Desktop won't boot

Crispy_Ambulance

Help!

I have a desktop PC running Windows XP. When we switched it on earlier, the screen was all mixed up and instead of switching it off and on again, hubby clicked on the username. The next screen was all mixed up and we couldn't get the mouse to go to the start up button, so switched it off manually.

Now it won't boot up at all. It keeps going round and round the same screens - it keeps bringing up an error screen which asks us to start windows normally or select safe mode but none of these result in it booting up.

I've tried hitting F8 and it asked me to select a boot drive - we put in what we thought was the recovery disk, but it hasn't worked.

I have no idea what to do next. Help!

busenbust

we put in what we thought was the recovery disk, but it hasn't worked.

You mean to say it's not booting from the disk?

After you press the F8 key the Windows Advanced Options menu should appear. No?

MOTHEROF4_2

Hi i have had the same problem with my mam & dads computer and then with my daughters laptop they both just kept restarting. The only way i managed to fix the problem was to wipe the whole computer with the recovery disc but dont select save files because it wont work you have to restore to factory settings
without saving any files. hope this helps

Crispy_Ambulance

yes, but I'm not even convinced that it is the recovery disk. Hubby set it all up when we got it a few years ago and can't now remember if it came with XP pre-installed or not and if he even made a recovery disk. :mad:

Can I get an XP recovery disk or some such anywhere? I've tried asking it to boot from the default but I'm assuming the harddrive is unwell.

davb

You just need to step back ad take stock before rushing into recovery disk options - you are quite likely to wipe the hard drive and restore to factory settings, losing all of your data.
Have you tried the 'Last known good' configuration from the screen you see?

Crispy_Ambulance

busenbust wrote: »

You mean to say it's not booting from the disk?

After you press the F8 key the Windows Advanced Options menu should appear. No?

No. I got a blue box that asked me to select a boot option - floppy, one which I assume is the hard drive, a CD-ROM option and another one which I didn't recognise

Crispy_Ambulance

davb wrote: »

You just need to step back ad take stock before rushing into recovery disk options - you are quite likely to wipe the hard drive and restore to factory settings, losing all of your data.
Have you tried the 'Last known good' configuration from the screen you see?

I highlighted that one and pressed enter, but I just ended up with the same screen again listing those options.

Taffybiker

Does it keep rebooting for "normal" mode and give you a lot of garbled text if you select "safe mode"?
If so then Windows has become corrupted and will need to be reinstalled.

Hopefully, you will have a sticker with the version of XP (ie: Home) and the activation code. There is no legal problem as far as I know if you were to borrow a disk of the correct version but input your own code.

Crispy_Ambulance

Taffybiker wrote: »

Does it keep rebooting for "normal" mode and give you a lot of garbled text if you select "safe mode"?
If so then Windows has become corrupted and will need to be reinstalled.

Hopefully, you will have a sticker with the version of XP (ie: Home) and the activation code. There is no legal problem as far as I know if you were to borrow a disk of the correct version but input your own code.

Yes - I got a screenful of gibberish when I selected safe mode.

Sorry to ask a dumb question, but where would I find the sticker - will it be somewhere on the processor?

Crispy_Ambulance

Ahh, it was a dumb question - I've found the sticker. So if I can borrow an XP installation disk, I can reboot?

But what happens to all my data?

Money_Grabber13579

Crispy_Ambulance wrote: »

Yes - I got a screenful of gibberish when I selected safe mode.

Sorry to ask a dumb question, but where would I find the sticker - will it be somewhere on the processor?

But if you leave it for a few minutes after you get this screenful of gibberish, what happens then? That's actually normal for safe mode as part of the booting up process. All the entries should begin with C:/

If it does that, wait for a few minutes to see if it completes going into safe mode.