Turned on my other laptop and i am getting
Windows could not start because the following file is mising or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Please r-install a copy of the above file
Can you point me in the right direction with a step by step solution local computor shop wants £50 to reinstall!!!!
Do you have the operating system disc?
err No!!! as far as I know
what version of windows are you on rich? and do you know if you have the Recovery Console installed?
Its an inspiron 6400 and the sticker says designed for windows xp so unable to tell you if it has a recovery console installed its arounf 4 years old now!
Rich
Can you boot using the "last known good configuration"?
If you tap one of the "F" keys repeatedly (think its F8 but not sure for dell) as soon as you switch it on, it should give you the option.
You teasing me Dave? i,m a feckwit when in comes to computors 
Haha, give it a go. Im not so clued up myself but Ive had a similar problem to this ages ago with my old dell desktop.
"last known good configuration" can sometimes fix this, but not all that often (there's numerous causes for this error). worth a try though cos it's by far the simplest of the potential solutions.
failing that, i'm afraid that unless you've got the Windows Recovery Console already installed then you're going to need the installation media (XP install disk) in order to have any chance of repairing this. unless you can get your hands on a disk with EXACTLY the same version of Windows that's installed on the machine, then yr computer shop is probably your only option...
if all this fails, then you've got a failed hard drive and it'll need replacing.
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/785848-emergency-dell-inspiron-6400-factory.html
Looks like F8 is indeed the key you want to be hammering.
Also try booting in "safe mode", see if that works.
Maybe I could send you the file (I have xp pro with SP3 on my machine) and if you could get it onto your machine when you're in safe mode, and then replace it, it could work?
dave, in theory yes that would work but you couldn't replace it whilst booted into Windows, even safe mode- you'd need to boot into DOS and use copy <driveletter>:\ntoskrnl.exe c:\windows\system32
where <driveletter> represents the drive you have media with the new version of the file on it (i.e. a for floppy disk, d for CD etc)... bearing in mind that the CD ROM might not work immediately in DOS, you may need to go through a little routine to load the drivers for it (in other words, it's potentially not that straightforward to do this!)
Make sure you've not got a bootable USB key or other device plugged in, or a CD in the drive.
Assuming it's actually broken, you can recover it without the CD. Boot up in Safe Mode With Command prompt, then type the following,
cd c:\windows\system32
copy "..\driver cache\i386\ntoskrnl.exe"
I'd do a chkdsk whilst you're at it too.
It might have a Symantec recovery partition which would enable you to restore your PC to its factory settings.
if you see a blue bar with http://www.dell.com at the top of the screen during the startup process then hit CTRL+F11 and follow the onscreen prompts
This will wipe your hard drive to its factory settings and you will lose what ever is on your hard drive.
Cheers guys the f8 key worked after several goes now its working on safe mode and i have to start it this way ever time I turn it on
nah you don't, you can repair the windows installation as per what cougar said up there, and in future it'll boot normally.
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