[johnnygonefishin`]

I turn on computer,screens says XP pro, flips to next screen "Windows is starting up"...freezes there,I hit f8 on statup and chose Xp with command promp tscrolls thru a bunch of files than does the same screen Windows is starting up...freezes, Tried chosing "last known good config,,same thing Windows is starting up

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Have you tried SAFE MODE yet?

Fenor

[Fenor]

Have you tried SAFE MODE yet?

Fenor

[johnnygonefishin`]

yes I've tried evey option that comes up on f8's menu, safe mode,safemode with command, screen turns black says safemode in all 4 corners than goes to blue screen that says starting windows,computer is a Dell with only cd drive. (no floppy)i have the cd that came with it but it doesn't boot from it.cd says operating systen already installed on your system. reinstalation disk win xp plus sp2

[Fenor]

Have you tried hitting F10 while the computer is booting? Some systems have a recovery partition and you hit F10 to access it, and you are given the option of doing a non-destructive recovery. Let me know if you have that option.

Fenor

[johnnygonefishin`]

f10 does not do andthing but f2 will allow me to change the bios and num lock ya know.it that the screen you mean?

[johnnygonefishin`]

I booted from cd and pressed R to restore but it comes up asking which install to restore with no options.

[kevinski]

seeing how this guy hasn't continued this topic for a while, may i?

he described my exact problem

i get to a screen that says 'please wait, windows is starting up' and my pc freezes there, the orange processing led on the front of my computer stops, indicating that the system is idle.

i can get into safe mode but not with networking. i can get into safe mode with command prompt.

i have an xp pro sp1 disc but i'm running sp2 on my hard drive

i have been in the recovery tool on the cd and tried things like fixboot and fixmbr but they haven't solved my problem

any ideas on what i could do now?

my extreme last resort is to reformat my hard drive, but i really don't want to do that! i have so much valuable stuff on it which i can't recover if i do reformat.

thanks
kevinski

[Fenor]

I suggest both of you do a REPAIR INSTALLATION of windows, using the link in my signature as a guide. If you don't have your XP CD, post back and we can try other options.

kevinski: That's okay if you have SP2 on your harddrive, you will just need to redo all the Windows Updates after doing a REPAIR INSTALLATION.

kevinski, I also suggest that you start your own topic please, or follow along with this one quietly until it is resolved.

Thanks,

Fenor

Edited by Fenor, 21 November 2005 - 11:38 AM.

[Jo Franklin]

If you have 2 CD drives, or a large USB memory stick, you can transfer all of yor vital information to them whilst running the Knoppix Linux live CD. Alternately, you can use QT Part ED on the Mepis Linix live CD to install Mepis onto your HD and rescue your vital stuff on to a CD/DVD using that method.

[ScHwErV]

Linux is not the answer to every problem. Even if it were the best option in this situation, your post is more a linux commercial rather than actual help.

If you have help to offer here, feel free, but just telling people that your knoppix cd is great isnt helpful.

Both of these people are currently being helped by a staff member, I suggest that he be allowed to continue to provide assistance.

ScHwErV

[kevinski]

i could start my own topic but this one is the exact same problem and this guy who started it hasn't been active on this site for 12 days.

i used my windows xp pro cd to repair windows and it worked. (well it bascially led me throught the windows installation process and let me use windows normally for a few minutes)

then my computer crashed as i was installing such things as flash player, msn messenger, my sound cards etc.

now i'm back to where i was before with the 'windows is starting up' dialog being the point where my pc freezes.

it still runs in safe mode but now i'm running sp1 not sp2 so i've gone a step backwards so to speak.

does this mean that the only solution now would be to reformat the hard drive?

Edited by kevinski, 21 November 2005 - 02:39 PM.

[Fenor]

Sounds to me like you could have a Video or RAM problem. If you are using an AGP video card (and have onboard video available), take out the AGP video card and see if the computer boots up normally using onboard video.

Another thing you can try is removing/reseeding the RAM, blowing dust off the stick of RAM and the slot it goes into. You can also try removing one of the sticks of RAM leaving just one in. Try each stick of RAM by itself in the computer in each slot and trying booting up.

You can also try removing any PCI devices you have installed and try to boot the computer up.

What I suggest you do first is combine all of the above examples. Remove the AGP card, use only one stick of RAM and remova all PCI cards. I would also suggest that you disconnect all CD/DVD-ROM drives and secondary hard drives. If the computer boots up with all these disconnected, then it is just a case of trial and error until you figure out what piece of hardware is bad.

Also, if available to you, try doing a complete fresh install of windows XP, deleting the partition and creating a new one and doing a FULL, NOT QUICK, format of the drive and see how things go.

These are all just testing procedures to try to narrow done exactly what is causing XP to hang during boot.

Good luck and let me know how things go!

Fenor