laptop help pls

sarah-t_4

hiya
can someone pls help me with my laptop
it was working fine (dell latitude d400) lent it to SIL last week and now ive got it back all of a sudden yesterday it wont start.
i keep getting error saying . windows cant load a recent hardware or software change might have caused this,will start in 24 seconds and when it does it goes to blue screen says something (not long enough to read it) makes a small burning or something sound then back to the black error screen software / hardware change might have caused this , blah blah

does anyone know whats going on with it please ?
or how to fix this
ive tried rebooting in safe mode etc but just wont work

crampo_2

Have you got XP and if so Did it have SP1 , SP2 or SP3 before you lent it out.

Did it give a error code it normal looks like:

0x0000000c < something in the format.

sarah-t_4

crampo wrote: »

Have you got XP and if so Did it have SP1 , SP2 or SP3 before you lent it out.

Did it give a error code it normal looks like:

0x0000000c < something in the format.

its windows XP whats sp1 ?
the error is the one mentioned above, windows cant start due to sofware/hardware change.

macman

SP2 is Service Pack 2-your software version. XP can be plain XP, XP SP2, XP SP3.
Can you boot it into Safe Mode (tap F8 repeatedly on start up). Then try 'last known good configuration'

sarah-t_4

macman wrote: »

SP2 is Service Pack 2-your software version. XP can be plain XP, XP SP2, XP SP3.
Can you boot it into Safe Mode (tap F8 repeatedly on start up). Then try 'last known good configuration'

ive tried safe mode and last known gd configuration but when windows try loading i get a blue screen with an error and im back to square one.

MX5huggy

Do you have any data/files that you want off this laptop that you don't have backed up else where?

Strider590

And has the hardware changed at all?

sarah-t_4

no thers nothing worth saving on it

diable

you may have to boot into safe mode and try to get the laptop back to a restore point

sarah-t_4

how do i do that , i cant see an option in safe mode for system restore . pls ?

it wont start with "windows normally" safe mode ....command prompt ...or networking mode

sarah-t_4

ok , ive taken the hard drive out and used a usb thingy to connect it to my fat pc , id like to do a systemm restore on the laptop hard drive then insert it back in the laptop can any one tell me please how to do that , which folder will contain the system restore thing
thanks,