS has an article for a Stop error, but that isn't your issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=839641

I would perform a chkdsk and make sure there isn't any file corruption
which is always a possibility. Other than that, let's hope it doesn't
happen again!

--
Terry

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

 

[Bob S]

On 1/4/2005 9:51 PM On a whim, Bob S pounded out on the keyboard


Hi Bob,

I haven't run across that problem before. I did a Google search and came
across one possibility here relating to bad RAM:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/pci and ntfs dot sys errors.htm

MS has an article for a Stop error, but that isn't your issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=839641

I would perform a chkdsk and make sure there isn't any file corruption
which is always a possibility. Other than that, let's hope it doesn't
happen again!

--
Terry

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

Thanks Terry,

I did a test of the Ram on a cold boot and it checked out. I did a chkdsk
and it did find one error and fixed it. I hope that was it and that I do
not see the problem again. Thanks for your help.
Bob