Fixing XP System Drivers Errors

Computer Repair: Missing or Corrupt System Driver Error Message

This video tutorial shows you how you can fix Windows XP system driver errors such as missing XP .sys files like fastfat.sys

Tags: driver errors, How-To, PC Stop Errors, System Drivers, Windows XP
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How to Solve Stop Error 0xc000026C in Windows XP

Stop errors are serious Windows errors since they cause Windows to stop running altogether. The system will basically halt and show the error on a blue screen. Details of the stop error are shown on the blue screen. In case of stop error 0xc000026C, you will see a message saying ‘unable to load device driver’, followed by a driver name (filename.sys).

So now we know that stop error 0xc000026C means that a device driver cannot be loaded and that some piece of hardware is not working as a result. But how can we fix stop error 0xc000026C?

Stop Error 0xc000026C Causes and Solutions

There are a number of possible causes for the blue screen error that is caused by stop 0xc000026C.
The first and most common cause is that the driver file filename.sys is missing or corrupt, so it cannot be loaded. The Obvious thing to do here is to replace the corrupted or missing driver file by the original driver file. If the driver file is not a standard Windows driver, but belongs to a device for which you have installed drivers from the hardware manufacturer, you should simply reinstall the drivers from the original CD/DVD or download file. That will reinstall all driver files and should solve the stop error.

In all other cases you will need a bootable Windows XP CD or DVD to start your computer and access the Windows Recovery Console. Make sure the computer can boot from the CD/DVD drive first by changing the Bios settings if necessary. Then insert the disc and boot your computer. Let it start from the disc (you might need to press a key to confirm booting from CD/DVD instead of the hard disk).

Once the welcome screen comes up, press the R key to start the Recovery Console. Select the Windows XP installation if asked for it, and enter the admin password when prompted (leave blank if you never entered one in the past).

The command window will now come up and allow you to type text commands. Type: cd windows\system\drivers and press the Enter key to make the drivers folder the active folder. The next step is to make a backup of the corrupted driver if present. Type: ren filename.sys filename.bak and press the Enter key. If the file is not found, that is not a problem. Now we are ready to restore the original driver by copying it from the CD/DVD to the drivers folder.

Type: expand d:\i386\filename.sy_ filename.sys and press the Enter key. This will expand the original file from the CD/DVD to the local file. The command assumes that your CD/DVD drive is drive D:, so change this if you have a different drive letter assignment. Once things work, you can delete the filename.bak file later.

The second possible cause is a missing or corrupted user32.dll file. This is a system library that is required by Windows XP. The procedure to restore the file is the same, use the recovery console and now type: cd windows\system32 and press the Enter key. This will make the Windows system32 where all DLLs reside the active folder.

Next you can make a backup of the original user32.dll file if present by typing: ren user32.dll user32.bak followed by pressing the Enter key. To restore the original user32.dll file from the CD/DVD type: expand d:\i386\user32.dl_ user32.dll and press the Enter key. Since the \windows\system32 folder is the active folder, we do not need to provide the path in the destination parameter.

To leave the command prompt and Recovery Console, type: exit and press Enter. Your computer will restart automatically after this.

In case of Windows SP2, there is a possibility that stop error 0xc000026C occurs after installing KB925902. If you can still use F8 to get into the Windows Safe Mode, you can try to run a command prompt and type: sfc /scannow and press Enter. This will run a system scan and try to correct any error found. A second thing to try is to use System Restore and undo the installation of this Windows update. If all that is not possible or does not help, you can again use the Windows Recovery Console to uninstall the Windows update. Details can be found here.

Tags: PC Stop Errors
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