My old Dell laptop is acting wierd, Please suggest!

vilelink · 07-02-2009, 07:40 PM

Hello friends..

I have a Dell latitude laptop. And after going through some problems I decided to reinstall window xp. So I did. I took long time to install. After installed, it gave me an error.
" Window could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt"
that is system32/config/system

Another thing I notice is that hard disk is making some noise, a repetitive scratching noise during installation of XP.
Should I say ciao to my Hard disk? or is it something else?

Thanks in advance..

**3ncryptabl3_lick** · 07-02-2009, 08:59 PM

The error could be the result of a corrupted registry.

As for the scratching sound, are you sure it's coming from the HDD? It can be hard to tell unless you know exactly where the HDD is seated within the laptop body.

webopius · 07-04-2009, 03:20 AM

Found a possible solution for you posted here:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm

On a related note, I gave my old laptop a completely new lease of life by installing Ubuntu linux. It really flies along now and with OpenOffice I rarely need any Windows apps any more. The only thing I miss is a decent development environment.

jimisan · 07-04-2009, 08:47 PM

Based on your description, I suspect your HDD is the most likely culprit. Try to get a new HDD (if it's an IDE it's kind of hard to get a new ones lately....try getting a used one) and reformat again.

If you cannot find any IDE replacement, I would suggest you give Puppy Linux (www.puppylinux.org) a try, it boots from CD directly into your memory within minutes and you can surf the net rightaway.

Good Luck.

vilelink · 07-05-2009, 10:31 PM

Thanks for your help guys, but now I am getting more serous problem. As I tried to reinstall XP, and when it starts to format c drive, it stops at 75% and make that scratching noise again and again.
I think it it is an hard disk problem or probably there are some bad sectors.

And at one time it showed "General Protection Fault" with "Trap 0000XX some numbers and something I have never seen before.

Maybe it is Hard disk.

emofree · 07-05-2009, 11:57 PM

well if you already did it for the second time and the symptoms still persist I guess it's really the hard disk that's holding up your laptop to work. you need to change your hard disk.

Cars-blog · 07-06-2009, 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vilelink

Thanks for your help guys, but now I am getting more serous problem. As I tried to reinstall XP, and when it starts to format c drive, it stops at 75% and make that scratching noise again and again.
I think it it is an hard disk problem or probably there are some bad sectors.

And at one time it showed "General Protection Fault" with "Trap 0000XX some numbers and something I have never seen before.

Maybe it is Hard disk.

Yup, that sounds very much like the HDD