%SystemRoot%\System32\NTOSKrnl.Exe Corrupted or Not Found Error 1

[BlackburnKL]

Last night I ran into an interesting situation. A client's computer (running Windows XP Home) would not recognize the keyboard and would not boot. It gave the error indicated (I don't remember the exact wording, but what I wrote is close).

It wouldn't boot from the hard drive and it didn't attempt to boot from any of the other boot devices either. You couldn't use F5 or F8 to bypass the full boot process. You couldn't use any keystrokes to get into the CMOS either.

The problem turned out to be bent pins on the keyboard connector. With another keyboard, it works flawlessly!

I was a little surprised that a bent pin on the keyboard could cause that kind of an error, but it did.

I don't know how many others may ever encounter this type of situation, but thought I would post this just in case. It wasn't all that easy to track down. I guess we'll all have to be more careful when we plug things into the backs of our PCs. BlackburnKL

 

[Funkymatt]

I see this problem now with a laptop. Does it mean that i'm SOL?! Is there a way to restore or repair the kernel.exe file? I know that I don't want to loose any data on the laptop.

Best,
Matt

 

[BlackburnKL]

Before you get too excited about reinstalling everything, can you acces the hard disk to verify that it is missing? In our case, it was there and was not damaged. Can you boot from a floppy or a CD and get to the hard drive?

If it is missing or damaged, there was a repair option with NT that I believe still exists with XP that allows you to repair a damaged install from boot diskettes. The diskettes can be downloaded (I believe) from Microsoft. BlackburnKL