Can't boot Win 7; Stop code 0xc0000006, I/O error 0x%x

[violentpursuit]

I am working on a coworker's computer that has stopped booting Windows 7 OS. When booted, it goes to a black screen saying, "Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer." Further down, it's status is that an I/O error has occurred (0xc00000e9).

After googling this, I found how to make a bootable USB flash drive repair disk (since the system would not boot from the DVD drive). After running the System Restore program a couple of times, (and finding the root cause was that the registry was corrupt) I was able to get a bit further in the Windows boot screen (the logo came up, the wireless indicator light came on on the laptop, and the HDD indicator was flashing). It looked promising, until when the login screen should have appeared, it was a BSOD and had the stop code 0xc0000006 and that it failed to load the data into memory due to the I/O error code 0x%x.

Naturally, I began Googling this as well, but everything I found talked about getting minidumps and running a registry cleaner, none of which I could do because it would not boot at all, regular or safe mode both went directly to the BSOD. I can't find any solution to this that doesn't involve access to safe mode.

Also, I found one person with a similar problem, couldn't boot from HDD or Optical drive, and someone suggested that it was a SATA motherboard controller issue. However, they went out to buy a new HDD, installed it and it worked, meaning their problem couldn't have been controller related. Any thoughts???

 

[the great randini]

could be either,
reboot the pc and hit f8 untill you get boot options, can you boot into safe mode?
if so go into device manager and look for any exclamtion points, and that component would be the problem.

to open device manager click start and type devmgmt.msc then hit enter

 

[RealBeast]

Before buying anything, I would a full repair installation off a USB stick, which would save your programs and data, just require reinstalling all Windows updates. Here is a good tutorial on the steps: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

And if the Windows 7 is not SP1, you will need to get a disk image of the same version, but SP1 as a trial download from http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Windows-7-Download-118183.html Then after install just use your existing key to activate.

 

[violentpursuit]

could be either,
reboot the pc and hit f8 untill you get boot options, can you boot into safe mode?
if so go into device manager and look for any exclamtion points, and that component would be the problem.

to open device manager click start and type devmgmt.msc then hit enter

As I stated above, I cannot boot normally or in safe mode, I've tried every possible way to boot from the F8 boot menu. All of them end in the BSOD.

 

[RealBeast]

As I stated above, I cannot boot normally or in safe mode, I've tried every possible way to boot from the F8 boot menu. All of them end in the BSOD.

But you could work off a USB stick, so make a bootable Win 7 installer with the USB stick and do the repair install. It completely replaces the registry as far as all Windows stuff but maintains your programs and data. It is often the only way to fix a really bad registry problem. If you already have updated to SP1 though, you must use an SP1 image as you cannot do a repair install from an older OS version. I've done it dozens of times and it has always worked for me.

 

[violentpursuit]

But you could work off a USB stick, so make a bootable Win 7 installer with the USB stick and do the repair install. It completely replaces the registry as far as all Windows stuff but maintains your programs and data. It is often the only way to fix a really bad registry problem. If you already have updated to SP1 though, you must use an SP1 image as you cannot do a repair install from an older OS version. I've done it dozens of times and it has always worked for me.

Thanks Redbeast, that's what I'm trying next.

 

[violentpursuit]

*Realbeast