[Kelby]

I had a power outage the other day while my pc was on, and when I tried to reboot, I got the message:
"sfc.dll is not a valid windows image. Please check this against your installation diskette."

What do I do?

Thanks

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Items in blue which are underlined are clickable to give more information about the process

Start the System Restore Utility at a command prompt

1. Restart your computer, and keep tapping F8 during the initial start-up until you get options, select Safe Mode with a Command Prompt then press enter.

2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account that has administrator credentials.

3. Type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to an earlier state.

Look for the most recent system checkpoint created before the errors to restore from

For additional information about the Safe mode with a command prompt, click 315222 to see a description of the Safe Mode Boot Options in Windows XP

[Retired Tech]

Items in blue which are underlined are clickable to give more information about the process

Start the System Restore Utility at a command prompt

1. Restart your computer, and keep tapping F8 during the initial start-up until you get options, select Safe Mode with a Command Prompt then press enter.

2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account that has administrator credentials.

3. Type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to an earlier state.

Look for the most recent system checkpoint created before the errors to restore from

For additional information about the Safe mode with a command prompt, click 315222 to see a description of the Safe Mode Boot Options in Windows XP

[Kelby]

The system won't boot into safe or normal mode. I get the pop-up box with the error message in it about the sfc.dll, click OK in the box, and then black screen. It just stops there. The keyboard isn't locked, but I can't do anything, not even a ctl-alt-del.

[Retired Tech]

As long as you were tapping F8 and it didn't offer safe mode with command prompt, which is different to safe mode

You can use this guide to repair XP

Possibly, you will need to press the start button and keep tapping the delete key, (possibly F2) until the PC enters set up. Change the boot order to CD ROM Drive then hard drive, press F10 then press enter, load the XP CD then type Y then press enter, as it reboots, look for press any key to load from CD, press enter

You will need your XP product key to complete this

If you have audio / video files which are subject to DRM you should check with the provider for known issues with performing an XP repair install

XP Repair Install

Windows XP repair feature won't delete your data, installed programs, personal information, or settings. It just repairs the operating system

After running XP Repair you will need to install all Windows Updates

Microsoft Update

[Kelby]

I got the reinstall to run, but it had a few problems. First being that it couldn't load C:\winnt\system32\catsrv.dll. Then it failed to load C:\winnt\system32\inetcomm.dll; program files\outlookexpress\msoc.dll; programfiles\commonfiles\system\wab32.dll. The setup then continues, and after it is completed, the pc goes into a boot loop, in that it boots to a certain point, throw a message about not having enough virtual memory, then reboots. Any ideas?

[Retired Tech]

Click this for a guide to using Memtest

Click this to download Memtest

Run it overnight if possible