[eklipze d00d]

Hey guys, I hope you can help. I did a search and read over several threads that talked about this problem, but mine is a little different. I had a tripped circuit last night and my desktop was effected. When I turned it back on, I got a black screen with just a flashing mouse cursor. I am running XP. It took a long time to load, but I was able to get into either the F2 or F12 menu (these were the only options and I'm not sure which one I was able to get into because I hit them both simultaneously). I selected System Startup and then hit exit, and it took about 20 seconds and my computer started up like normal. I thought this "fixed" whatever problem my computer was having, but when I restarted to check it did the same thing. I am able to get into my computer each time doing this way, but the total startup takes several minutes; however when I get logged on, my computer works just fine. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can fix whatever happened so that my computer starts up normally again without me having to do this each time? Thanks so much in advance!

Steve

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Hi Steve, welcome to G2G.

Which key allows you to get in and what does the screen say that key does? Also, what is the make and model of your computer?

Boot your XP CD. If you don't have one download either of these and create a bootable CD from the .iso file

XP Recovery Console
Another XP Recovery Console

You don't burn the iso file itself to CD., you create a CD from the iso file using your CD burning software. There is a good freeware burner called DeepBurner which will do this. Another called ISO Recorder is also very easy to use.

Boot the CD and at the first opportunity, enter R to start the Recovery Console.
Next, choose which XP installation you want to login to. Normally this will be 1.
Lastly you will be asked for the Administrator password. Just press the Enter key as the Administrator does not have a password (unless you gave it one, then you would enter it).

From the command prompt, enter: chkdsk c: /r

Allow it to complete undisturbed.

[Ztruker]

Hi Steve, welcome to G2G.

Which key allows you to get in and what does the screen say that key does? Also, what is the make and model of your computer?

Boot your XP CD. If you don't have one download either of these and create a bootable CD from the .iso file

XP Recovery Console
Another XP Recovery Console

You don't burn the iso file itself to CD., you create a CD from the iso file using your CD burning software. There is a good freeware burner called DeepBurner which will do this. Another called ISO Recorder is also very easy to use.

Boot the CD and at the first opportunity, enter R to start the Recovery Console.
Next, choose which XP installation you want to login to. Normally this will be 1.
Lastly you will be asked for the Administrator password. Just press the Enter key as the Administrator does not have a password (unless you gave it one, then you would enter it).

From the command prompt, enter: chkdsk c: /r

Allow it to complete undisturbed.

[eklipze d00d]

Wow, thanks! I really appreciate you taking the time to explain step by step and provide links and everything...major props to you for your kindness. I run into one little problem...lately my DVD-RW drive on the same computer that is having the problem has been giving me a real tough time reading anything but DVDs. It doesn't seem to want to play audio CDs or read CD-ROMs. I downloaded the ISO Recorder software you recommended...should I create the recovery software onto a DVD-Rom or just a regular CD-ROM and hope it works? I also have a flash drive I can put it on, but I'm not sure if that will read it and load from it before it loads Windows. Thanks so much again.

[Ztruker]

The iso files are of CD images so you will have to use a CDR.

Would be interesting to see what happens if you burn a DVD instead though. If you have time and want to experiment, try it and let me know if it works or not. I may try it myself the next time I get around to booting my computer.