My computer suddenly stopped working today as did my wife's laptop. Both run on XP Home. Both have AVG running at all times. No new hardware added.
I have tried rebooting in safe mode and previous known configurations with no success. I tried to load the operating system cd to repair Windows but no success. I finally got a blue screen with the following message.
The problem seems to be caused by the following file: partmgr.sys
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x00000050 (0xF77114AB, 0x00000000, 0xF77114AB,0x00000000)

*** partmgr.sys - Address F77114AB base at F770F000, DateStamp 00000000


Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks

Other than your XP Home OS and your AVG do you have anything else in common? I once ran the Sunbelt Firewall in both home PCs and I was getting BSODs in both. The only thing they had in common was this firewall. Once I uninstalled stability returned.

Both of you are running AVG and I am taking a guess here that it might be your cause. The 0x50 error can happen due to several issues and antivirus software is one of them.

Uninstall, not just disable, AVG. Their latest version 8 is causing many people difficulties and it is bloated as well. There is also an AVG removal tool that you are going to need to use because these softwares are known to leave remanants of themselves behind. You should be able to find it on their website.

Reboot once you uninstall. Have you gained stability? Let us know.

How can I uninstall AVG if I can't get the computer to boot up? I can't get past the error message. On my wife's laptop it keeps trying to boot but keeps returning to the screen where I have choice of safe mode.. normal boot .. etc.
thanks in advance

Try running CheckDisk from the Recovery Console

Boot from your XP CD
Select the first R prompt
Select 1 (for the Administrator account)
Press enter to continue
Should be no password

On the recovery console, type:
chkdsk c: /f
Or you can type: chkdsk c: /? to see all the alternatives you can use

Allow Checkdisk to check (and likely repair) any issues
Restart your computer and try going to Safe Mode With Networking

Run the AVG removal tool
Then restart normally to Normal mode (I hope )

Then continue here: (Note Avira Antivirus is preferred)
UPDATED 8-step Viruses/Spyware/Malware Preliminary Removal Instructions

I loaded the XP cd and pressed R for recovery but got the error message that "setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer"
setup could not continue.
any other suggestions?

Sounds as though the Harddrive has failed

When you turn it on does it it still get to the message select Safe mode etc?
If so, then the Harddrive has not failed but the Windows version is corrupt
You would need to try a Repair on Windows

Microsoft's Windows XP Home Repair Install step by step
http://www.windowsxphome.windowsrein...exfullpage.htm

If that also says that you have no Harddrive installed, you may need to do a full re-install of Windows:
Microsoft's Windows XP Home Repair Install step by step (* Including Delete Partition)
http://www.windowsxphome.windowsrein...exfullpage.htm

* Warning deleting the Partition will remove all User data and Windows system files

If you have data (pictures documents etc) that you need to back up first. Then you could create and run The Ultimate BootCD (which can only be used if the Harddrive is at least found)

If no alternatives above work, then again it can be a failed Harddrive
I would first confirm that the cables internally are connected and seated securely
Possibly remove all internal dust
Then depending upon the result, replace the Harddrive

Please reply with which alternative worked

We can get to the text based menu with choices of safe mode, last known, etc. but when we try to get to recovery console or reinstall windows it states no hard drive found. A test was run through the bios (gateway bios) and stated hard drive failed. A seagate tools test was done which showed hard drive failure also.
any suggestions?

partmgr.sys
=> It's the Microsoft Partition Manager
=> It's implemented as a "filter driver" and is applied to every disk on your computer

So all symptoms are very consistent with hard drive corruption and/or failure