A few causes.
1) Your keyboard may be spoilt. This will result in Windows reporting a corrupted ntoskrnl.exe file. Replace the keyboard and see if it helps. If it doesn't, move on to the next step.
2) Windows boot.ini file is corrupted. If you are using Windows 2000 and above, try this. Restart your computer. When you see some text shows on the monitor, keep on pressing F8. You will be shown with a menu shortly. Using the up down arrows on your keyboard, select
Last Known Good Configuration. Windows will boot. If you are using Windows XP, try System Restore. If this doesn't work, move on to the next step.
3)
Note: This is only for Windows XP users.Restart your computer. Press the Del (or a similar key) to go into BIOS. Change your first boot device to CD/DVD ROM drive and the second boot device to hard disk. Save and exit. Put in the Windows XP CD. Make sure that it is not the recovery CD, otherwise it will not work. Windows will now load from the CD. If it doesn't, just reboot with the CD still in the CD drive. Once Microsoft prompts, don't press Enter. Press R to select Recovery Console. Select Windows XP as the operating system.
When prompted for a password, just press Enter unless you have changed the administrator password. It is usually blank. Follow the on screen instructions to rebuild your boot.ini file. Once done, type in
exit to exit to reboot the computer.
Press Del (or a similar key) to get into BIOS again. Change the first boot device to your hard disk. Change the second boot device to your CD/DVD drive. Save and exit. Take out the Windows XP CD.
If this still doesn't work, move on to the next step.
4) Your ntoskrnl.exe may be missing. Follow Step 3 to get into Recovery Console. Type in this:
expand d:\i386\ntoskrnl.ex_ c:\windows\system32When prompted if you want to overwrite this file, type in Y and press Enter.
Type in
exit to exit Recovery Console and reboot your computer. Change the first boot device back to hard disk again.
If Step 4 doesn't work, read this
article by Microsoft.
Note: This article only applies to Windows NT 4.0 users.6) The last step before I wave white flag.
Follow Step 3 to get into Recovery Console. Once you are at the Recovery Console, type in this:
chkdsk /rWhen it is done, type in
exit to exit from Recovery Console. Reboot your computer and change the first boot device back to hard disk.
And if this still doesn't work, you will have to reinstall Windows.
