I was rendering something yesterday that took 4.5 hours (never got a chance to save anything but the parameters), and it died at the last second and gave me some kind of memory reference error. My PC locked up, so I turned it off, intending to turn it back on. And then when I turned it on, it gave me a message stating my config/systems file was missing or corrupt.

I looked for a couple of hours for the start up CDs, to no avail. So I bit the bullet and called Dell support (my PC is no longer under warranty so I had to pay a fee), and they are sending the CDs. Hopefully I will get them today or tomorrow.

Has this happened to anyone else?

I've not had any problems like that with Apo, which I've been playing with a lot over the last few days.
Could you not have started your PC in Safe Mode and done a 'System Restore'?

I tried that multiple times. It still gave me the missing or corrupt file message.

run scandisk from the recovery console.

Sorry, I couldn't even get to the recovery console without the rescue discs. It won't let me do anything without them and I'm hoping they'll come today in the mail. If not, I seriously have to wonder whether or not people understand the meaning of the word "rush".

if you know someone with win cd you might ask to borrow it from them.

Hmm, never had any trouble with Apop and I run it on several systems all the time.
I couldn't really give much advice without seeing your Pc :(

No rescue CDs yet. :(

Well, maybe I'll have to find a fractal program for the Macbook.

Emily, maybe this might help... you laugh... until a solution is found. Kidding aside, good luck :o)

So I found out today they shipped the rescue CDs to the wrong person. :( Same last name, different first name, different address. (Actually at my old tech college.) But I never worked there. Go figure.

Wellll ... to possibly confuzzle your situation even more, since you have ... ahem ... some time on your hands now. (Just kidding, of course ... I feel your pain.)

How much RAM do you have?

And how is it broken down? Ie. One stick of 512k, or perhaps, two sticks of 256k ... and so forth.

My thinking here is that the root cause might be simply some bad memory. And if you could ... remove and replace as you go along, to try and source or rule this out.

Opening up your case won't invalidate any warranty now. And it is not that difficult to do. Google is your friend, in fact, YouTube ... er, right. You can't get up and running. :o|

Friend's house, perhaps? To view some instructional video on the 'how to replace RAM' ... would give you an overview on the steps involved.

I made the mistake of placing the incorrect RAM at one point. System would not boot. Came down to the type and design of the RAM that I was inserting was indeed ... the wrong stuff.

/\ Just some thoughts, that's all.

It probably is. My warranty is expired already anyway. I talked to a competent tech (finally) and he had me do ctrl F11 so now my computer is factory new and I get to install all the software tomorrow. Le sigh.

Hey Emily, glad to hear that you found a solution to your PC problem.

I'd like to offer a suggestion, in the event you or anyone else should run into the error of a missing and/or corrupt file on their PC.

On the assumption your operating system is XP, and you have access to a friend's XP installation disk. Run the System File Checker, by going to;

Start > Run > and type: sfc /scannow

(Notice that there is a space after sfc and before the forward slash /)

Click OK.

Any missing corrupt system files found in the scan can be replaced/copied from the borrowed XP disk.

More about SFC here

That should do it....me thinks.

Have a good day :)