[jyang81]

This morning my computer was laggy, so I decided to restart it.
I first got the 'windows did not start successfully" prompt w/ the 5 options of Safe Mode, Safe Mode w/ Networking, Safe Mode with Cmd Prompt, Last Known Good Config, & Start Windows Normally. Then, the Windows XP boot loading screen appeared and then it restarted over and over again. When I choose a safe mode option, I get a long list of drivers displayed on the screen. The only new hardware addition that I made was adding an additional 512 MB of ram to my dell dimension 4550 two months ago. Any suggestions? Thanks.

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Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. Can you boot into safe mode? It is normal to see the list of drivers as you boot into safe mode. The important thing we need to know in order to help, do you get all the way booted up into safe mode? Another question: do you have a windows install cd? You may need a bootable cd for further troubleshooting if you can't get into safe mode. Did you try selecting "last known good config"?

[austin_o]

Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. Can you boot into safe mode? It is normal to see the list of drivers as you boot into safe mode. The important thing we need to know in order to help, do you get all the way booted up into safe mode? Another question: do you have a windows install cd? You may need a bootable cd for further troubleshooting if you can't get into safe mode. Did you try selecting "last known good config"?

[Johanna]

To disable Auto-Reboot (on by default in XP)
Control Panel>System>Advanced>Start Up & Recovery> Settings

On an XP SP2 machine, disable the auto reboot is an option on that screen that lists safe mode, last known good config etc...

Check your event logs in Admin Tools.

Johanna

[jyang81]

None of the last known good config or safe modes work, in fact when I pick safe mode, a list of drivers fills the screen and then it freezes. When I tried to make the hard drive a slave drive in my other desktop, it could not read the drive and it said that the drive was not formatted. I guess it's a lost cause, so I'm gonna reformat it and hope it works well.