Recursive activation requirement after boot error message missingconfig SYSTEM

[TitianLady]

<2 year old DELL Dimension Desktop B110

After a good shutdown, Boot the next day quickly displays black screen with message:

....Missing or corrupt file
....\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

and message like...
Boot the system CD and use the r option to repair.


There is no system CD. There are two CD with tools and add-ons.
There are three partitions on the 80 GB Seagate HD.
1) 39 MB DELLUTILITY (FAT)
2) 70 GB C: drive (NTFS)
3) 04 MB ? (CP/M Concurrent DOS, CTOS)

I mounted drive as a slave in service machine and scan w/Windows Defender / Live OneCare virus scan. Nothing found.

I viewed the SYSTEM (registry?) file it named it seems to be a good +25 MB file (no extension)

Safe mode fails boot the same way.

I finally tried booting last known good configuration and it booted.

Now I am caught in a recursive Windows Activation loop.

After selecting user ID to log on, I get message "...must be activated..." Do you want to activate now?

Click yes (Or NO behaves the same).

I hear the Windows Exclamation ding.
Then I get logged off.
Then I am left with only the Shutdown option.
Reboot, and the cycle repeats.

wpa.dbl shows only 3K and dated today.
wpa,bak not found.

How do I activate? or otherwise fix this problem?

Carl

 

[Patrick Keenan]

<2 year old DELL Dimension Desktop B110

After a good shutdown, Boot the next day quickly displays black screen
with message:

...Missing or corrupt file
...\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

and message like...
Boot the system CD and use the r option to repair.


There is no system CD. There are two CD with tools and add-ons.
There are three partitions on the 80 GB Seagate HD.
1) 39 MB DELLUTILITY (FAT)
2) 70 GB C: drive (NTFS)
3) 04 MB ? (CP/M Concurrent DOS, CTOS)

I mounted drive as a slave in service machine and scan w/Windows Defender
/ Live OneCare virus scan. Nothing found.

I viewed the SYSTEM (registry?) file it named it seems to be a good +25 MB
file (no extension)

Safe mode fails boot the same way.

I finally tried booting last known good configuration and it booted.

Now I am caught in a recursive Windows Activation loop.

After selecting user ID to log on, I get message "...must be activated..."
Do you want to activate now?

Click yes (Or NO behaves the same).

I hear the Windows Exclamation ding.
Then I get logged off.
Then I am left with only the Shutdown option.
Reboot, and the cycle repeats.

wpa.dbl shows only 3K and dated today.
wpa,bak not found.

How do I activate? or otherwise fix this problem?

Carl

I've been in that same spot. Unfortunately, I don't have good news. The
only way I have found past this is a clean reinstall, which will be a
problem for you if you don't have either system CDs or a recovery partition.

Dell was required to provide you with a method of recovering the system. I
would suggest that you check your manuals and call them.

You could try portions of the method here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

to see if you can get to a registry that allows the system to boot. If
you do not have the recovery console installed, you can use *any* other
bootable XP CD (borrow one) to load it or a bootable Linux CD to perform the
file operations.

HTH
-pk

 

[TitianLady]

I've been in that same spot. Unfortunately, I don't have good news. The
only way I have found past this is a clean reinstall, which will be a
problem for you if you don't have either system CDs or a recovery partition.

Dell was required to provide you with a method of recovering the system. I
would suggest that you check your manuals and call them.

You could try portions of the method here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

to see if you can get to a registry that allows the system to boot. If
you do not have the recovery console installed, you can use *any* other
bootable XP CD (borrow one) to load it or a bootable Linux CD to perform the
file operations.

HTH
-pk

That was a very helpful link!
From there I was able to get to the right place....

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

And use the System Restore function, manually applied to fix the registry, and recover.

Since I have the ability to mount the hard drive as a slave, I did not have to use the CD and the Repair function or the
Recovery console (in this case). I understood the task at hand and performed it from the full function of the Windows
File Explorer.
Thanks for the good pointer. I learned a lot.