sfc corrupted, not working

I have an XP install disk from 2002, i.e. no service packs. After installing Sp3 I've been trying to use sfc with my i386 folder in Windows\ServicePackFiles but it hasn't worked because it keeps asking for the install cd. After canceling the process a few times sfc seems to have become corrupted. When I run it it /scannow, or even /?, it flashes on the screen for a moment, then disappears, and then the mouse cursor disappears and the system spontaneously reboots w/o logging off which causes a winlogon error when windows restarts. But otherwise windows seems to work o.k. afterwards. I did a system restore from safe mode just in case. Is there any way to repair the sfc module(if that's the right word)?

Sounds like you are getting a brief error message before the reboot. Do this. Click start -> run -> type 'cmd' and press ENTER. At the command prompt type: 'sfc /scannow > desktop\postme.txt' and press ENTER. Your system will reboot as usual. However, after your system boots back up, you will have a file on your desktop called postme.txt. That file will contain the output of the sfc command before it rebooted. Copy and paste it to the forum, or just look at it yourself to see what clues it provides.

On a side note, I've never used SFC to fix a windows problem. Maybe you could explain why you want to run sfc and then maybe we can resolve that issue.

Also, after performing the steps above, turn off your automatic restart on system failure so that you can see if a blue screen is being produced during the reboot.

Heres how:

How to disable Automatic Restart on System Failure (to get Blue screen info):

• Right-click My Computer, and click Properties.
• In the System Properties window, click the Advanced tab.
• In the Startup and Recovery section, click Settings.
• In the Startup and Recovery window, uncheck Automatically Restart under the system failure section.
• Click OK to close all system properties windows.
• Now your system will not automatically restart when it experiences a blue screen of death.

When you run the sfc /scannow command you should see more detailed information why your computer is trying to reboot. Its called a blue screen of death, and if you're lucky it will provide useful information.

I'm very familiar with the bsod since I started in computing with Windows 3.1. I've found that if I type sfc.exe /scannow instead of sfc /scannow the procedure works normally. The reason I'm doing a sfc is that 1) my computer has had intermittent problems with winlogon, nothing serious mostly annoying especially having to shut down the computer by "shutting down" and then having to go into the bios to turn off since "shut down" would only restart instead. But this seems to occur less and less and I hope it will just go away. 2) I haven't run sfc in years and I figure maybe it's a good idea. I tried doing an nlite slipstream, combining my original 2002 XP with Sp3 but there were still about 11 instances where sfc wanted the original cd. I kept hitting retry and finished the procedure. Would the postme you mentionned do a verbose sfc so I can see what files get skipped?