PC problem - can't enter with safe mode

Lennys_Shinpad

Hi,

I'm trying to sort out a friend's PC. I often help them out when he has PC problems but this time I'm a little bit stuck.
When I boot the machine up, it loads up as it should do, allows me to choose a windows user, comes up with a couple of warning message and then just hour glasses. It doesn't crash and shut down, it just stays there forever. When I try to go to the start menu, the hour glass means that I can't click. I have tried entering in safe mode but I get just the same problem. I've also tried restoring the PC to the last working settings but that doesn't work either.

I'm going back tonight for a second attempt at mending it. Does anybody have any ideas?

Cheers,
James.

fwor

Not an easy one to work with... Presumably the two error messages are on screen for too short a period to read them?

If you have the installation CD (and assuming it's a recent version of Windows) you may be best off trying a repair installation. It should leave all the user data intact, but it may be worth using something like SystemRescueCD to back up the HDD to an external drive if you have one.

Lennys_Shinpad

Cheers for that.

I did read the error messages. One of them was a 'Dr Watson' error. Not sure what this is. I forgot the other one though.

I do have an external hard drive. Can I download that software you mentioned for backing up?

Cheers.

fwor

The Dr Watson message probably means that the debu gg er has recorded an error in the system log, which might give more of an indication of where the fault is. But TBH I've never found the error logs to be anything other than unintelligible.

Yes, you can download SystemRescueCD for free, it's an Open Source project - just Google for it.

Having said that, it's not very easy to use - you may get on better using the free 15 day trial version of the Acronis backup product.