I have had a faulty ntoskrnl.exe cause my computer to lock up a few times. The following has got me back in business. May help with other things.
I have put a folder on my C: drive (krnl), and copied a good ntoskrnl.exe to it.
Go to
http://www.mirrors.org/archived_sof...iles/xpboot.exe
Download xpboot, put an empty Floppy Disk in drive and Click xpboot. Name it something you will remember. Start with the disk in the drive. It changes the letter on your CD drives, and shows you what they are on the first screen. Write them down so you remember. (Mine are R & S). (Enter) At A:\> prompt type, (space after copy, space after .exe).
copy C:\krnl\ntoskrnl.exe C:\windows\system32
(Enter)
If asked to overtype, type y, (Enter). Do Ctrl, Alt, Delete to Boot.
If you can get someone to Burn ntoskrnl.exe from Windows\system32 to a CD, put it in the drive and you can substitute your new CD drive letter for the first C:, and leave off krnl\.
Hope this helps someone. Sure helps me.