Windows XP boots to black screen then restarts

[Doctor P]

I am having a problem with windows XP Professional that
when I start the computer it goes through the normal
booting but ends up at a black screen with only the white
mouse arrow showing up. It then stays like that for about
ten seconds then reboots. This process then loops. I
have not done anything unusual to my computer that I know
of. Does anyone know why this is happening and what I
need to do to make windows boot properly?

-Pierre

 

[cimex]

Cher Docteur:
See if you can get into Safe Mode. While the machine is booting up, press on
F8 repeatedly, until you get a menu, from which you can select Safe Mode.

 

[Frank]

What is causing your computer to reboot is a fatal error which is occuring
that can be caused by a corrupted driver. Try booting in safe mode which
should bypass the majority of the drivers and then doing a system restore.

 

[Doctor P]

I can put it into safe mode but it still does the same
thing. The only difference is that it says "safe mode" in
the four corners of the screen.

-P

 

[Guest]

Okay, I boot in safemode but the black screen just
says "safe mode" and the same thing happens. Is there
anything else I can do?

-P

 

[cimex]

Did you get to Safe Mode via a menu that also had "Last Known Good" as an
option? Try that if you are able. Then, if not:

You may need to use the Recovery Console. This is somewhat technical, and
you may or may not want to proceed. You need a bootable XP CD. "You'll need
to make sure the boot order in your bios is set to boot from the XP CD to
get into the recovery console(see your motherboard manual). Then after
getting in, you'd have to use the appropriate command. The 3 commands you
can run most likely to help you would be:
Chkdsk
Fixboot
Fix MBR" (courtesy of Chad Harris)

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...gb/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-gb;307654&ln=en-gb

For more on Recovery Console:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm