I am in need of help to see if I can get what was my workhorse computer up and running again.

Dell Dimension 8300 Pent. 4 3.0 Ghz
80 GB Hard Drive
Windows XP Home


The blue screen states:


"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Disable or uninstall any antivirus, disk defragmentation or backup utilities. Check your hard drive configuration and check for updated drivers. Run CHKDSK /f to check for Hard Drive corruption. Then restart your computer.

STOP: 0x00000024 (0x001902fe, 0xf78c63dc,0xf78c60de,0x8a642805)"



I managed to be able to boot off the XP installation disk and ran CHKDSK /p, CHKDSK /r and Debugger (which I assume did the same as CHKDSK) with no results. Rebooted with the same blue screen appearing. The system doesn't recognize the command CHKDSK /f as stated in the blue screen error.

I also got into Safe Mode the first time I tried it but can no longer get in there either. I am not sure about this but when Safe Mode is starting it will pause at “SPTD.sys” and asks me if I want to continue loading this or skip it. The first time I skipped it and got into Safe Mode. Now when I skip it the screen just stays there and nothing continues to load. If I opt to let the SPTD load then it just goes right to the same blue screen as above. Is there something to this file and a Kernal Debugger? Could this be something?

I believe the software that I have had on the computer for a couple years and use for burning disks uses this SPTD. The only thing I can think of that was recently changed on the computer was my Norton Internet Security software was renewed for another year.

Have any ideas short of a reformat? Is there a way to use the XP Installation disk that would help? I had an external Hard Drive on the computer for backing up so I didn’t lose to much but there are some things that seem to have been backed up longer ago and not as up to date as others. Up and running on this newer XP computer but would still like to keep the old girl alive as she has been such a good friend.....did I say that?

Yikes, Greyfuss! There is a ton of info out there about the SPTD.sys errors. The most common thing I saw said to do a Windows repair from the Windows CD. One site said you needed to boot to the CD.

Hopefully, Inland or Jenny can help you out. I've got an "old girl" myself that I keep alive! I love my 10 year old 98SE computer.

You can try the resolution described below -

Bug Check 0x24: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM

Thank you Draclvr and InlandAZ

The booting to the windows CD was the only way I could get into the system to do a CHKDSK. After reading the link that Inland gave I am first going to use the command CHKDSK /f /r . Is this the command that the blue screen error meant when it said to run CHKDSK /f? If that doesn't help then I will use the other suggestions in that link.

Many thanks

The /F switch fixes errors on the disk, but doesn't scan for bad sectors (that's what /R does). If bad sectors are found, it attempts to recover and relocate them.

Let us know how it turns out -

Good news and bad news

The bad: Computer still doesn't recognize as valid the command CHKDSK /f so I couldn't run the CHKDSK /f /r suggested in the link above. I also couldn't figure out how to go about using the Resolving The Problem suggestion there as I am not sure where to use the .cxr (Display Context Record). It isn't recognized in the Repair Panel. Still have the Blue screen on startup.

The good: I can now get into Safe Mode. After coming to the part where I skipped loading the SPTD.SYS, I simply left it there and eventually it continued into Safe Mode. I have been able to recover all files and data that I was concerned about not being on the backup drive. Now would like to get the girl back up and running. Might there be other avenues I can take in this Mode? I have a SPTD Installer/Uninstaller that I tried in Safe Mode but because I chose to skip installing it when Safe Mode was starting the program does not find one so the only choice it gives me is to install it. I also tried to uninstall all antivirus software in Safe Mode but it can't do it there as the programs weren't fully started up.

More help/suggestions

I forget... did you try to do a Windows repair?

Hey Draclvr

Do you mean reinstalling XP over the original installation? Would this still maintain all the files and data? Was this the procedure XP Repair I was going to ask about this.

Did you enter: chkdsk c: /f /r ?

oops

I didn't put the c: in front of it will have to try that...thanks, will keep you informed.


EDIT:
Tried it but get "Parameter is not Valid"

I've used XP Repair several times and it never disturbed my files etc. Not to say it couldn't happen, but it sounds like you've got your data backed up anyway.

