[wingnut413]

Have read some discussions on the forum about a corrupt ntoskrnl.exe file (and I'm realizing just how computer savvy I am NOT).

Here's MY scenario: Plugged a USB device (memory card reader) into the front USB port of my HP Presario a1483w and the mouse stopped responding. (I use a wireless keyboard and mouse.) Shut down the system and restarted it and rec'd the corrupt file message.

The Staples tech declared the hard drive and motherboard dead. Later, a friend reformatted the hard drive and installed VISTA. I hated it, but had no OS disc so I ordered the recovery CDs from HP. Installed 'em and have been happily using the computer until the other day when... I got a new cell phone.

Plugged the phone's USB cable into the front USB port and (guess what!) the mouse stopped responding. Do YOU see a pattern? So, I shut down the computer and restarted it, once again receiving the corrupt file message.

I see that the recovery discs aren't going to be very useful for REPAIR and I'll probably end up doing a complete install of the OS. Although it is a real pain in the butt to start from scratch and spend all that time getting service packs, security updates, etc., I CAN do it. But I'm hoping that THIS will be the last time I have to do it. My question is: What is it about the FRONT USB PORT that can corrupt ntoskrnl.exe? Or is this just a bizarre coincidence?

Thanks for any help or advice you can give!

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Ports might be physically damaged. It has to be a problem with those ports as you've had the mainboard changed. Tape them off, there's obviously something wrong with them. Using front USB doesn't affect files in this fashion if they're working fine.

[Neil Jones]

Ports might be physically damaged. It has to be a problem with those ports as you've had the mainboard changed. Tape them off, there's obviously something wrong with them. Using front USB doesn't affect files in this fashion if they're working fine.

[zaxbat]

I have been doing a lot of research on this issue of ntoskrnl.exe missing/corrupt and USB. One thing is for sure, there is not necessarily any problem with the ntoskrnl.exe. After reinstalling a good copy of ntoskrnl.exe I still get the error. It seems like a bios problem, in my case. I am trying to fix a computer for somebody at church. If you try to boot it with anything plugged into any USB port you get the ntoskrnl.exe missing/corrupt message. But if you just unplug all of the USB stuff before booting, it comes up fine with no problems. Then I plug in the USB stuff after booting and all USB devices work fine. There is something going on during the boot process that throws this erroneous error message. Obviously there is not really anything wrong with either the ntoskrnl.exe or the USB ports. It just seems to be some transient incompatibility during the bios boot up sequence. Once windows starts comming up (as soon as you get the first high-res screen) you can already plug in the USB stuff and it is fine.