Serious Computer Problem -- Guidance Please

[Mitchum22]

Don't know what is going on.

This morning, as it came to the end of a 10-hour encoding, TMPEnc Express 4.0 -- a great program and with no previous problems -- crashed, and I was left with a red box system error saying that "ctfmon.exe must close, do to a faulty DLL" (or something like that).

Well, that was frustrating. At the 99% completion level, it crashed. I was on my way to work, so I figured I would just start the encoding over again. But when I tried to open TMPEnc Express, the system rebooted. On reboot, the system did a Checkdisk and found some errors, then conitnued. When I got back to my desktop, everything seemed okay, except the Start Button on the desktop wouldn't open. Programs would open and start fine, and I could go into My Computer and Windows Explorer, but not open Start.

So, I rebooted on my own and chose "Last Known Working Config". Wouldn't even get to the desktop now, just reboots. Tried System Restore. Same thing.

What has happened?

[Krispy Kritter]

Sounds like you have/had corrupt system files on the HD. It could be a glitch or a sign of an impending hardware failure. You could try performing a system restore after booting from the CD, that will replace any missing/corrupt files.

[Mitchum22]

Thank you very much, KK, for the quick reply.

Damn. I just installed this HD. Oh, well. As my dad used to say, "If it's gonna come up snake-eyes, better with a broken hard drive, than in the fast lane of the Hollywood Freeway."

By a CD boot, do you mean the original Windows XP CD?

Whatever happened to Krispy Kritters? Whatever happened to Quisp and Quake???

[ranchhand]

Hopefully you have a system XP disk. If not, borrow one from a friend, just make sure that it is the same "model" as your install: XP Home or XP Pro. When it asks for the key number, enter your own, not your friends. Oh, and by the way, that is legal to do. Okay, insert the CD and reboot. Do not use the Repair Consol, pass that screen and the next will offer a repair reinstallation or a fresh installation. Choose Repair, do not choose Fresh Install or it will overwrite all your data and programs. Repair will not. Then let it finish.

If you still have problems after the repair, I suggest testing your memory. Go to http://www.memtest.org/and download Memtest86+. Burn the ISO to a CD, insert and reboot. Let it run for at least 2 hours, if you get any fail notices at all the memory stick is bad.

Another very common cause of crashes is overheating. Clean out the case, and especially check the CPU heatsink fan for garbage in the heatsink fins, and make sure all fans are spinning up.

Hope this helps, wish you the best.

[Mitchum22]

Ranchhand,

And "wow" to you. I will try this ASAP. Thank you very much.

Best wishes to you.