[michaelal35]

My computer is unable to load winxp any longer. When I try to boot it, it just goes into a choice list, "safe mode" "normal mode" or a mode that last worked. No matter what I choose, it just reloads the same dos screen or sometimes the screen will just go black.

I dont know what it could be-- I haven't changed anything on it, except I unhooked the modem a week ago, since I was using the ethernet cord for another system. A few days after that is when the problem started. So, how could I get something malicious without it being hooked to the Internet?

Nothing seems to work-- the only thing I can do is load the BIOS screen, but unfortunately I'm unable to find an answer.

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Hi, and welcome to Geeks to Go.

Let's try the Recovery Console.

Put the Windows XP CD in the cd-rom drive and shut the machine OFF. Power the machine back on and watch the screen for the prompt "Press any key to boot from cd"...press the spacebar once.

This should take you to a "Welcome to Setup" screen...Press R to load Recovery Console"

On the next screen, select your operating system by typing the number to the left of it. In most cases, this will be 1. C:\WINDOWS...so type 1.

If you are prompted to type a password, leave it blank and press "Enter".

This should take you to a command prompt...C:\WINDOWS>

Type chkdsk /r and press "Enter". Note the space before /r. You may be told the volume is in use and asked if you want to schedule this to run on the next boot...type Y and press "Enter". This should start the chkdsk operation.

If the machine doesn't reboot automatically, but returns to command prompt, type exit and press "Enter". The machine should reboot...do not press a key to boot to cd...let it boot to the HDD.

This will be a very long check and may appear to start over a few times...this is normal, let it finish. 60 to 90 minutes for this check is not unusual. It should then automatically boot to Windows.

[piper]

Hi, and welcome to Geeks to Go.

Let's try the Recovery Console.

Put the Windows XP CD in the cd-rom drive and shut the machine OFF. Power the machine back on and watch the screen for the prompt "Press any key to boot from cd"...press the spacebar once.

This should take you to a "Welcome to Setup" screen...Press R to load Recovery Console"

On the next screen, select your operating system by typing the number to the left of it. In most cases, this will be 1. C:\WINDOWS...so type 1.

If you are prompted to type a password, leave it blank and press "Enter".

This should take you to a command prompt...C:\WINDOWS>

Type chkdsk /r and press "Enter". Note the space before /r. You may be told the volume is in use and asked if you want to schedule this to run on the next boot...type Y and press "Enter". This should start the chkdsk operation.

If the machine doesn't reboot automatically, but returns to command prompt, type exit and press "Enter". The machine should reboot...do not press a key to boot to cd...let it boot to the HDD.

This will be a very long check and may appear to start over a few times...this is normal, let it finish. 60 to 90 minutes for this check is not unusual. It should then automatically boot to Windows.

[michaelal35]

Thanks for getting back quickly. I tried to do as you said, but I only got as far as pressing the spacebar to load the CD. After that, it begins to load but then the computer stops loading and has an error message, something like the computer has shut down windows the wrong way. Then it goes black again. I can't get any farther than that...

[piper]

Well, that's not good.

This is what I'm thinking:

1. Boot to floppy disk instead (hopefully you have a floppy drive and hopefully this will work). Run scandisk.exe /r to repair bad sectors . You can download a boot disk from here.

2. If the machine still won't boot into Windows normally, try the Windows Repair again.

3. If worse comes to worse, use the boot floppy to format the hard drive and install Windows fresh.