SPCR

Hello volks

Since I installed my Windows Vista (x86), I noticed that sometimes the boot up sequence is interupted with the error message:

The file is possibly corrupted. The file header checksum does not match the computed checksum.

It does nothing than displaying this message, in white letters on black background, until I press CTRL, Alt + Del ... then it boots up ok again.

I would say this happens about once every 10 times switching on my PC.
A soft reset always helps but I wonder for what might be behind this strange error ?

Have you had this ever too ?

Cov wrote:Have you had this ever too ?

No, thankfully.

I smell a reinstall in your future...

Does CHKDSK bring up anything?

psiu wrote:... I smell a reinstall in your future ...

Sniff, sniff ... hmm .... really ?

I want to change from Vista x86 to Vista x64 anyway.

DaveLessnau wrote:Does CHKDSK bring up anything?

Oh boy, running chkdsk is easy, but I didn't know how difficult it was to find the log afterwards:

How to run chkdsk in Vista

Click Start / Computer / right click the C drive and select properties / tools tab / Error-checking: check now / because the c: drive was in use, chdsk was scheduled to run after reset.

... after a restart the screen just got black and the HDD becomes very busy, for a long time. No graphical feedback - nothing.

Then Windows restarted. Again: nothing. No report, no result - nothing.

Google helped me finding that after running chkdsk a log has been stored, and here is where to find it:

Control Panel / System & Maintenance / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer / Left Panel: expand Windows Logs / click Application / Middle Column: find Wininit and highlight ... window underneath: the Details tab explains the outcome of chkdsk

My report says:

Checking file system on C: The type of the file system is NTFS.
A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
334720 file records processed.
8107 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
2 EA records processed.
41 reparse records processed.
389204 index entries processed.
0 unindexed files processed.
334720 security descriptors processed.
27243 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal... 35417640 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)... 334704 files processed.
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)... 51577590 free clusters processed.
Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
976751968 KB total disk space.
769806732 KB in 288876 files.
165524 KB in 27244 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
469348 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
206310364 KB available on disk.
4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
244187992 total allocation units on disk.
51577591 allocation units available on disk.

Windows has finished checking your disk. Please wait while your computer restarts.

Guess what, after restart it stuck again on the error message described in my first posting.
A soft reset made windows start up ok again.

Well, with the help of google I found that several people had the same error message, like described in my first posting.

They found that it might be some kind of hardware incompatibility (DVD RW) or another person changed one of his RAM modules and the error disappeared for him.
It doesn't seem that there's a HDD fault and neither would then a reinstall of the OS help.

Will see if installing the 64-bit version of Vista makes any difference.

That's odd about the lack of display while CHKDSK was running. On my system, I can see all those messages come up in their Black & White glory.

You might also try some memory diagnostics. Vista has a tool of its own (type MEMORY in the Search Bar under the Start Button -- that should pull up the memory diagnostics). I've never used that, so I don't know how well it works. You could also try Memtest86+:

http://www.memtest.org/

maybe I am missing something.What kind of hard drives are you using?
model number if seagate.

Western Digital WD10EACS

Run memtest to see if that labels a RAM stick as bad.
/went through something similar and it was the RAM....

That's a beautiful idea, but ... I found via google so many issues with this memory diagnostic tool from Vista.
People report that the memory test runs in a loop, again and again or other strange things happening ... the worst was that Windows did not start at all anymore.

I don't even dare running it.

western digital takes care of that question
some models of seagate have problems and need firmware updates

Alright, this info is from the Western Digital Support section:

Problem:
"INVALID CHECKSUM ERROR" error message encountered when booting the system.

Cause:
A checksum is computed as an error-detecting code that protects the BIOS settings stored in the CMOS memory.
Each time the system is booted this number is recomputed and checked against the stored value.
If they do not match, an error message is generated to tell you that the CMOS memory contents may have been corrupted and therefore some settings may be wrong.
The most common cause of checksum errors in CMOS is a battery that is losing power. Viruses can also affect CMOS settings, as can motherboard problems.
This error message will not be caused by an EIDE drive.

Resolution:
Please contact your motherboard manufacturer for specific information and assistance with the checksum error you received.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Have contacted Asus Technical Support just now ...



Ah, I can guess what their reply will be:

1. Clear the CMOS
2. Check the battery
3. Update the BIOS
4. blahblahgiveadamn ...

Did you try:

SFC /SCANNOW

Hmmm, that's strange ...

This looks like a new fresh windows install to me

Here is the response from Asus:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.
My name is Lyn and it's my pleasure to help you with your problem.

First, please clear CMOS(RTC RAM) for a try.
1. Turn OFF the computer and unplug the power cord.
2. Remove the onboard battery.
3. Move the jumper cap from pins 1-2(default) to pins 2-3. Keep the cap on pins 2-3 for about 5~10 seconds, then move the cap back to pins 1-2.
4. Reinstall the battery.
5. Plug the power cord and turn ON the computer.

Also, you can try to use ASUS CrashFree BIOS utility.

If having any problems, please don't hesitate to let me know. Let's discuss this issue together.
Thank you for using ASUS products and enjoying ASUS services!

Lyn

ASUS Customer Service Center (Shanghai, China)

Attached were two documents, one showing the jumper affected and the other how to use the CrashFree utility.


On another forum someone looked at my log and found that the whole issue is about the following files being corrupt:

• - all of the cursor files (*.ani & *.cur)
  - mem.exe
  - secdrv.sys
  - MSHWCHTR.dll *
  - himalaya.ttf.

* MSHWCHTR.dll hasn't been repaired, because the backup was corrupt aswell.
MSHWCHTR.dll is some sort of handwriting plugin for tablet use.

secdrv.sys is some sort of copy protection that is commonly used in game.

Well, the suspicion of maybe faulty RAM is very strong.
As I don't have spare RAM to test, I leave everything as it is now.

As I said before, the worst thing that is happening atm is the booting being interrupted.
Not nice, but after a soft reset it boots up alright again.

Sorry to hear...keepy your data backed up anyway!

Uuhh, you don't need spare RAM. http://www.memtest.org/