Unable to boot - Safe Mode stops after crcdisk.sys

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I do have a warranty, It's a 3 year PRO warranty that thus far has been neither PROfessional nor PROactive!

The reason I mentioned the security certificates is that the system came with 139 trusted root certification authorities preinstalled; with perhaps a dozen or more of the certificates' intended purpose (when viewed) to be used for technologies that weren't even in existence back when the certificate was issued; as far as I know; e.g. 1997 and 1999 Bitlocker and  EFS/Encrypted File System Key Recovery Agent and other functions associated with EFS. There are others as well, including certificates for timestamping make it seem that 'the fox is guarding the henhouse,' if you know what I'm saying. This may be why I'm getting bounced back and forth between Dell and Microsoft; with each denying ownership of any issues--which don't even exist; as far as they're concerned!

A Dell agent guided me through a :Clean: install that turned out not to be so clean after all...After that reinstall, I insisted that they replace my hard disk, (which came with only 9 trusted root certification authorities, BTW) but it also came with the same non-updated Windows, Java, and Adobe vulnerabilities...When I received the system, new; BITS was stopped, and it's required for Windows Updates(Plug and Play, Security Center, and Event Viewer were also disabled. Tablet PC and Terminal Server were both enabled. This is a standalone system--no network, nada. )

Now the system won't run any updates, and I noticed something else that is peculiar IMHO: All windows updates had a Sept. 1 install date, the date that the tech installed the new HD. .NET 4 had updates Sept 3, then suddenly some updates showed install dates of Feb 2011 and Nov 2010. Is this normal?  I also have files on here from HP--driver files under DiFxApi that are unsigned, and others that are dated December 31, 1969--my favorite issue--I have also seen this on a Vista machine that was never hooked up to the Internet, my Kaspersky picked up svchost.exe, rundll32.exe, consent.exe, and several other important processes with the 1969 date--and no internet access-ever!!

Back to this Windows 7 machine: the lsass has a digital signature 16 months after its creation date! Something is rotten in Denmark....doyathink?

Oh, and thank you very much for the suggestion of the Dell Diagnostics. Sorry about the boldface. (I just looked up.) I'm not shouting!! :-)

Since your system is brand new it has to be supported by DELL? (depending on your contract; usually you have 2-year-pick-up service or something similar)

What you should do before: Run the DELL diagnostic tools (you should have the DELL CD-ROM).

If it is a hardware related problem, DELL (or the retailer where you bought it) has to care about it and fix it without of any charge.

I had a similar problem (no hardware problem) but in my case only a clean installation did it. My DELL laptop is three years old so no support by DELL etc.

Again, it is a brand new device and has to be supported!

Quote: "Security certificates issues et.al. are 'not their problem" ... IMHO Security certificates have nothing to do with the problem described here.

Good luck!

Hi Y'all

I'm almost hesitant to post this, but here goes:

I have a brand new Windows 7 64 bit system that has given me nothing but trouble. I am still digging into a good OS manual and online resources but sometimes I have questions for which answers are not readily available. I am being consistently rebuffed by Dell, who says that my security certificates issues et.al. are 'not their problem,' and that the many device conflicts among System Devices that I see in the Device Manager are not their purview. Digging deeper into the System Information Summary, I see that the Crcdisk Filter Driver's state is 'Stopped', and its start mode is 'Disabled'. I remember from before I migrated to Hackintosh, (I just returned to Windows 1 month ago) that crc stands for 'cyclic redundancy check' and that it is a very important process. It concerns me that this is stopped/disabled. Do y'all have any suggestions for me (be kind, please!) about this?

Any ideas on resources where I can go to get the real down-and- dirty details about Windows 7--the things my excellent OS manual won't tell me--such as the default settings for services, which of these system drivers should be running, and what to do when I see timestamp anomalies; e.g. a file's timestamp is several hours and minutes after its creation date? This is in several critical files such as svchost.exe., sc.exe., the several task scheduler modules, print spooler, client/server runtime process, and local security authority process---here the timestamp is a year and 4 months off...but my AV (Kaspersky) has reported nothing amiss....Is it possible malware is shutting down system functions necessary for safe operation? I DO have DEP enabled on everything.

I appreciate any advice you can give me. If you feel this is more appropriate for a different board, please let me know.

Just for information:

1. It is a software problem not a hardware problem as the MVP claimed
2. Maybe as other uses here suggested: An Adobe Flash update may causing the problem and/or crcdisk.sys may be corrupted (don't know how this is possible under Fista or Win7)
3. It is worth an attempt using sfc.exe (System File Checker) - but maybe you'll have troubles using the original CD when using a ServicePack of Fista or Win7 (...)
4. I'll try sfc.exe tomorrow and let you know if it worked or not of maybe I find a solution ...

Good luck.