Solved c000021a Fatal System Error

[sp33dyk]

Hello,
Recently I have been getting BSOD's.. got 3rd time in 5 bootups. It happens on Starting Windows screen.
The latest one said something like this:

STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The initial session process or system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0x00000000 (0xc0000006 ...... another combination of integers and alphabets which i can't recall)
The system has been shut down.

And this is not it; I have been getting problems lately.
1. This Starting Windows screen stays for long time, so boot time has doubled (or even more)

2. Weeks back, my system went slow overall; I was going to post in here, but before that I ran my Anti-virus, ran defrag tool and these didn't help. Then check disk helped me and everything went like normal.

When my system was slow, opening any drive took very long and was really frustrating. And i was amazed when I used to close the window since it took too much time, and when it was time, that drive was explored in a new window.

Also, I used to play movies, they used to get stuck in between... and that still happened after my system was faster, but it was kinda rare with some movies only.

So now, I am confused about my system. I wonder if both problems are connected to eachother.

I doubt it could be my HDD, though this system is just 1.5 years old.
PS: I checked on the internet for HDD Diagnostics tool and found this:

My PC's specs:
Windows 7 64bit
8GB DDR3 RAM
1 TB WD HDD (Device manager reads this: WDC WD10EARX-22N0YB0 ATA Device)
AMD Phenom X4 955 BE

Please let me know if you require any information.
EDIT: I just read, and I will try getting the BSOD error details when I face BSOD and post them here.
Thank you.

 

[Arc]

Hello sp33dky, try to boot into http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/666-advanced-boot-options.html > Last Know Good Configuration (advanced).

When booted into desktop, try a system restore to an earlier point of time than the problem is started. Let us know if it works or not.

For the disk caution, follow :ar: this post.

 

[sp33dyk]

Hey Arc, thanks for replying. And there's a problem; System Restore is disabled here... yeah I was a fool to disable it the other day. :|

And I followed the instructions for CrystalDiskInfo and the status is now Good.
I rebooted and still the Starting Windows screen stays for long time (more than 2 mins). Haven't got BSOD yet, after 2 restarts. Will update the thread if I get BSOD again, but I wish to know why is boot time too high.

 

[Arc]

How old the windows installation is?
Do some more things,that might be helpful for you.

• Scan for a MBR infection/ bootkit
  How to remove malware belonging to the family Rootkit.Win32.TDSS (aka Tidserv, TDSServ, Alureon)?
• Defrag the 100 MB system Reserve partition ....
  Puran Defrag - Automatically Defrag your Hard Disk Drives ; Use the "Boot Time Defrag" button.
• Do a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html for at least three times With restarts in between every single Run.
• Free up the startup.
  1. Click on the Start button
  2. Type “msconfig (without quotes), click the resulting link. It will open the System Configuration window.
  3. Select the “Startup” tab.Deselect all items other than the antivirus.
  4. Apply > OK
  5. Accept the restart.

 

[sp33dyk]

This windows installation exists from Day 1 of this machine, so it is about 1 year and 5 months old.
Okay thanks; I did everything mentioned by you.

I did Boot Time Defrag and it was stuck at Analyzing C: for about 5 mins, and sadly I felt asleep. I woke up after 40 mins or so and saw Windows was already booted. I will run that again now, while I will have my dinner and keep an eye on it, and will update in here if I find something unusual.

Startup Repair didn't work and I got this error: Windows cannot repair this computer automatically.
I restarted and ran it twice, but didn't work.
I disabled all startup programs, excluding the AV, but didn't help.

 

[Arc]

Well, have you tried to customize Media Center ever?

Delete both of them, and then run SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

If it fails, or you cannot boot into your desktop, try SFC /SCANNOW : Run in Command Prompt at Boot

Also, let us know how is the situation now ... is it booting properly?

 

[sp33dyk]

No, I haven't ever opened Media Center.

I couldn't run sfc /scannow in either cause of this: Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation..

In boot prompt. it said there's a system repair to be completed and said restart should help, but it didn't... so sfc /scannow could not be run.

Also, forgot to mention that System Repair screen also takes a lot of time to load; i thought it was the DVD, but USB was also slow.

And is there any chance of my HDD being at fault?

 

[Arc]

Most probably not. But the root cause is something different, as I am having a doubt ... why a media center system file will be caught as a rootkit.

Scan the system for possible virus infection.

• Windows Defender Offline

When done, clear COMS.

 

[Vir Gnarus]

The sluggishness of the system and the c0000006 (I/O error during paging operation) coincide with a failing hard drive. While I think the rootkit - if present - needs to be dealt with, and that it could be a problem, I'm not sure it's the reason for all your current symptoms. I do recommend backing up your stuff just in case.

I personally recommend you get an RMA on that drive, as it's potentially bad.

 

[sp33dyk]

Okay thanks; I am downloading Windows Defender Offline thing and may run it by midnight.
Also, since you've mentioned about CMOS, for your information- I have under-volted my CPU by 0.1 volts. I had done that months back, and didn't find any instability in the system then. Also my friend has been using his CPU with same voltage settings without any problems.

And asking out of curiosity; after running Windows Defender Offline scan and clearing the CMOS, will we be able to know if my HDD is failing? Also, any way to check the HDD for potential failures?
Thanks.

