[demozast]

A couple days ago I got home from work and my computer was on the "shutting down" screen. Well since then when it turns on it will get all the way to load the wallpaper but never go past that. No icons, CTRL/ALT/DELETE does nothing and the only way I can get to do anything is start it in safe mode. I've run Malware bytes and it detects nothing. Hopefully this is in the right forum to help me out.

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Boot to Safe Mode then do a System Restore to before this happened, that should fix it.

[Ztruker]

Boot to Safe Mode then do a System Restore to before this happened, that should fix it.

[demozast]

Did the restore option and still no change

[Ztruker]

Did the restore complete successfully? How far back did you go with the restore. Make sure it was at least a day or two before the problem occurred.

How did you get out of the "power down" hang? Did you just turn it off? If so, you can try running chkdsk from the Recovery Console. You are going to have to get into BIOS Setup on your computer to set the CD/DVD drive as the first bootable device, so you can then boot your XP CD, unless it provides the ability to press a Fn key at boot time to bring up the boot selection menu. If it does, use that.

How you do this varies with each manufacturer. Normally you press F1, F2, F10 or Del when you see the manufacturers logo. Often there is a clue somewhere on the screen when you boot normally telling you what key to press. Some computers (most newer ones) have a key you can press (often F12) to bring up the Boot Menu from where you can select the CD/DVD drive to boot from.

If you don't have an XP CD, download and run ARCDC by Artellos. It will download the required files from the Microsoft Web site and create a .iso file. It will also offer to burn the iso image to a CD for you. If you don't do it then, there is a good freeware burner called ImgBurn which will do it at a later time. If you're unsure how to do this, you can follow the tutorial here: How to Burn an ISO File. This can be done from any computer.
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, type: chkdsk /r and press Enter.
Allow it to complete undisturbed. It can take an hour or more depending on the size of the hard drive.

Remove the CD, type exit and the computer will reboot. Hopefully that will have fixed the problem (corrupted file system).

[demozast]

After sitting for hours not doing anything we flipped the switch on the surge protector to shut it down. I restored it make a couple months so it would have gone back plenty far enough and it appeared to have worked. I have a Compaq Presario if that helps out any. Not sure if my CD burner works, but I can give it a shot. I dont have the XP recovery CD'S (ex wife took them)

[demozast]

Did the ARCDC and Imgburn, but it wont do anything on my CD writer. says no medium detected. I think its inoperative. anything else to try? should I do the chkdsk/r ?

[Ztruker]

Boot to Safe Mode.
Click Start then Run, type chkdsk /r and press Enter.
You will get a message like this:

>chkdsk /r
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Type y and press Enter.
Reboot the computer. Chkdsk will run, let it finish. Can take an hour or more.

See if that works.

[demozast]

Nothing...I actually think it made it worse. It was hung up on the same screen 5 hours later and wouldnt let me into safe mode even then. Clicked on "last know good configuration" and got safe mode back at least.

[Ztruker]

Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
Bootable Hard Drive Diagnostics

[demozast]

I clicked on the links and this is totally foreign to me. I have no clue what hard drive I have so I am not sure what to select. It says to back up info before doing this but I have no way to do that so I am a little leary of doing it. I can sell on Ebay, check email and surf the web normally, but the internal workings of the computer are in left field to me.

[123Runner]

Before you can choose a diagnostic program for a hard drive, you need to know the drive manufacturer. We might be able to figure it out if we knew if its a laptop or desktop. Also what is the manufacturer of the computer? With out it running will make it difficult.

[demozast]

OK. I have a Compaq Presario desktop says SR1711NX and I have Windows XP Home edition. Right now it appears my USB ports dont work, CD drive doesnt work and I can only use my computer in safe mode. Hope this helps

[Ztruker]

If USB and CD don't work then you don't have many options as that leaves you no way to diagnose the problem or fix it. You're best bet is to take it to a reputable computer repair shop, or take this as a gift from the Gods and get a new computer