Problems booting into Windows

Hi,

I have a Gateway laptop that has (or had ) Windows Vista Home Premium x86 installed. It was a dual core Turion with 2GB RAM. Anyway, here is my problem(s):

When the computer first comes on, right after the Gateway screen it tells me:
-System Config Data Read Error.
That is right when it turns on. The BIOS detects the hard drive just fine.

The second problem is:

It tells me that

Windows Failed to start. File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot config data.

I tried to do a system repair with the Vista CD. It took about 10 times for it to work. If I turned the computer off, there is a 50/50 chance it would do the same thing and not work. I was chatting with Gateway support yesterday and the tech told me that Windows could be messing with the BIOS. I find that strange because I thought once Windows took over, the BIOS has nothing to do with how the computer operates.

Well, I tried doing a system repair and it does not detect the Windows install at all. I figured well, I'll do a clean install and get rid of all of the crap that Gateway puts on their computers. I did that. I was able to make a new partition and format the drive. Windows is able to see the drive, but it tells me that it does not meet the criteria for the install. It will not go any further then that.

Gateway is going to replace the hard drive and if that does not work, they are going to service the laptop because I've only had it for a few months now. It worked fine on Tuesday, on Wednesday it did not work at all. Even with the hard drive out, it still tells me System Config Data Read Error on the BIOS screen. Just wanted to see what everyone else thinks.

I'm leaning more towards a drive controller failure or BIOS problem. If that is the case, then the motherboard needs to be replaced, yay.

Thanks

Justin

Boot up the Vista DVD. Can you get to a DOS prompt in repair mode? chkdsk C:/r

Hi Justin,

Is the clock in the BIOS maintaining the correct time and date? It could be that the battery that maintains the CMOS data is failing, and that the BIOS is reverting back to its default configuration.

SCSIraidGURU said:

Boot up the Vista DVD. Can you get to a DOS prompt in repair mode? chkdsk C:/r

Click to expand...

I tried that, nothing.

Dwarf said:

Hi Justin,

Is the clock in the BIOS maintaining the correct time and date? It could be that the battery that maintains the CMOS data is failing, and that the BIOS is reverting back to its default configuration.

Click to expand...

It is keeping the correct time.

atl530i said:

Well, I tried doing a system repair and it does not detect the Windows install at all. I figured well, I'll do a clean install and get rid of all of the crap that Gateway puts on their computers. I did that. I was able to make a new partition and format the drive. Windows is able to see the drive, but it tells me that it does not meet the criteria for the install. It will not go any further then that.

Click to expand...

Hi Justin,

How big is this partition, and what file system did you format it as?

I formatted it as an NTFS drive with a ~232GB partition. The drive is a 250GB WD Scorpio. That 1024 rule...

I guess my next step is to see if I can run Linux on it, run Memtest and see if that is the problem. Any other tests that I can do to the motherboard to make sure it works??

Thanks.

Hi,

You might try this iso for bootable cd includes several Bios tools

Hirens BootCD 9.6 with keyboardpatch (download torrent) - TPB

Hope it helps

SIW2

Thanks, I will d/l that tonight.

Justin

Fixed. The BIOS somehow got corrupt and the hard drive was on its way out after only 4 months of service...

Thanks for all the help. The bootCD was cool, I messed around with that too on some older machines.