wont boot after power outage.

I have a brand new dell computer, Pentium 4, 1GB RAM, 120GB SATA hard drive. I was running Windows XP Media center. It was running perfectly untill a recent quick power outage. The lights and TV in my room shut off briefly as did my PC. When the power came back on about 3 seconds later, My PC began to reboot. An error message came up saying that windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt. \windows\system32\config\system. I do not have a media center retoration CD so I tried using an xp home and an xp pr CD. And am willing to reinstall with either except when I boot from the CD, it runs the files and as it says starting up windows, I get the Blue screen of death with a message on the bottom saying PCI.sys Adress F786bof Base at F7864000, datestamp 3b7d855c. I swapped the Hard drive with another SATA drive I had lying around, same problem. I can Get through the splash screen and I am able to get into the BIOS. I purchesed the PC about a month ago and the warrenty does not cover this kind of problem. Can anyone help?? Thank you.

 

Put the other drive back in & try this, assuming Windows XP Media center is the same as XP.

To start your computer by using the Last Known Good Configuration feature, follow these steps:
1. Start your computer.
2. When you see the "Please select the operating system to start" message, press the F8 key.
3. When the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, use the ARROW keys to select Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked), and then press ENTER.
4. If you are running other operating systems on your computer, use the ARROW keys to select Microsoft Windows XP, and then press ENTER.

 

yeah I should have mentioned that I tried that already. Same error messege. Thanks though.

 

You could try a system repair from the Windows CD

 

tried that too, just get the blue screen of death

 

The clue could be in the BSOD = PCI remove any pci cards as they could have been fried they are very sensitive to surges especially modems,have you deleted your original install of media centre as this could have been repaired,the file that is corrupt is the windows system configuration file I havnt used media centre but I guess it will have a backup file just like xp

This backup file can ne used to replace the corrupt file using the recovery console console,if the xp recovery console works this is what you need to type press return after each line has been typed EVEN md tmp

md tmp

copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system

what I am unsure of is the file path in media centre your c:\windows may be named C:\media centre or variant,BUT if the file path isnt right the repair console will let you know it doesnt exist

If you still cant get media to load after repairing the system config other parts of the registry may need to be fixed they also can be fixed the same way the full lines to be typed are these

md tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

If anyone has media centre could you please check the backup file exists Via these filepaths PLEASE,or post the correct filepath to the backup files

 

I think Rikky is on the right track with PCI.

If the error you are getting is similar to the one above, the link I have provided below might help you. It worked for several people getting the PCI.SYS error. If you want to try it, just follow the steps to create a new CD with XP/SP2 slipstreamed into it.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm

Steve