Today I was scheduled to repair Toshiba Satellite Pro M10-S405 laptop with a “software problem”. The customer complained that he is getting the following error right after he turns on his laptop.
ERROR
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
System32\Drivers\ntfs.sys
I started the laptop and got the above mentioned error right away. Restarted it again and on startup a different file was missing:
System32\Drivers\pci.sys
If you search on the internet for these errors you will find a lot of tips how to fix it. Unfortunately, on most websites this error is mentioned only as a software problem. They say that you can fix it if you replace corrupted files from a Windows CD using a recovery console. I guess in some cases you can fix the problem by replacing corrupted files, but from my experience I know that these kinds of errors are very often caused by a faulty memory module.
I started testing the memory on the laptop with Memtest 86+ utility and the memory failed right away. The laptop had 2 memory sticks installed. I tried to eliminate a bad stick by removing and installing modules one by one into different slots on the system board. The same pattern occurred on startup:
- the laptop booted to Windows fine when only slot 1 was populated (tried both memory sticks)
- the laptop wouldn’t boot at all (there were no video) when only slot 2 was populated
- the laptop booted with a missing file error when both memory slots were populated
Unfortunately, it this case the error was caused by a defective memory slot on the system board, not just a bad memory stick. To fix the problem I had to replace the entire system board.
Conclusion: if you get a missing file error on startup and replacing the corrupted file doesn’t help, check the memory sticks on your laptop.
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April 20th, 2007 at 9:56 am
when i turn on my laptop i get a error message “we apologize for the inconvenience, but windows did not start successfully. a recent hardware or software change might have cause this” how do i fix this on my toshiba laptop. please help
April 3rd, 2007 at 4:19 pm
i have a toshiba lap top that has always worked great, all the sudden it wont work at all and pops up this message that says system32\DRIVERS\sapnp.sys is missing
help!!!!!!!!!!!
March 30th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
i’ve found the way to remove! =D but unfortunately, it’s my slot that has got problem..sigh..
March 30th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
hi.. i’m having the same problem with my M10 right now, but i don’t know where to try and remove the memory stick, anybody can give me some idea on where M10 memory stick is? Thanks lots!
March 26th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Help! I spilled just a little bit of water on my toshiba L25 laptop keyboard when the power was on. It immediently turned itself off and won’t work at all now. Did this mean that it shorted out? Is there any possiblitly that it will work again after drying out?
December 31st, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Un_known,
I think you have a bad memory module. Test the memory.
December 26th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
my laptop works fine. until i turned it off directly because it froze. when i turned it back on it says “windows could not start because a file is missing or corrupt:
c:/windows/system32/config/system. (it happened on the first day i bought my laptop. dang!!!!!) then i rebooted in safe mode and it said it again! in safe mode!
please help
May 15th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
Kris,
I laughed at people who spilled a liquid on their laptop, until I did it myself.
1 tpsp of coffee and my keyboard is gone forever. Liquid spills are very unpredictable and liquid spill diagnostic is pretty expensive. If you are lucky, only the keyboard has to be replaced. If not, then you can face the system board replacement.
If after 2 weeks everything functions properly, except the keyboard, then most likely you are lucky and only the keyboard has to be replaced.
May 15th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
it is so nice to know that i am not the only one dumping liquids into a laptop! i spilled a bit of water (maybe more like a tbsp) onto my keyboard about 2 weeks ago. the only damage from what i can tell is the keyboard. what’s involved in repairing it or is it repairable?
May 10th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
Haresh,
Most likely you cannot use the HP optical drive because it’s configured differently. Most laptop optical drives work in cable select mode (CSEL). This mode is set at factory through firmware. Some Toshiba laptops require the optical drive to be set to master-slave mode (M/S). If your laptop requires a M/S drive and you install a CSEL drive, then it might be not detected by the BIOS or you can get IDE#1 error on startup.
“System file is corrupt or missing” error message can be caused by a failing hard drive or a bad memory stick. Test the hard drive and try to replace the memory.