help for pc

salt_and_pepper

Before i take my daughters pc to the shop tomorrow i wondered if any one could help. Basically yesterday her pc came up with a error message which she can't remember, gave her a minute to save all her work and logged off, she was using msn, itunes and the internet at the time, that happened 3 times, on the 3rd time she can't get the computer to properly come back on. Now when she puts it on, it eventully finds her home screen but without any of the icons. Then she clicks on to her account and tries to load, fails and returns to the screen saying that it is logging out, and keeps on doing this. The pc runs on xp.
Any suggestions please? Or is it a job for the shop?

davb

I would try a scan for nasties.
Boot into Safe Mode with Networking (F8 on boot). Download MalwareBytes, install, update, quick scan, fix what it finds, and post the log here.

debitcardmayhem

Can you start the PC in safe mode - press F8(repeatedly) as it restarts and it should give you a non-graphical menu with options which you can select using the up/down arrows if so try and start with Safe Mode with Networking

salt_and_pepper

We have done the f8- pressing the safe network mode. It then goes to a screen with a scroll of writing on and quickly returns to the safe mode screen- help!

davb

salt_and_pepper wrote: »

We have done the f8- pressing the safe network mode. It then goes to a screen with a scroll of writing on and quickly returns to the safe mode screen- help!

That's not good
You could try just Safe Mode (not with networking), and after that - if it doesn't work, from the same menu - Last known good, (something like the last settings that worked)

salt_and_pepper

No none of those work either:(- just keeps on going around in a circle

pcombo

What was the error message, and does it still appear.

salt_and_pepper

No the error message has gone and she can't for the life of her remember it. We just get a quick look at a scroll of computer speak before it quickly returns to the safe mode page.

triggerhappy_2

Could be a few things.

Is it a desktop? If so, are you comfortable opening it up? If you can, try removing PCI cards (modem, network, sound card - but not graphics card) and reboot. If it starts up ok, reinsert the cards one at a time, restarting between each one to check that it boots up correctly. Could be that one has gone wrong, or is seated incorrectly.

You could also try an OS repair if you still have your windows disks. Start up with the disk in your drive and select repair when prompted. Full instructions here.

Good luck!

salt_and_pepper

Yes it is a desktop but i don't really fancy opening it up. I don't have a disc either for it. Think i will have to take it to the shop. Thanks for all your advise. I may need some more in a bit as one of the other pc's not very healthy either. On that one i have uninstalled avira, cos it seems not wanting to scan properly and installed the current avast which has found about 12 infections and recommended a boot scan which i hope has nearly finished- it's on about 93 %. It keeps on finding problems which i am attempting to repair, none have repaired though so they have gone into the chest and a few wouldn't go into the chest so i have had to ignore them. Is this what i should do?