# session 3 initialization failed



## muppet90 (Oct 10, 2004)

Hi all,

I have agreed to look at my friends computer problem is (she turned the computer on - message saying (no operating system found) I used a copy of windows ME to get to the c: and did an fdisk it was showing the hard drive so I knew it couldnt be that so I formated it from there. 

When I put a copy of XP on there it loads all the windows files/drivers before you get to the point of the (EUA (F8 to aggree) it comes up with the ((session 3 initialization failed)) blue screen of death I have read on a few sites that say it could be the memory but I have tried the 512 stick in the othe 3 ram slots - and I also used 1 stick from my computer and it still gives me the blue screen of death I even used my genuine copy of xp to see if it was the disk 

can anyone help me I know its not the hard drive nor the memory I just need to know if its the motherboard ? 

Any help would be fabulous!

Rick


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## muppet90 (Oct 10, 2004)

WOW I thought I might see if I can get ME on the computer and it worked I can get the ME operating system on there - but when I go to load XP it doesnt want to know it at all from boot up - Maybe I may try loading XP through ME otherwise any other suggestions are welcome. Rick


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## !XFIRE! (Aug 18, 2008)

Try a older CD-version one with no service packs. then load the SP's separately

It worked for my


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## cancermage (May 19, 2010)

Ok, after countless hours searching and sleuthing for this issue, I could not find a resolution...until now. This is my first post ever on a technical forum, so be gentle to me. I will probably never reference this form, so you if this helped you, please let me know by sending me comments to my email at: 

Technical Symptoms:
Blue Screen (BSOD)
Session 3 Initialization Failed (Session3_Initialization_Failed)
STOP 0x0000006F (0xc0000034)
This BSOD would load for both normal and safe mode.
The operating system in question was Windows XP Home SP2.

Reason: The issue occurred after I ran a virus scan using a PE boot disk that deleted the C:\windows\system32\smss.exe system file.

Resolution: By using the "dir smss*.* /s" at a DOS prompt from the PE boot disk, I was able to search the whole computer for any available files and it found a clean version in a directory. So to fix the issue I copied C:\windows\$ServicepackUninstall$\smss.exe to C:\windows\system32\ using a PE boot disk.

Acknowledgements: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/153742 , this link gave me a hint that it may be smss.exe (even though it references win2000). Upon looking at the antivirus logs, sure enough the smss.exe was found to be infected and deleted it as it could not disinfect it. I'm assuming if I did not have a virus free smss.exe file on the C: drive in another folder, I may have to pull it from a CD or find it online.

Sincerely,

John White
A+,MCP,CCENT,CCNA,MCITP


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## Cmrogy777 (Oct 8, 2010)

cancermage said:


> Ok, after countless hours searching and sleuthing for this issue, I could not find a resolution...until now. This is my first post ever on a technical forum, so be gentle to me. I will probably never reference this form, so you if this helped you, please let me know by sending me comments to my email at:
> 
> Technical Symptoms:
> Blue Screen (BSOD)
> ...




The above worked for me! 

Thank you.


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