start button/task bar problem

On my wifes computer I have a new issue. It is a Dell Inspiron 600m laptop running XP pro with all the updates. Recently I walked into the room where the computer was running to find it locked with a bluescreen containing the message "stop: c0000221 unknown hard error\system root\system32\ntdll.dll" Restarting produced the same result. I did some searching and found the cure to this problem was to replace the corupted file "ntdll" which I did using system recovery with the origional XP disk. The computer restarted successfully after that but now has a new issue. The start button has enlarged itself to cover the bottom half of the screen and is so big you can only see the top of it and cannot even see the word start in it. I can lower it down by dragging the top of it with the taskbar unlocked but cannot resize it to normal and I cannot see the rest of the taskbar either due to it's size. It also takes the computer longer than usual to boot. Anyone see this before? Any ideas on a cure? I tried updating the video driver which did not help. I also looked everywhere for a setting to change this with no success.

 

From the sounds of it, your disk corrupted some files. Running chkdsk /r is first step to fixing any errors or determining if the disk is even repairable.

Then you want to get the XP install disk and run a repair/install.

 

Running chkdsk now. How do I do the repair/install from the XP disk?

 

Boot from XP CD. (If this is an OEM disk then follow the instructions from your OEM provider and ignore these directions. Typically you only have one option, format and reinstall from scratch, they DO NOT ALLOW repair installs, you need the REAL XP CD to do this.)

When its ready it will ask you to either:

Hit 'R' for RECOVERY CONSOLE. This will not reinstall. Assuming you want to repair/install we do not select this option

Hit 'Enter' to install XP. Hit enter here. This will then load the OS into a RAMDISK getting ready for an installation. It will then LOOK for existing installations and then display them.


At this point you will be given two choices, REPAIR by hitting 'R' or INSTALL NEW by hitting 'Enter'. to repair/install hit 'R' here.

Hitting enter here will then install XP in another directory causing you to have two XP installs on the same partition, this is bad. You could install on a fresh new partition but that's another story...

 

Thanks for the advice. I used the OEM Dell XP CD and it worked fine. All is back to normal with no loss of files or settings. The only thing that needs to be redone after a repair/install is to get all the updates from microsoftupdate again. Thanks much.