Safe mode - not an option

mymatebob

Morning all.
I am seeking to pick the brains of some of the finest minds on this board.

I have been trying to fix a slow running pc (XP Home edition) for a friend.

When it boots up it gets to the welcomes screen with the list of accounts to choose from but when you click on an account it then sometimes logs on, very slowly, or freezes.

So I tried putting it into safe mode, hitting F8.
That didn't even offer me the boot screen.
Tried again hitting F5 and got into the boot screen, "Start windows normally" was highlighted. Unfortunately the arrow keys did not work and I couldn't select Safe Mode so away it wend and booted up normally, Except it froze and this is where I have got to. Nowhere.

Friend has the original XP disc so I tried to boot from CD by changing the order in the BIOS but although it says "any key to boot from CD" I am not convinced it is doing it. No repair console operation appears to be there either.

There are other PCs in the house, just this one that is duff.

Any thoughts?

DatabaseError

get a wired, ideally ps2 (round end) keyboard and try again

mymatebob

Not sure if it has a ps2 connection.
Think I chucked my old one a few months ago - typical

The keyboard works as I can navigate round the BIOS screen, do you think this would still make a difference?

isofa

Sometimes it's easy to miss when you need to press F8, reboot and hit in continually until you get the menu.

If you can enter setup/bios and navigate the menus, it's unlikely the keyboard via USB is causing the issue.

(You could turn off "fast boot" in the bios, so the bios and check screen appears for longer too).

If you are booting from the CD, you'll know it is, the CD will be spinning and accessing and the startup will be different.

mymatebob

I was hitting F8 continually - like a thing possessed!

I'll try turning off the fast boot.

I did hear the CD spinning but I think that was it just looking (as it were) and not running anything.

DatabaseError

mymatebob wrote: »

Tried again hitting F5 and got into the boot screen, "Start windows normally" was highlighted. Unfortunately the arrow keys did not work and I couldn't select Safe Mode so away it wend and booted up normally,

try a different keyboard
or
put the hdd in a different PC, format it and return to the broken one

aliEnRIK

Surely its worth buying a cheapie PS2 keyboard

mymatebob

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Surely its worth buying a cheapie PS2 keyboard

probably is. I don't have access to the machine right now so will need to see if it can take a ps2 keyboard and whether I ever did chuck my old one out or it is in my pile of "useful" things that only ever appear to be useful after I have got rid of them.

I take it using this type of keyboard will not require any drivers to be loaded, hence the suggestion?

aliEnRIK

PS2 keyboards just 'work'
No drivers etc are needed

mymatebob

Sounds good

As I mentioned before I can use the USB keyboard to navigate round the boot page and also select different accounts on the start up windows page.
I saw somewhere a tip about trying the Num Lock key to ensure that the keyboard was working and it certainly lights up the appropriate light on the keyboard.

Off to have a hunt now

jaydeeuk1

You will need a USB-> ps2 adapter, or borrow a ps/2 kb from somewhere. A usb kb will work in the bios, however you may find them unresponsive during bootup, is same on my old PC.