Windows Will Not Boot

I am running Windows Vista Home edition with SP2.

As of last night, Windows will not boot on my computer.

I believe this problem started after we got some rogue antispyware (Your PC Protector) and ran Spybot S&D and Malwarebytes. They fixed the problem, or so I thought, but shortly after, we started getting the "Windows failed to start" thing.

"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.
To fix the problem:

1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart the computer.
2. Choose your language settings and click next.
3. Click "repair your computer"

It also gives me the following options:

4. Safe Mode
5. Safe Mode with networking
6. Safe Mode with Command Prompt
7. Last known good configuration
8. Start Windows normally"

We would usually choose 7 or 8. Sometimes it would start normally and sometimes it would take me back to the same page, where I would have to repeat the process once or twice until it would start normally. Other than that, the computer has worked normally and the performance hasn't been affected at all.

Last night, the same "Windows failed to start" thing appeared, I chose option 8, and it took me to a new page. The top part is the same, but after the first three steps about using the installation disc, it says:

"If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

File: \Windows\System32\Drivers\rymncrrt.sys
Status: 0xc0000098
Info: Windows failed to load because a critical system driver is missing, or corrupt."

We restarted the computer, shut it down, unplugged it, unplugged and replugged all cords, unplugged all USB devices, etc. We still get this same system error no matter which boot option we choose.

We downloaded the Windows Vista Recovery Disc from Neosmart.net and booted from disc, selected "repair computer", and ran all the options.

Startup Repair will run for a few minutes and then a popup box will appear with an application error.

"The exception Breakpoint
A breakpoint has been reached.
(0x80000003) occured in the application at location
0x73a8764a

Click on OK to terminate the program."

Then we tried System Restore. There are three checkpoints, the 15th, 16th, and 18th of May. All will give the same error message and we've tried all multiple times.

"System Restore did not completely successfully. Your computer's system files and settings were not changed.
Details: System Restore failed due to an unxpected error.
The file exists (0x80070050)"

We've run the Memory Diagnostic Tool a few times and no errors were found. There's also an option for Command Prompt. We've run "chkdsk" and it comes up with no errors.

What else should or can we do? Thanks so much for any help you can give and I'd be happy to provide any additional information.


P.S. As a side note, we have also had some issues with Windows not starting when my boyfriend's Ipod is plugged in. As soon as we unplug it, it starts normally. I think that's fairly common but wanted to mention it in case that might have something to do with it.

 

My computer model is a Gateway GT 5432.

I guess that could be the case. I have no Windows recovery or installation discs. I downloaded and burned the one I mentioned and that is how I accessed the Windows Recovery options.

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/Eve/figs02142008vista/I.png

Yeah, like I mentioned before, we have tried all the boot options (Start Windows Normally, Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Command Prompt, etc) about a hundred times with no success.

Someone suggested that we upgrade to Windows 7 and that it will fix the problem and not delete our files. Is that correct?

 

Try booting from pen drive or cd with a nomadic operating system, if it won't run that properly you may have faulty hardware. Motherboard, memory or PSU could be on the way out. I know you said about running a memory checker but I wouldn't rely on that as I have had memory checking software say memory is good when in actual fact the memory was bad, best thing to do is put memory into another machine and see if it transfers the problems to that one.

 

Thanks so much voodoo and plodr for your help.

I actually did something probably dangerous, but I fixed the problem.

Because plodr pointed out that "rymncrrt.sys" wasn't a Windows driver and was probably a leftover of some kind of malware, I figured I'd try disabling or deleting it and seeing if that would help.

So, I went to Command Prompt, typed "del c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\rymncrrt.sys", restarted, and my computer booted normally. I backed up all my files (something I should have done in the first place) and tried restarting it again, and it's working well so far. We'll see how it goes!