All of a sudden I keep getting an error about a physical dump of memory when I try to boot my PC I turn on my PC It goes thru the normal start-up process Then for a nano-second (with a blue screen) I get an error message about a physical dump of memory Then it goes thru the normal rebotting process Then I get options for restarting: safe mode, networking, command prompt, last best known configuations and normal Then it goes thru the normal rebotting process Then for a nano-second (with a blue screen) I get an error message about a physical dump of memory This keeps repeating over and over and over I tried all of the above but no luck Does anyone have any advice or experience in solving this problem? Thanks in advance!!
We need more detail on the message. Particularly if it mentions a file. Don't bother copying down the big sets of numbers. Did you try starting in safe mode?
I tried each of the options (safe, networking, command prompt, normal, last known working) but the process just keeps looping: The error message is: stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \Systemroot\System32\Config\SAM or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable. begginning dump of physical memory. physical memory dump complete. contact your administrator or technical support group for further assistance. Thanks for your assistance!!! P.S. I dont have my original windows CD so I am downloading Windows XP from the internet right now --- I am also only able to work on a very very very old PC right now instead of my Sony Vaio
Could be a fried memory stick. Tak'em out and visually check it/them. If the green board looks discolored, even slightly, you may have a problem. Better yet, ask Scataphagos... He knows his shit.
sounds like you lost a hard drive or the registry got corrupted. Probably lost drive, since if was just a bad registry, OS would probably try to roll it back or run some utility to fix it. Boot up with a floppy or thumb drive, and try to run some disk utilities... that would tell you for sure. Hope you backed stuff up
this is one of those times when people remind people that keeping data backed up and ready is something that should be done weekly
Bad news, it looks like your registry is corrupt. At this point I would re-install windows. I usually recommend putting windows on a brand new drive so you don't run any risk of deleting your existing data. There might be a program out there that can fix this for you, but I don't know which one. Someone else here might have a suggestion. But as a programmer I can tell you that even if another program can fix your registry it probably won't be able to fix it 100%. Better to just get a clean install. I wouldn't run ANYTHING until you have your data copied off of that drive. Disclaimer: I am a windows programmer but I don't know much about "fixing" a bad windows installation. There are guys out there who are really good at that and hopefully one of them will weigh in on this. EDIT: it's probably not a bad memory stick. However a failing hard drive is a possibility.
Thank you so much! The only problem is that I can not even get to the point where my PC is booted - so I can not even get to the start menu. I am downloading a Windows XP version right now My question is how do I re-install it? Can I load the windows xp from my old pc to a flash drive and stick it into my sony vaio -- and will it read it automatically? Sorry for the dumb questions? Thank you so muc!!!!!!
If this is a notebook, it's most likely a loose hard disk. Take it out and reinsert it. I had a similar problem not too long ago.
I get that, the recovery programs I mentioned usually can run from a bootable CD, but like I said, I don't think they are worth much and could end up deleting your data if you don't know what you are doing Unfortunately, judging from your questions, I don't think you have the level of experience required to successfully carry out this operation with instructions from the internet. You really need to find someone local to help you with this. I don't mean to be a jerk about it, but one misunderstanding or mistake and your data will be gone. I assume you have a legal XP license already which makes that sort of ethical. I'm a programmer so I'm not too happy about people using pirate software. Desperate times, shades of gray, etc. The bigger problem is that you have to ask yourself WHY it's available for download. Is it generosity or has someone planted a virus in it? That's the biggest problem with pirate software, you can never be sure what you are really getting. If this is your trading computer with your financial info on it I wouldn't take the chance. Good luck and I hope you get this worked out. I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful. EDIT: saliva's suggestion is worth a try.