The critical system information file syssetup.inf is corrupt or missing

  • Thread starter Thread starter JC HARRIS
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J

JC HARRIS

I am trying to fix a laptop (DeLL Inspiron 5100). Used the recovery disk but
did not work. Decided to try a new XP Pro cd (this is what is on it already
so I know the system can handle it) and get this error when it is in setup
mode "The critical system information file syssetup.inf is corrupt or
missing". A search through the internet was NO help. Hopefully someone here
knows something about this?

TIA
 
JC said:
I am trying to fix a laptop (DeLL Inspiron 5100). Used the recovery
disk but did not work. Decided to try a new XP Pro cd (this is what is
on it already so I know the system can handle it) and get this error
when it is in setup mode "The critical system information file
syssetup.inf is corrupt or missing". A search through the internet was
NO help. Hopefully someone here knows something about this?
Click to expand...

You need to use a Dell XP disk for the repair/reinstall.

Malke
 
JC said:
I tried that and it doesn't work either. I said that in the second
sentence.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I thought the question was why an XP Pro disk wouldn't install
and that's when you got the syssetup.ini message - which would be
because you didn't use a Dell full XP install. What happened when you
used Dell's recovery cd? Any error messages? What was the reason you
decided the laptop needed to be restored; i.e., what were its symptoms?

Malke
 
The system would not load at all (its a personal laptop) so I tried to do a
repair using the DeLL disc and got a bios.if missing error. After several
tries without it working, tried a full recovery instead of the repair and
got the syssetup error. Then tried it with an XP Pro disc and got the same
error. I have a sneaky suspicion that it is a bad Hard Drive. The laptop
looks pretty abused.
 
JC said:
The system would not load at all (its a personal laptop) so I tried to
do a repair using the DeLL disc and got a bios.if missing error. After
several tries without it working, tried a full recovery instead of the
repair and got the syssetup error. Then tried it with an XP Pro disc
and got the same error. I have a sneaky suspicion that it is a bad
Hard Drive. The laptop looks pretty abused.
Click to expand...

I Googled "bios.if" and got nothing, but I think you've definitely got
hardware errors. It might be just the hard drive, but more probably is
the motherboard. Here are some general hardware troubleshooting steps:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

If the laptop is still under warranty, the owner should call Dell for
repair/replacement. If its an old (cheap, and thrashed) laptop and the
motherboard is bad, it's more cost-effective to just replace the
machine.

Malke
 
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