More computer help required

[Nobbylad]

My Dell Dimension 9150 running XP SP3 has given up the ghost (almost).

When booting up, there's an "svchost.exe at memory address blah blah The memory could not be read" error.

You can eventually log into Windows, although I'm pretty sure it's not logging me in with Admin access.

There's no taskbar/start menu so any actions have to be done through Task Manager. I can't get networking, can't copy and paste files to an external hard drive and every minute or so the PC initiates a system shutdown saying RPC terminated unexpectedly however I can prevent it shutting down by SHUTDOWN -A.

I can't run chkdsk and can't run system restore (strui.exe) and srdiag.exe comes back saying "System restore is unable to protect your system. Please restart then run system restore again"

I don't have an XP disc so can't boot from CD (XP was preloaded).

Any ideas?

[Kenzie]

Can you boot into safe mode and try restore from there? Normally F8 or DEL during post. I have heard of people downloading an ISO of windows and using the repair console.

[Nobbylad]

safe mode same issues

[Kenzie]

Give this a try?

http://geekswithblogs.net/TimH/archi...16/101353.aspx

Also, if you want your task bar back, go into task manager and select new task then type explorer.exe and hit ok.

[Nobbylad]

have done the auto updates thing and tried explorer

Slightly more concise workaround

http://www.pchell.com/support/svchosterror.shtml

[Nobbylad]

Thanks Badge...didn't work but managed to get a copy of XP from a mate, looks like I'll just reinstall the OS.

Ahhh , saying that , if you have a disc then it`s easier mate . In one of the DOS options you can press "R" for repair mode , it will try it`s best to re-install any missing files such as SVCHOST.exe .

I`m pretty sure I had something very similar to this when SP2 came out , not long after an update and reboot it all went nipples up , I tried a few things and I remember slipping in the XP disc and trying Repair mode and it fixed it in mere minutes . The problem you may have is that it might not like a disc from another provider . They started getting a bit more serious about serial numbers around that time which is easily worked around in Windows with net access , when you are in DOS it may be even easier or it could throw something at you , I reckon you should be able to workaround whatever comes along though with a bit of rummaging .

[Nobbylad]

OK - well the other disk didn't help.

I can't run system restore or repair, if I try and boot from the CD I get random file errors (different one each time) and if I try and run setup in Windows, it tells me that the installed version of XP Home Edition is newer than the CD so it won't install.

Well , the last resort is always a format and reinstall , just remember to change the boot sequence in your bios to boot from the cd after formatting the C: drive and it will install XP for you , then the rigmarole of updating it all begins . I would try and find another way first . Have you tried the Microsoft database , sometimes they actually do turn up with little rescue patches sometimes .