PCTech Forums

Guys I hope you can help! Last week, while booting my Dell Dimension 8400 I got the BSOD and the following message: "Stop: c0000221 {Bad Image Checksum} The image imagehlp.dll is possibly corrupt. The header checksum does not match the computed checksum." I'm a newbie at computer repair so if someone has a solution you'll need to walk me through it. I have years of invaluable Civil War research on my computer which I haven't backed up since June. When I called Dell they thought it was a problem with the hard drive and replaced them (although I still have the originals with the research on them). These must be returned in a few days. Any ideas? Thanks so much! I'm at my wit's end, and Dell's support has been unhelpful. Scott

Turn the computer on and tap on the f8 key after about a minute, you should get a screen with menu options, one of them will be safe mode. Select that and see if it boots.

If it boots sucessfully, I would go buy another hard drive and take the system to a repair shop (experienced in Raid 0 setups) and have them transfer the directory on your raid to the new drive.

I've never messed with a Raid 0 setup and I am rather dubious of what Dell gave you for Cd software--probably a ghost image which is no good for doing a repair from the command consol. In addition, in order to run SFC /Scannow from the run line in safe mode, the cab files have to be on the hard drive. Dell usually installs them in the directory C:\Windows\Options\Cabs. If they are there or in the C:\I386 you should be able to run it..

You might be better off paying $200 to get a professional that knows Raid 0 to get you out of this mess.

Anybody else with some expertise on this issue, feel free to chime in-----No Dell Horror Stories!!!!!! We don't have the space!

As I see it you have two options to try:
1.Check you Ram stick(s) that could very well be the problem
2. Replace the imagehlp.dll file with a known good one


1. Ram can also be the cause of a Stop: c0000221 {Bad Image Checksum} error.
If the ram is bad it will report the Checksum incorrectly and would cause the error.
Download extract it to a floppy and boot from that floppy.
Let memtest run for at least an hour to get good results if you get an error then replace the ram.

2. You will need a system with a cd burner, a windows XP CD, you SATA drivers floppy disk and Bart’s PE.
Download and install it on a good system.
Drop in the winXP CD and create the bootable ISO, burn the ISO and boot the troubled system from the CD you burned.
During boot up press F6 when asked about third party SCSI drivers place the SATA drivers floppy in.
Once Bart’s PE has loaded you can replace the imagehlp.dll with the known good one from a command prompt.
Put the imagehlp.dll on a floppy and from the command prompt type:
copy a:\imagehlp.dll C:\windows\system32\ and press enter
Reboot and see if it loads

Icecube & Gecko, thanks so much for your advice. Since I'm a novice, and this appears to be a touchy situation, I'm going to take it to a "professional." Have a great holiday, Scott