Laptop Problems

[Jchase]

Hey guys, I'm a bit of a newbie, and my laptop isn't working correctly. If anyone can offer some help, I'd be really thankful.

Specs:

Dell Inspiron 9300
Pentium M 1.8 GHz
1.5 GB Ram
100 GB Fujitsu HD / 20 GB Maxtor HD
ATI Radeon 9200
Winows XP Pro SP 2

Here is the problem:

At first I was receiving this error on bootup:

Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive(File):
\systemroot\system32\config\software
or its log or alternate

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete
contact your system administrator or technical support for further assistance

First off, I tried reinstalling Windows. A slight problem came up, that in the choice of "Format Hard Drive" and "Format Hard Drive (Quick)", the first choice would freeze at 0%. At first I thought it was nothing and restarted the reformat with the (Quick) option.

After reinstalling Windows everything seemed fine until I started installing programs. Installing drivers was okay, but afterwards I'd get "Not Responding" from most programs and prolonged freeze time. And, any time after this, I would receive the initial "Registry File Failure" error on a reboot. I checked around and it seems that this is just a simple HD problem. So, I got a replacement HD and tried to install Windows on that.

When attempting to reinstall, I ended up with the same reformat problem, and more. On the option to format "NFTS / NFTS (Quick) / FAT / FAT (Quick)", both the NFTS and FAT options would freeze at 0% and the laptop would need a hard reset. On the options of NFTS (Quick) and FAT (Quick), the reformat would reach ~50%, and then I would get errors about files being unable to install. Every file from that point would prompt a message like "<somefile>.dll was unable to install. Retry or Skip?".

Anyways, I'll be installing my old HD, since I can still get Windows to work on that, hopefully run some diagnostic software, but I don't know what would be good to run. I've been told that it's an IDE controller problem, but I don't know how to test for that, let alone what that means.

Any advice would be extremely appreciated. Thanks guys.

 

[Jchase]

Hey guys, I still have this problem.

Just wondering if anyone out there has seen this kind of thing before.

 

[Monkey34]

Well, here's the difference in the formats:
When you choose to run a regular format on a volume, files are removed from the volume that you are formatting and the hard disk is scanned for bad sectors.

If you choose the Quick format option, format removes files from the partition, but does not scan the disk for bad sectors. Only use this option if your hard disk has been previously formatted and you are sure that your hard disk is not damaged.

If you installed Windows XP on a partition that was formatted by using the Quick format option, you can also check your disk by using the chkdsk /r command after the installation of Windows XP is completed.

The error message you were recieving was a registry issue which sometimes can be fixed, or also can be caused by a bad/failing hard drive.

I never quick format anymore, having seen so many issues after the fact. I prefer to Boot and Nuke them first: http://dban.sourceforge.net/

 

[Jchase]

I'm not too sure that it's a HD problem, because I tried two seperate hard drives and both were receiving the same error. Someone told me it could be an IDE Controller problem, but I have no idea what that means.

Anyways, I ran a diagnostic off of my installation CD, and it failed on this test:

-Start DST Short Test-
Error: 1000-0146
Msg: Unit 0: DST Log contains Previous Errors.

I don't know if that helps any however. Would the best solution be to take it in for inspection?

 

[Monkey34]

DST failure would point to a failing hdd........but strange that two would do it.

I am willing to conced the fact that the controller may be the issue, but in my experience they just don't "go bad". Power issues might kill one, but you probably would see other issues first (or at the same time). Have you ever spilled anything on the laptop?
Well, the reason might be moot, because if it is the controller, you need a motherboard.
Had a thought..........if it has the option in BIOS to boot from an external hdd, you might try to connect a hdd by usb/firewire and see what happens. I havn't looked into details on your motherboard....they both might be run from the same or different chips - worth a try.