comp fails to boot

[sos]

When attempting to boot a 2000 machine i get the following error msg:

STOP: 0xc00026c {unable to load device driver}
\systemroot\system32\drivers\smserial.sys device could not be loaded.
Error status was 0xc000221

I have tried using setup disks to do a repair but this doesn't seem to solve the problem....any suggestions

 

[wolluf]

What happened before this? Ie, machine was working - machine not working, what happened between these events?

'I have tried using setup disks to do a repair but this doesn't seem to solve the problem' - what exactly did you do? There are 2 repair options - one using recovery console and one using ERD (if available).

You could use recovery console to see if \systemroot\system32\drivers\smserial.sys is there (& if it is, replace it assuming you have a copy, in case its corrupted. If its not, you could copy it there)

 

[sos]

Well i found out that guy recently installed a motorola modem and for some reason this was causing problem....when i removed it, system booted fine...