Vista on laptop crashes - Cannot autorecover - need advice

usignuolo

I was looking at facebook on the OH's laptop this morning (Acer Extensa, runs Vista) when it suddenly stopped working. I assumed it was out of power as I noticed main cable was in fact not fully plugged in.

But when I turned it back on I got message STOP C000021a {Fatal System Failure} plus various messages about collecting data for a system dump. I got prompted to set it to autorepair which I did, but that failed - there was a startuprepair list which included a Signature6 message saying Corrupt File but with no indication what file this might be.

I vaguely recall seeing at the time it first went down, some message about it night be connected to recent update but the main error message after the attempt to repair it was "Cannot repair automatically." It suggested removing any attached devices but there were none attached. Otherwise it suggested contacting sys admin (!) or manufacturer (!!!). The diagnostics say

last successful boot 6/15/20 5:06.14pm
RootCause
Bugcheck C000021a
then various parameter codes (which I cn post if you think it would be helpful)
then File Repair failed ErrorCode =0X2
then System File Ingegrity Check failed error code = 0X2.

Could it be a virus? My OH only uses laptop for work but he does have an external USB memory stick which he occasionally uses in hotel PCs when working so I suppose it is a possibility. Or is it an upgrade problem - some of the websites listing this indicate possibility?. It is set to autoupdate at 3.00am daily.

My OH uses it exclusively for work and there are no games loaded, just one or two specialist packages specific to his job. I was using it for the first time today when it crashed, it was working last night.

I cannot reinstall the software from CD as it came preloaded. Anyone got any advice or suggestions?

Browntoa

can you get into safe mode ??

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm#03

if so the try going back to an earlier date