This is a pretty good tutorial.. XP Repair Tutorial

Maybe if that works, you can run that chkdsk Inland suggests.

If it turns out you need a new hard drive, they are quite cheap. I'm not sure if this is possible, but maybe you could image the existing drive and put it on the new drive. Assuming you can get to it!

Thanks Draclvr

That Tutorial is very nice and I am certainly going to try it.

I wonder if I am typing the CHKDSK command properly. Maybe I have the <spaces> wrong.

CHKDSK <space> c: <space> /f <space> /r

If you don't see this (from a command prompt:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk c: /f /r
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)


You've got bigger problems - and a repair installation is probably in order.

Inland

I don't see any of that. Maybe my wires are crossed up. I have been booting up with the XP Installation disk and when the prompt comes up C:WINDOWS this is where I am running the CHKDSK from and where I am getting the Invalids from. I am not seeing what you describe. Should I be doing that in Safe Mode?

You should see the same under Safe Mode - I don't recall what's displayed from the Recovery Console.

If you’re successful, be prepared for a long haul - the recovery and relocation process can run for what seems forever.

Where do I get a prompt like that once I am in Safe Mode? Thanks for the warning about the long haul but thats fine as I have my other 4 computers to keep me company while she is away

Start, All Programs, Accessories - Command Prompt.

But aren't Recovery and Repair two different things? When I've had to do a repair, it didn't take long at all. A recovery I did took forever, for sure.

They are different - the long haul refers to the chkdsk process, when is searches for bad sectors it literally scans the entire disk and performs read/write operations.

Oh, yeah, baby. If you get to chkdsk, Greyfuss, get out a good book to keep yourself busy - War and Peace might seem appropriate in length!

Yes I do see this and I enter Y but of course the system can't restart because it won't get past the Blue Screen.

So would the only thing that might help now a XP repair as Draclvr has showed me?

chkdsk /f /r isn't necessary because it's redundant. /f implies /r.

In other words, using chkdsk /r does all the things that /f does, as well as scanning for bad sectors on the blank parts of the hard drive.

Also, I don't believe chkdsk /f is available from Recovery Console. In Recovery Console, the equivalent to /f is /p. You can check this by typing "chkdsk /?", which will give you a list of all available commands.

You won't see the "Cannot lock current drive" error in Recovery Console. That message only shows up if files on the drive are locked/in use by the operating system, which only happens if the OS is currently running. In recovery console, the only active OS is the one running from the Windows CD, which it stores in RAM.

If you ran chkdsk /r from the C:\ prompt, or chkdsk c: /r from anywhere, and the scan found no issues, then your hard drive is probably not at fault, and your ntfs file system is *probably* intact.

Otherwise, run chkdsk c: /r from recovery console and see what comes up.

If the chkdsk doesn't find any problems, then we need to look at other possible culprits besides the hard drive.

Since you apparently can get into safe mode, and it sounds like this might be a driver issue, try this:

Boot to safe mode, click on start-->Run, type "msconfig" (without the quotes) and press ok.

In the System Configuration menu which pops up, we need to disable startup programs and services. We could actually tell msconfig to always start in safe mode, but that won't help us diagnose much unless we want to start disabling drivers one at a time.

So. It's possible the problem is caused by a program or service that's malfunctioning. To eliminate that possibility, select "diagnostic startup", and click Apply, then OK.

The computer will ask if you want it to reboot. Allow it to do so.

The computer probably will still hit a bluescreen on the subsequent boot, but at least then we will know this isn't an issue with services or other programs. That would make a driver malfunction the most likely culprit. Report back here with your results.

If you can't get passed the BSOD at startup, follow the recovery console procedures above, and let us know how it goes.

InlandAZ

Forgive me but which Recovery Console Procedures above do you mean?

Demosthenes

Thank you. I will be trying these suggestions too

The one in Demosthenes post - right above my own.

Otherwise, run chkdsk c: /r from recovery console and see what comes up.