My girlfriend has a Compaq laptop with Windows XP. The other day she tried starting it and was unable to get it running.

It fails to load Windows and it gives her a message that "system32\drivers\pci.sys is missing or corrupt"

I'm not too familiar with Windows since I have a Mac. I did a Google search and it appears that this is more of a hardware problem than a software problem since some reported that they continued to get the error message after running the Recovery-CD.

She does not want to restore her computer if it's a hardware issue because she has a lot of important files saved on the hard drive.

Anyone familiar with troubleshooting this error message? I would greatly appreciate anyones tips & help.

Thanks in advance!

 

Try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319136


EDIT: The above link says for Win2K but may still apply. In any case, I found another link:
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt...corrupted.html

 

Can you get into safe mode? if so.. go to another XP machine and browse to the C:WINDOWS\system32\drivers\pci.sys.

Find the pci.sys file on that machine, copy it to a usb flash drive and transfer that to the machine thats having problems to that same directory.

Hope it helps

 

Anyone have any other ideas?

 

 

If I send you a copy of PCI.SYS from one of my XP Pro machines, do you think you would be able to get it into the Windows directory?

 

Otherwise, I am thinking you may need to either use a bootable OS on a CD (Ubuntu, etc...) to be able to insert the file or do a repair/reinstall from the OS media.

 

You will need to do an XP repair...If you can't, you are Geeksquad bound.

 

The first one (the Microsoft support article) does work. I've used it before when I've encountered that error. Just make sure that if you use it on XP, you change the path you copy the file to, to C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers.

 

one thing to always try.. boot to the windows cd -> goto advanced recovery console -> run chkdsk on the drive and see if that can cure the problem

chkdsk actually does come in handy and has solved quite a few non-boot situations for me

 

+1 just put in an xp cd and boot it into repair mode and it'll fix any missing files.

 

Your operating system is fucked. Just take a 2 gig thumb drive, and follow the directions from this link. http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...1-5928902.html

There are a few different programs you can use.

Or boot from the cd/dvd drive and use the bootable dvd that came with the laptop to fix her computer. You'll have to go into BIOS to do this.

 

Ugh, why am I such a Windows n00b? Only about 5% of what you guys are saying is making sense to me. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it...

Thanks guys, I'll look into each of your posts when I get my head together.

 

When you say "boot to the windows cd," are you telling me to insert a Recovery CD into her disk drive and run the recovery? Will that wipe out her hard drive?

 

Thanks, but I think you led me two steps forward and I stumbled ten steps backward as soon as I clicked on that link.

 

Take a Windows XP Pro Install cd and boot the computer with this CD in the drive.

You should be presented with the option to REPAIR the installation, once the CD realizes that you already HAVE XP on the machine.

Choose REPAIR and it will, well.. repair it.

 

I sent you a PM with basically the same info but I'll put it here anyway...

These are the disks she has, along with what it says on them:
-Application and Driver Recovery DVD (Contains software and drivers already installed. For software reinstallation and repair only)
-System Recovery DVD (Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. Installing this disk will return your computer hard disk drive to its original configuration. To begin, insert disc into the optical drive of your computer and follow the on-screen instructions)
-Application and Driver Recovery DVD Part 2 (Contains software and drivers already installed. For software reinstallation and repair only)

Does she have the right one? If so, which one?

 

Try the system recovery dvd, don't worry, its not going to automatically erase everything and reinstall windows. There will be steps to get to that point. You want to try to get to whats called the recovery console to copy that file over.

However, IMO, you probably have a bigger problem. The drive might be failing or you could have a bad memory module. Files don't just go missing for nothing and thats what leads me to believe there's a bigger problem.

I personally would get an enclosure (newegg, they are cheap) if you don't have one and you can copy all the data etc from the drive. Hell you could even use the enclosure to copy that missing file over if you wanted

 

I would try chkdsk or running repair from an xp cd

 

Even if you reinstall, as long as you do NOT select the format option, her files will be intact.

 

note to self: backup files now!

good luck, v6cord2k5!

 

boot to safe mode, open command prompt, chkdsk /r

 

Fixed!

 

I had a similar problem with my Windows desktop 10 years ago. Inserted the recovery CD and the computer got possessed and went crazy.

I took the hard drive and memory out, gave them to a friend and went to town on the tower with a sledge hammer. Made a trip to the Apple store and the rest is history...

 

I just wanted to thank everyone who gave me their input!

I popped in the "System Recovery CD" and hit F6 somewhere. A message came up that I would lose everything so I hit cancel and it took me to CHKDSK automatically. It went through 3 steps automatically and repaired about a dozen files. It rebooted itself and VOLIA!

 

Apparently spell check still doesn't work.

 

I'd make some backups now. I don't think your worries are over but i'd love to be proved wrong

 

Random missing or corrupted files out of nowhere is a bad sign.

 

Voilà!


I told her to backup all her crap and just wait for it to take a dump again.