System won't boot, 0x0000C1F5, KB 946084

[Paul Speller]

My Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 computer is suffering the problem described here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946084

which means my system won't boot up at all.

I'm sure it's the hard disk containing Vista which has the problem. I do
have an XP installation on another disk if that is of any help by the way.

Anyway, I applied for the hotfix on that Knowledge Base article, where it
says "Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific
problem". Naturally I therefore assumed the hotfix would be usable by systems
experiencing the problem, e.g. by providing a bootable CD image that you
could boot up from in order to fix the $TxfLog file or whatever.

But no, when I downloaded the hotfix, I find I just have a single file,
Windows6.0-KB946084-x86.msu, which is apparently a sort of standalone Windows
Update file for use from within Vista. There is no documentation nor any
instructions with the file.

How am I supposed to apply this fix for affected systems to my affected
system when the way in which this problem affects systems is to make them
unable to boot Vista?

This seems quite bizarre to me. It's like going to download WinZip and
finding the installer comes in a zip file

Any help would be appreciated - thanks in advance!

Paul

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Paul,

Yep, that's a conundrum alright. What you might be able to do is expand the
msu file and extract the contents using the steps described here:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...ate-standalone-package-msu-for-windows-vista/

Then manually replace them from the XP installation. SFP may become an
issue, but it's worth a shot.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Paul Speller]

What you might be able to do is expand the
msu file and extract the contents using the steps described here:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...ate-standalone-package-msu-for-windows-vista/

Then manually replace them from the XP installation. SFP may become an
issue, but it's worth a shot.

Thanks very much Rick, that's a good tip and idea. I will have to give it a
go when I get home later.

The only thing is, that looks like it requires a working Vista installation
to run the Expand command in - would that be your reading too? I'm the only
person I know currently running Vista on a day-to-day basis (believe it or
not!) but I think my wife's PC may have a dual boot Vista installation she
doesn't use still installed on it so I could probably persuade her to let me
into that - as long as I promise not to do anything that might end up with
her in this same situation! ;-)

I'll keep this dicussion posted with any progress I make.

Thanks again,

Paul

 

[Rick Rogers]

Yes, as I read it you must have a working Vista installation to expand the
contents.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Paul Speller]

Hi again,

Well as it happened I heard such good things about the Linux Live CD-based
way of resolving this issue:

http://www.delmartian.com/TheGalact...P0x0000C1F50xC1F5C1F5BSODCLFSSYSKB946084.aspx

that I didn't worry about the Microsoft Hotfix in the end. Indeed the
above-linked way worked perfectly for resolving that particular issue.

Unfortunately even after all that I still had the issues I started with but
they are unrelated and look like they might be a faulty stick of RAM - I'm
now running on half the RAM and although the computer is horribly slow it is
at least not freezing up and requiring a power cycle every few minutes!

Thanks for your help and apologies that I didn't actually take your advice
in the end - it was appreciated anyway!

Paul

 

[propman]

Hi again,

Well as it happened I heard such good things about the Linux Live CD-based
way of resolving this issue:

http://www.delmartian.com/TheGalact...P0x0000C1F50xC1F5C1F5BSODCLFSSYSKB946084.aspx

Thanks for posting this reference.....downloading it even as I type!

 

[Paul Speller]

Thanks for posting this reference.....downloading it even as I type!

Best of luck with it!

Meanwhile I thought I'd better come back and just update this thread with
one last tale which brings things full circle back to the first link I put in
my first post in the thread!

In the course of testing my RAM I had one nasty freeze-up which corrupted my
RSS feed reading archive in Opera browser. I didn't want to lose some of my
old RSS items so I delved into my Windows Home Server to retrieve a backup of
Opera from a few nights ago.

However, this backup image of my system drive included (unknown to me!) the
faulty hidden $TxfLog file which caused the problem I first posted about.
What this meant was that when I opened the backed-up version of the drive
from my WHS, I got the same old 0x0000C1F5 bluescreen I thought I'd seen the
back of!

Fortunately in this case the problem was short-lived as it was only mounted
as a virtual drive which vanishes as soon as the PC is rebooted, so I could
get back into Windows fine.

At this point, I went back to the .msu file I had requested via that
original link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946084

I installed this, gave it the reboot it needed, and then with a deep breath
braved my WHS again and asked it to do exactly what had brought my computer
to its bluescreening knees only a few minutes earlier...

....and it worked fine!

So really this is just a quick epilogue to say that if you find yourself in
this position, it's worth installing that hotfix (once you get yourself back
up and running via the Linux boot CD), as it does seem to resolve the issue.

Thanks everyone,
Paul

P.S. My RAM turns out to have been sold to me with a "lifetime warranty". So
either it's reached the end of its life already or I should be in line for a
replacement stick