Encountering the trouble Windows XP have given me over the last few years is really encouraging me to buy an Apple Mac OS. In the meantime however, I am hoping to resolve a new problem on my computer. Yesterday morning before I left for work, the computer was working just dandy and did a clean shut-down. Unfortunately, when I return home later in the evening, I couldn't get Windows to work. It will boot as far as the Windows screen where you see the logo and the green lights (sp1) speeding from left to right and that's it. Usually, after this opening screen, it takes to you the blue log-on Welcome Screen. Instead, the computer automatically re-boots and takes you to the notorious black screen that Windows didn't shut-down properly...yada yada yada..would you like to boot in: safe-mode, safe-mode w/networking/command prompt, last good config, or normal-mode. I've tried each one and with each selection, it just re-boots again and takes to me square one (would i like to boot in safe-mode, etc). I'm at the end of my wits and I hate to re-format and re-install Windows and everything else but only if I had no other choice. Help!!! Thanks in advance.
A bad memory module can cause this. I have seen it happen several times. I would run one one stick of ram (after pulling it and resteaing it) and see what happens. If it boots, take out that stick and put in another and try again. (do this for each stick of RAM that you have) You may find that one of them is bad and causes the hang up. If none of this works, are you able to boot into safe mode? Have you installed any new software lately that could cause an incompatibility with XP? ~Rich
I have two sticks of 512mb ram cards. I can certainly try troubleshooting if the ram is the problem. I am not able to do anything at this point, not even go into Windows in safe-mode. If I wanted to though, I can do a manual boot from the cd-rom using the cd install disk - but I haven't completed that attempt yet because I don't want to lose any files since the hard drive isn't backed up yet. The only new software that I've installed is Trend Micro Internet Security and we use it here at work and it runs smoothly on Windows so far.
Is Work using SP1 or SP2? You seem to indicate you have SP1 and thats a bad idea. While some may not agree SP2 was a big improvment and new programs i.e. trend are written around this. But the memory idea is the best idea to try first. Even the fact of unpluging and repluging the memory may fix it. I find it very hard to damage XP. Naturally things like a power supply, video card, or motherboard going bad could also do it. Computers are fun
Google for tech republic (it's a sub of cnet) once at home site,clik on "articles tab" at top of page and then use the sites search function "10 things to do when windows xp won't boot" If you wish it's free to join and once your a member you can download the article,they have a stack of other helpful downloads for all sorts I don't have a xp cd but this machine has two recovery options the first is a light recovery (reinstalls xp to factory condition but does not affect data in doc's folder,my pictures etc,tho you'll have to reinstall the rest of the software that is not included on the xp cd,(the folders etc will still be in programs list but will still need to be reinstalled) The 2nd option is destructive recovery which is complete reformat,i would assume the light option is on your cd goodluck EDIT: once fixed give xp a full update (you can use custom update at "microsoft update" if you so wish,you can also get SP2 for free on cd-rom from microsoft) before you install SP2 check printer ,dvd drives and regularly used software does'nt need update fixes before installing SP2 it will save major headaches EDIT 2: Would'nt hurt once all is sorted to get yourself a 2ndry HDD, and use an app like norton ghost 2003 or 2004 to make an exact copy of your primary hdd, nortons partition magic v8.0 is great also,unlike some of their other stuff they sell, i dual boot two hdd's and you have no idea how many times that 2nd hdd has saved my bacon,nothing worse than a reformat and a day reinstalling and updating Grrrrrrrrr (for help or questions for using ghost 03 or 04 google for "radified forum" without the quotes)
thanks everybody. I have two hard drives. The master is the 120G and the slave is the 40G. All my important stuff is on the master. There is about 1.5G available on the 40G (i use it for image files like .iso) and 45G available on the 120G. Both are NTFS. When the computer was built, it had Xpress Recovery installed. It has a backup utility option and a restore backup option in xpress recovery. But first, I'll see if the memory card is the problem because I have been told that if there's not enough ram present or no ram, you can't get very far into Windows or have a sucessful boot.
Were looking for failing ram. 512 is more then enough to run xp but if you have a bad stick xp will try to use both of them anyway.
I tested the ram and it's not the memory. I reformatted the 40G HDD and re-installed Windows XP however, it was unable to boot the installation setup. I found an old 5G HDD and installed Windows XP on that..and guess what? It worked! So, I'm guessing, the HDD was the problem all along (at this point, I really can't vouch for Western Digital). I still have my 120G HDD which I have detached at the moment but I can't find a jumper to make it a slave drive. Where can I get an extra jumper? (they're sooo small!)
when this happens do you hear some sounds (like the power to your HDD stops and then restarts like: bip - biiiiiip-- a short and a long sound? try to press the power supply wires (4) at the end that goes to your HDD hope this helps
