[wkd_chick]

Please help. I have a dell latitude D600 and it has windows xp professional. when I start it up the dell screen loads and then it says error loading operating system. I would restore the system and I have now found the disc but it won't load. Can anyone please help me?? I did go into the bios system and saved the settings and tried to start up again but that didn't work and I also tried to start it in safe mode and it just came up with the same message "error loading operating system".

I also posted this message before but no one was replying and my son is desperate for the laptop back, I have, how ever found the recovery disc but it won't load. If you need to check how far we got last time please look at my only other thread. Please help me???

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Welcome back, wkd_chick! Sorry about that other thread, I'm not sure why it dropped off my radar.

Can you tell me exactly what the CD says on top of it? Every word will help, I need to know exactly what you have before we proceed.

[The Admiral]

Welcome back, wkd_chick! Sorry about that other thread, I'm not sure why it dropped off my radar.

Can you tell me exactly what the CD says on top of it? Every word will help, I need to know exactly what you have before we proceed.

[wkd_chick]

ok cool, it says....
operating system
reinstallation cd
microsoft wondows xp professional
including service pack 1
cd100697

[The Admiral]

We're going to have to take this in small steps, we'll try one thing at a time. Here are the instructions for repairing your bootloader:

First, put the CD into the drive. Then, turn off your computer. Turn the computer back on and immediately start tapping the <F12> key, maybe once or twice a second. This will get you to the Boot Device Selection menu. Arrow down to Onboard or USB CD-ROM Drive and press Enter. You'll see a message that says "Press any key to boot from the CD-ROM drive...", when you see this message, press Enter again. You should then see a blue screen that says "Windows is copying files..." down at the bottom. If you do not see this message, please reboot the computer and try again.

You'll eventually get to a screen that says "Welcome to Windows Setup." Press the R key to Repair Windows using the Recovery Console. A black screen will come up asking you which installation you want to log onto, press 1 and then Enter. If it asks you for an administrator password, just leave it blank and press Enter, unless you know that you set up an Administrator password, in which case use that password.

You'll get to a prompt that is like a DOS Prompt, that says C:\WINDOWS>_. Type in fixboot and press Enter. A confirmation message will come up and then get you back to the flashing cursor. Type in exit and press Enter, which will reboot your computer automatically. Let it reboot, and see if it gets you into Windows.

Report back with your results!

Edited by The Admiral, 22 November 2008 - 05:16 PM.

[wkd_chick]

omg you are a genius! it got me in. what do you think caused it? as it was fine one minute and not the next. I would still like to do a system restore, I have done one before but I was just wondering if there is anything I should be cafeful of or need to do as a precaution so it runs smoothly. Thank you so much for your help, it really is appreciated and my son will be smiling from ear to ear when he wakes up in the morning.

[wkd_chick]

oh and it took a while to tell me but it just said that the system has recovered from a serious error

[The Admiral]

The system did just recover from a serious error. ;-)

I'd like you to go ahead and reboot the computer a couple of times to make sure everything is good. Please do this from the Start menu, not just holding the power button. I'll work up some instructions for the System Restore from Safe Mode.

[wkd_chick]

ok I did that and everything seems to be ok so far

[The Admiral]

Alright, let's try that System Restore.

Turn the computer off, then turn it back on and immediately start tapping the <F8> key, again once or twice a second. This will get you into the Advanced Boot Options menu. Arrow down to Safe Mode and press Enter. This will have a bunch of scrolling text lines, then it will get you into a login screen. Log in as you normally would, and it will just load up a desktop. Go to the Start menu, then to All Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, then select System Restore. Select my Restore my computer to an earlier time (if it is not already selected), and then click Next. Select a bolded date that has an available restore point, and then select a restore point you wish to restore to. Then select Next. A System Restore message may appear that lists configuration changes that System Restore will make. Click OK. Click Next one last time. System Restore will then restore the previous Windows XP configuration, and then restarts the computer in Normal mode. Log in if you have to, and you should be good to go!

[wkd_chick]

off to bed now but I will check back in the morning and hopefully start the long process of restoring so my son can get back to his runescape, lol. Thanks again for your help

[wkd_chick]

ok I will stay, lol

[wkd_chick]

I wanted to take it back to its factory settings and just start a fresh with it as I will be handing it to my son to keep and as it has been running slowly for a while, despite defrag etc etc I thought I would start a fresh instead as the last time I took it back to an earlier date there was only one to choose from.

[The Admiral]

Unfortunately, on a Latitude laptop, there isn't really a way to restore the computer to factory settings. If you would like to start fresh, you will have to use this restore CD to reinstall Windows XP, then download and install drivers to get everything working. From there you will need to install the programs that you want, like Runescape and Word and what not.