Here’s something I found very peculiar after my system crashed. After installing a CD labelling program, it spontaneously exited. After this occured 3 or 4 times, I decided to remove and reinstall the program. The issue continued to behave accordingly. The last time it did this, my c:\windows\system32\drivers\ntfs.sys file was “missing or corrupt.” After several reboots, it finally booted completely. I then removed the program, deleting all registry entries and removing any pieces left behind. Walked away from the machine for a moment only to return to another crash. The system had rebooted on its own, this time not coming back up at all. Still displaying the message described above.
So, I began the process of reinstalling Windows. However, I received this message: “An unexpected error has occurred. (536821760) occurred at line 1768 in D:\xpclient\base\boot\setup\arcdisp.c.” After trying several troubleshooting procedures, including swapping drives (HD & CD) even attempting to install 98, which also generated a similar message.
After hours of arduous attempts, I finally pulled my memory modules only to discover a bad slot. I had attempted to locate this error on MS Knowledge base, but no matter how I entered it, no results. Then only after I resolved the issue was I able to locate this article. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q316400
MicroShaft should really make their searches less particular. In the heat of troubleshooting, onecannot always word the error exactly how MS wants to see it, even entering the message word-for-word, it never came up.
Anyway, I thought I’d share this here in case anyone else encounteres this issue.