Windows wont load!

[DementedReality]

for some reason, my wife's computer wont load past the Windows XP start up screen.

can one of you fine CP'ers give me some tips to fix this problem?

thanks!

[Yeah_Baby]

Do you get a blue screen instead?

[nickerjones]

Get a mac jk sorry

[Gozer]

Turn it off and then turn it on again.

[DementedReality]

no, it just stays on the Windows XP start up screen...

i have rebooted it many times ... also tried the F10 to load last good config, didnt work ... i can get in on safe mode, but dont know what to do when in!

[WindomURL]

Millions of reasons why this could happen. Fastest way to try to fix it is to reinstall Windows.
Put your XP Cd in the drive and reboot the computer and just reinstall over top of the existing Windows O/S.

Or call a pro

[ken0042]

I would reboot, hitting F8 as it begins to load, and then selecting the option to boot into safe mode. Then once in safe mode play a game or two of solitaire, then reboot letting it load normally. Sometimes a boot into safe mode and letting Windows run for a few minutes will clear it up.

[Hack&Lube]

Boot into safe mode. It should ask you if you want to use system restore instead. Press the option that lets you goto system restore. If you can't find that, goto the start button. Goto accessories and system tools. Find the one called system restore and run it. Look on that calender and see if there is an earlier date that was "good" in your memory and it will roll back your computer to that time.

[schnee]

Probably not the problem... but have you added a another hard drive or other storage device recently?

If you added a (second/third) HDD drive, or have a USB drive connected... only suggestion might be to try disconnecting it before starting and see if that helps.

I have a bad HDD drive that was causing a problem similar to yours.
Windows was apparently getting 'stuck' trying to do it's initial read/hello/whatever on the bad drive, and would sit there on the black windows logo start up screen. When I disconnected the drive Windows booted up fine.

[cKy]

You can also boot with your XP CD, and run chkdsk /f at a dos prompt and see if that fixes it. sometimes it does. If not, get someone u know that is fluent in nerd and download ERD.. it will scan and fix the registry and possibly fix it. If not, reinstall XP

[Locke]

Whats the problem? This is a good thing!