Xp Home refuses to load beyond the "Windows is starting up..." screen

Tried swapping RAM positions
Chkdsk /r
Windows reinstall > repair

NONE OF THEM WORKED :'(

What can I do guys

Myk

Try going to Google (on a friend's computer, or at the library) and search using these keywords..

>> windows xp startup problems

Some MS articles come up.. some from About.com

I hope this helps.. I had a similar problem with win98 and had to use a floppy boot disk to begin to reinstal windows.. in my case it was a missing system file..

Thanks for the reply...

I had a good look through Google but all I could find is stuff I've already tried.

Im starting to think that if another reinstall doesn't work then it a hardware issue
:o

One time I actually reformatted my entire HD. But that means losing everything which you haven't backed up on floppy or cd. Did the checkdisk command show any probs with your hard drive? I'm not very good with dos. Too bad you can't get in there to do a detailed scan on your HD.

I just thought of another thing. You could ask someone who (presumably) knows what they're talking about at www.allexperts.com

I've had some great help there.

Thnks for that...

Ive got this ide to usb device so I've pulled the drive out of the dell now and I'm scanning and backing up the bits and bobs...

I will try that link...

The other which I've found pretty good is
www.experts-exchange.com

Im probably going to do a format if the scan doesn't remove any nasties or fix it!

Chrs

Sounds like you know more than I do! Just in case tho'.. make sure you got a win cd before you reformat.. Or a series of rescue discs (if your computer didn't come with one).

And if your computer doesn't catch it, there's also floppy boot disks which can be downloaded/made at the MS website. But I don't know if those would work with rescue discs. Good luck!

Hi,

The first thing you can try is to use the "Last Known Good Configuration" option in your start up menu that can be reached by tapping the F8 key as your system boots up. Sometimes, this will restore your PC's stability.

The next thing you can try is see if your computer will boot up into "Safe Mode". If it can boot into safe mode, then it means that your problem is likely software related rather than hardware; but at any rate, it's usually a good sign if you can enter safe mode. This means that something can usually be done to make the needed repairs WITHOUT formatting your drive and losing all your data. Now, where you go from there gets complicated.

Feel free to contact me for additional help on resolving this problem.

Hi, I had this "windows is starting up" problem , and after much research I found the answer , you need to run chkdsk c:/f , problem is xp won't let you run it , the answer is simple , you need BART PE , you can Google it , you will also find as I did, that you need STAR BURN to burn an image file .BART PE is a way of making windows run chkdsk c:/f , it does other things as well ,when you have burnt the cd insert it in your drive and you will see a new start icon in place of the xp start icon ,click on it and take things from there , this is not intended to be a full tutorial on BART PE , you will need to find your way around it , as I did, but this is a fix for the windows not starting up headache , try it and see if you are as impressed as I was ,I got STAR BURN on a free trial , you can do the same , look for it on Google, good luck , bowdog .

I found another solution.

I tried chkdsk but it did not work. But then I made an image of my entire hard disk (using Acronis True Image). Towards the end of the imaging process the program reported one sector was unreadable, so I chose the option to ignore this sector. I then wrote the image back to my hard drive and the computer worked perfectly!

I think the problem was due to a hard disk error that chkdsk did not detect/fix but which I managed to persuade the computer to ignore.

Hi Alan , it seems you've found another way around this problem , you are right about it being a hard drive error , problem was for me it was a missing system file , so although I had some success with bartpe I ultimately had to go for a clean install , I gues your way is OK as long as the missing sector doesn't contain a vital system file , I'll remember your fix though , it's certainly worth trying if you encounter this problem , cheers , Bowdog .

Just to be on the safe side, I ran a System Restore as soon as the computer got going again in order to restore any corrupt system files (or at least as many as possible). If a computer will not start because of a corrupt registry I find the procedure given in How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545) to be highly effective. Maybe you could have used this as a follow-up, once you had got past the problem with the computer being stuck at "Windows is starting up"?

Forgot user name and password on windows xp what can I do to unlock it... it's a PC that was struck by lighting about 6 mo ago , it still work but forgot important info , and also need some pictures and files ? Help

sandalou rapidly press F8 when your PC is starting up,then hit enter when enter safe mode is highlighted. You'll reach administrator account and should be able to create new accounts from there or remove the passwords of existing ones

Littlehelper-the thread is over 6 years old. Sandylou piggybacked and her post is 6 months old.