missing or corrupt ntoskrnl.exe

hi everyone,

I am having a major problem with my Toshiba laptop, Windows XP home ed. after a few weeks of having an extremely loud fan processor. Now when I turn on the computer, I get a black screen with the message "windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt <windowsroot>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe. Please re-install a copy of the above file."

I have the Toshiba Recovery and Applications/Drivers DVD, and changed the BIOS to boot first from the disk. However, this did not work and when I put the comp on, I get a black screen with a blinking white cursor for a few seconds, followed by this message ... "pxe-e61: media test failure, check cable" and "pxe-mof: exiting pxe-rom." It stays on this screen for a few seconds before going back to the original error message ("windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt <windowsroot>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe. Please re-install a copy of the above file.")

I have searched online for information regarding this problem, and most of what I have found tells me what to do when the disk loads, so it is of no help.

Whenever I hit any key, the comp reboots and does the same thing over and over. I can't go into safe mode, or do anything really. I am worried that I will lose my files that I have stored on my computer, so any suggestions anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
MR

 

hi Tim, thanks for your response. I have tried hitting F11, with no results. Don't have an XP CD. I did change the bios back to default, after which it went to a black screen with a blinking white cursor. After rebooting, I again got the original message about the missing or corrupt file.