critical system drivers missing

[stuckchris]

All,

Firstly thank you in advance for any help. I have had a read through the common questions section and tried a few things but to no avail!!

Firstly my laptop is a Acer Aspire 5738z with an Intel T4200 processor.

I bought the laptop with Vista however i was never very impressed and when the OS seemed to get corrupted i decided it was time to try 7 but have been unable to install it.

The installation gets all the way through and restarts. it then comes up with and error:

File: \Windows\system32\DRIVERS\q12300.sys

status: 0xc00000e9

info: Windows failed to load because a critical system driver is missing, or corrupt.

I have deleted the Acer recovery partition and downloaded drivers from the Acer website however each time i get a the same error but with different .sys files.

Am i missing something or is this just a case of getting the correct drivers loaded for the install to work. I have tried numerous combinations and am running out of patience!! PLEASE HELP!

 

[Dinesh]

Hi there, I hope you're doing a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[Tews]

I agree with Dinesh 100%... Doing an "upgrade" can have problematic results at best..You're most likely going to bring the problems you had with Vista to 7..

when the OS seemed to get corrupted i decided it was time to try 7 but have been unable to install it.

Forget about upgrading and do a clean install... you'll be glad you did...

 

[stuckchris]

Hi Dinesh,

Thanks for the reply. Yes doing a clean install, i have deleted all the partitions using diskpart and am installing to unallocated disk space.

The only think i did notice is that in a command window there a drive x: called boot that it will not let me format. could this be the Acer recovery partition and i've not managed to deleted it correctly?

Chris

 

[Dinesh]

Simply wipe out the entire HDD and try installing again.

 

[stuckchris]

sorry for asking such a simple question but what would be the best way of doing this?

 

[Dinesh]

Solved Hard Drive - Unable to Select or Delete during Installation - Vista Forums

Use the above tutorial to completely erase your HDD.

 

[theog]

Try a full clean & full format.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html
1) Boot DVD.
2) Press Shift+F10 (for command prompt)

Type in command line
DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (win 7 HD)
CLEAN ALL
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT=NTFS
ASSIGN
EXIT
EXIT

 

[stuckchris]

great!

Thanks for help i will try this and report back.

Chris.

 

[gregrocker]

Clean All command will zero the drive which takes a long time on a large HD but is the deepest clean.

Very likely that boot partition is blocking your install so good to get it cleaned off since you want your HD cleaned.

Then boot DVD, select Custom install, use Drive Tools to create New partition(s) as you wish, format before installing to first partition.

Intsaller is driver complete with newer arriving quickly via optional Windows updates. Put your wireless driver on a stick in case needed to get online. After updates, find any drivers missing in Device Manager plus any favorite apps on the Support Downloads webpage for your model computer/device.

 

[stuckchris]

All,

Thanks for your help so far. Here is an update..

cleaned the HD and did a new install - things looked alot better this time (previously it was doing odd things like creating a 100mb C drive and installing 7 to the D drive).

Anyway the instalation got all the way through and restarted the machine. It then was updating the registry when it just restarts and says "Windows failed to start" trying to start in any mode results in the machine restarting.

I have tried installing 7 twice now and both times a repair has not worked either.

Any suggestions welcome....

Chris

 

[stuckchris]

This is a nightmare - i thought computers were supposed to be getting more user friendly!!!

Managed to get the install a bit further after removing the hidden Acer partition and removing some RAM. Now the laptop takes ages to load (sits at a blank screen with a cursor then at the "please wait..." screen) and loads to a log on screen. This would be great however i have not been given the chance to do any of the installtion set-up - time zone, user accounts etc so i do not have a log on. if i try leaving it blank that doesn't work either!!!

update.. just tried a repair and it could not find any problems

 

[gregrocker]

Can you boot into Safe Mode? If so, check the Event Viewer for which driver is failing.

Run chkdsk on the HD, then the maker's diagnostics/repair full CD scan: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Test your memory using memtest86 CD.

Clear the CMOS to return BIOS to defaults: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/tp/clearcmos.htm

Try setting SATA controller to AHCI first, then IDE if necessary.

Did you zero the HD using Clean All command, then create and format partition before install?

 

[stuckchris]

Hi gregrocker thanks for the reply,

unable to boot into safe mode i get the same problems.

I did a clean all nad created a new partition although i havn't done this every time i have reinstalled (which is quite a few times now!!) i have just being formatting the drive using the drive options during the installtion.

BIOS has been reset aprt from a change to the boot order to boot from the cd.

Did a chkdsk and a memery test earlier on and no problems were found.

I now seem to get two different problems. if i install with no additional drivers (for both AHCI and IDE) i get a BSOD during the "updating registry..." stage. if i set the HD to AHCI and add drivers i get the same as above, set it to IDE and add drivers i get back to my orginal issue and get "critical system file missing".

Thanks for the help,

i'm starting to loose hope on this now..

Chris

Chris

 

[Dinesh]

Where did you get the Windows 7 DVD from? I guess it could be due to a corrupt DVD. I guess so.

 

[stuckchris]

Hi Dinesh,

CD is a guenuine windows CD form my local computer store so i would hope it wasn't the CD.

I have just run a chkdsk on the c: drive and got the same error four times:

Error detected in index $I30 for file 2774. Does this give any more clues?

chkdsk is still running.

 

[Dinesh]

As a last resort, try the tutorial which I have mentioned on page 1 of this thread. This will delete all the partitions of the HDD and will re-create Sector 0 of the HDD. It SHOULD work.

 

[pebbly]

are you sure the Hdd isnt failing?

 

[stuckchris]

Hi Pebbly,

I did suspect the HDD may be failing however i didn't want to go and waste £50 on a new one until i had tried everything else and was sure that was the problem. chkdsk has finished and it looks like it had to do a lot of work! 12 kb of bad sectors have now been identifed so i will try an install one more time and if this fails the only think left i can see to do is try an new HD. I just don't want to do this if it's a driver issue not a HD issue as i will loose £50.

If i do a clean all and create a new partition (again) would the the hard drive still remember the bad sectors or would i need to re-run chkdsk?

 

[Jonathan_King]

Here, test your hard drive with one of these programs: HD Diagnostic

You can also take the hard drive to another machine and run SeaTools on it.