 

[Vir Gnarus]

Windows Defender Offline? Be aware that Windows Defender is designed to catch spyware, nothing more. Microsoft Security Essentials is the full malware protection version of Defender.

As for checking for HDD failures, beyond the Crystaldiskinfo, you can try doing some Seatool tests. Do the SMART Test (if available), Short DST, and Short Generic tests. Short Generic and Short DST should only take around 1-5 minutes. If they run a good bit longer than that, then you have a mechanical failure, most likely a head or drive motor failure. If the tests fail, well, you know what that means. Understand this is not a 100% guarantee that it'll detect a bad drive. If the test fails, the drive (or at least some part of the disk I/O process) is bad, but if the tests pass, that doesn't mean the drive gets the green light. Only sure way of testing a drive is to swap it with a reliable one and test system stability on that.

 

[Arc]

Vir, Windows Defender, the spyware protector and Windows Defender Offline .... are not they two totally different things?

 

[Vir Gnarus]

Hmm, I guess it is. I always thought it was just a standalone version of Windows Defender. Thanks, Arc.

 

[Arc]

Hmm, I guess it is. I always thought it was just a standalone version of Windows Defender. Thanks, Arc.

Clarifying my thoughts to you .... I am behind a BIOS/boot virus in this case, one of the cause is the OPs statement here:

Also, forgot to mention that System Repair screen also takes a lot of time to load; i thought it was the DVD, but USB was also slow.

And is there any chance of my HDD being at fault?

So it is not only the HDD, but the other things are also slow there. As TDSSKiller scans from within windows, I suggested WDO here, which scans out of windows, and scans in total.

If my understanding of the issue is wrong, and you rectify me, I will be really happy; as I always get real time coaching from you, my teacher

 

[sp33dyk]

Well, I tried this thing, but sadly it isn't working too.

I tried booting with USB and it was stuck (for about 10 mins) at a loading kinda screen where I could read "Windows Defender Offline" and there was a progress bar, that looked absolutely fine, lol.

I gave it time and later it gave an error saying "Windows Defender offline cannot be started. Please contact Support. Error Code: 0x800705b4(if i am not wrong I got this code for USB)
Then i fetched a CD and burned the image; and same thing happened but this time error code was: 0x80016ba.
:O

 

[Arc]

Can you dismantle the computer and re-seat some stuff like the SATA and power ports, RAM modules, the COMS battery, the GPU etc (apparently no need to remove the CPU, and it may cause problem in re-seating if you dont have thermal paste).

Not too sure, but this might be helpful.

I expected that WDO will work there.

 

[Vir Gnarus]

This error code is caused by the service that Windows Defender Offline uses not starting up. I recommend you do the manual fix instructed here. If you get an error when attempting to start the service, inform us. Understand that some malware will attempt to deactivate this service automatically upon detection, so that may be what's causing it.

 

[sp33dyk]

Well, I read your reply; Arc and decided to reboot and reset the BIOS settings. I loaded the Fail Safe settings and guess what? Windows Defender Offline loaded! ..yup I was happy to see something work, cause slow system irritates me like hell.
It started a Quick scan and nothing was detected. I wanted to do a Full Scan but it's 2 AM here and I think i might do that tomorrow.

About the HDD tests, all tests said PASS:
SMART took mere 10 seconds,
Short DST took about 5 mins at first attempt; i wasn't sure about exact time, so i did it again and this time it took less then 2 mins,
Short Generic took less than 2 mins.
I will be taking backups in case if something goes wrong, but please let me know the probability of my HDD being bad.

And I tried to run the FixIt and got this:

Also, when I rebooted after WDO scan, I was asked something like if i wish to set SATA to AHCI mode or something... please tell me what shall I select. I don't remember what I had selected, but yes I did search a bit before I selected something. xD
Also, there's something ya need to know; the network connection used to go off randomly (but less often) and I was unable to access my router's page too. And when I ran Troubleshooter, it detected some error and said Default Gateway wasn't set and it's now fixed. Lol, I was posting this and I realized that this error still exists. :|

So my question is: was it the BIOS settings? Or there's something still hiding in there?

Thank you very much to both of you for instant replies!

EDIT: While WDO didn't work, I downloaded Avast's rootkit tool and let it update it's definitions. Then I started the quick scan and after ~10 minutes while the scan was ON, I got BSOD. This one was having text through the screen, unlike the ones I got after Starting Windows screen.

 

[Arc]

It must not be the BIOS settings, but something necessarily with the BIOS. In my best assumption, after the BIOS reset, it should work a bit better, at least. And, something else should be playing there, which we are also to find out.

Can you reset the router manually? I gewss there should be a small hole and a pin is to be inserted in it to reset the router. Better you follow the manual, but the process should be something like this.

In my computer, SATA is set to AHCI mode. Probably you can also do it, windows 7 should not face any problem, but XP probably cannot boot at AHCI mode.

 

[sp33dyk]

I've reset the router and so far it appears that the problem is gone. Will reset BIOS soon.
Also, currently I am running MalwareBytes Full scan, and there isn't any heavy process running as of now; just Google Chrome and uTorrent (not faster than 1.5Mbit) and my system freezes for ~5 seconds after every 5 mins or so.
Will be running Windows Defender Offline tonight and reply in here.