my computer is messing with me (1 Viewer)

[Brice]

I have been having problems with my computer for a little over a month now and have searched online for some help... with no luck on the problem. Could anyone here either try to help me out or direct me to a place that would help me out in this time of need. Alright, first let me explain what my computer is:

It's a 2GHz Pentium 4 compaq nv1000 laptop running windows 2000, i got it from my college to do work with, it's got only a 40 gig hard drive, 256 ram and the like.

The problem that occurs is on startup. When i turn on the computer it starts normally boots up everything and before it can complete the startup process the sceen turns that familiar blue :frowning: and it displays a lengthy message on it for about a second then restarts the startup process from the beginning. When it reaches that same spot it has the error and starts all over again, its a continuous loop of hopelessness... well, so what i do is i get it to start up in safe mode, that works! and scan it for viruses and the like and try restarting it, and its about a 1 in 10 chance that it'll start up correctly. But 9/10 of the time it goes back to the constant restarting thing.

when it finally does come back on it displays a message that says:

Windows - Unable to Load Device Driver
SystemRootSystem32DriversSENTINEL.SYS
device driver could not be loaded.
Error Status was 0xc000007b

Well, also this all may help, when i try to shut down it brings up the "end now" pop up box for something called "DX diag" (or so i think) and also from time to time a "new hardware" message pops up with a hardware piece called "net" and there's nothing new loaded...

I believe i'm fuc*ed, but i want to spare it all that i can, i got lots of files on this... and stuff like this makes me wish i had gone Mac in the first place

thanks for all the help, i hope that there is some,
Brice

 

[John_Berger]

Sentinel is a security product that is released by Rainbow Technoligoes. I believe that it is used for software licensing. Do you have software on the system that was installed by the school and meant for use with school licenses?

Here is their tech support link. That might help you. http://www.rainbow.com/support/index.html

Whilein safe mode, you should look at the Add/Remove Programs function to see if there is anything related to Sentinel installed.

Another option is to edit the registry, search for any entries that load SENTINEL.SYS, and delete the entries to prevent loading. It might disable some software, but then you'd at least be able to identify the root problem.

DXDiag is the diagnostic program for DirectX. I have no idea why that would be running automatically. Ditto on the "New Hardware" message.

If you take care of the SENTINEL.SYS problem, you should get the newest McAfee or Norton antivirus program and virus signature file and run a scan on everything -- just in case.

 

[brentl]

Try this page!

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBM/tip6200/rh6215.htm

desribes you exactly

Brent

 

[Brice]

cool, thanks, i'm going to try to get the data that shows up at startup (with my little bro's videocamera and a keen eye)... i'll try to update my drivers as soon as possible but i'll have to burn it to a cd, cause i don't have internet access at home (boonies)... i'll let you all know what happens when that time comes, thanks again. Brice

 

[brentl]

At the bottom of the downloads page is a repair tool of sorts. If that matches your version tryit!

Brent

 

[Brice]

I reinstalled the drivers and boom, everything works now... i'm greatful, thanks for all the help, and all the quick responces... Man i love forums like this.

Brice