Windows XP Freezes on startup

[Guest]

I have a compaq windows xp media center computer. Everything was working fine
until recently. My computer froze up, so I held down the power button to turn
it off. I turned it back on and it went to the Windows XP Logo screen with
the green progress bar, after a little while of loading, this screen freezes
up.

I tried going into safe mode, this didn't work. I found my recovery disk but
this wouldn't load. Is this a problem with important files such as NTLOADER,
the Master Boot Record, etc. or is this another problem? What should I do to
fix it?

Any suggestions would be great,
Jared

 

[Rock]

I have a compaq windows xp media center computer. Everything was working
fine
until recently. My computer froze up, so I held down the power button to
turn
it off. I turned it back on and it went to the Windows XP Logo screen with
the green progress bar, after a little while of loading, this screen
freezes
up.

I tried going into safe mode, this didn't work. I found my recovery disk
but
this wouldn't load. Is this a problem with important files such as
NTLOADER,
the Master Boot Record, etc. or is this another problem? What should I do
to
fix it?

First make sure there is a backup of important data. If you don't have that
and need some tips on how to backup when the system won't boot post back.

With the data backed up locate someone who has an XP installation CD. Boot
from that, take the first R for repair to get to the recovery console.
Enter the number for the windows installation, normally that's 1. Then
enter the password assigned to the built in Administrator account. For XP
Home by default it's blank so just hit enter. At the command prompt give
the command:
chkdsk /r

It will take some time to run. Hopefully that will fix things. If not post
back.

 

[Rock]

I have a compaq windows xp media center computer. Everything was working
fine
until recently. My computer froze up, so I held down the power button to
turn
it off. I turned it back on and it went to the Windows XP Logo screen with
the green progress bar, after a little while of loading, this screen
freezes
up.

I tried going into safe mode, this didn't work. I found my recovery disk
but
this wouldn't load. Is this a problem with important files such as
NTLOADER,
the Master Boot Record, etc. or is this another problem? What should I do
to
fix it?

Forget to put this first. From the menu to access safe mode did you try all
the options including Last Known Good Configuration and Safe Mode with
Command Prompt?

 

[Elmo]

I have a compaq windows xp media center computer. Everything was working fine
until recently. My computer froze up, so I held down the power button to turn
it off. I turned it back on and it went to the Windows XP Logo screen with
the green progress bar, after a little while of loading, this screen freezes
up.

I tried going into safe mode, this didn't work. I found my recovery disk but
this wouldn't load. Is this a problem with important files such as NTLOADER,
the Master Boot Record, etc. or is this another problem? What should I do to
fix it?

Any suggestions would be great,
Jared

The hard drive or other hardware could be failing too. The recovery
disk didn't even load?

 

[Guest]

The hard drive or other hardware could be failing too. The recovery
disk didn't even load?

I've tried all of the options (safe mode with command prompt, last known
good configuration, etc)

Nothing seems to run very long. I put in a windows xp cd that only got as
far as loading files but then froze before it gave any options. The recovery
disk wouldn't load.

I even took the hard drive out, put it in another computer to find that it
worked fine. After hooking the good hard drive back in, I unplugged unneeded
devices and unhooked the CD/DVD Rom drives, RAM, and cards one at a time but
none of that worked.

 

[Elmo]

I've tried all of the options (safe mode with command prompt, last known
good configuration, etc)

Nothing seems to run very long. I put in a windows xp cd that only got as
far as loading files but then froze before it gave any options. The recovery
disk wouldn't load.

I even took the hard drive out, put it in another computer to find that it
worked fine. After hooking the good hard drive back in, I unplugged unneeded
devices and unhooked the CD/DVD Rom drives, RAM, and cards one at a time but
none of that worked.

Maybe the power supply is failing.. maybe it's the fan to the mobo, ps,
or graphics card. Any of these could cause it to freeze soon aftert
restarting.

 

[Rock]

I've tried all of the options (safe mode with command prompt, last known
good configuration, etc)

Nothing seems to run very long. I put in a windows xp cd that only got as
far as loading files but then froze before it gave any options. The
recovery
disk wouldn't load.

I even took the hard drive out, put it in another computer to find that it
worked fine. After hooking the good hard drive back in, I unplugged
unneeded
devices and unhooked the CD/DVD Rom drives, RAM, and cards one at a time
but
none of that worked.

Run at least two of these memory testing utilities. They will run from a
bootable floppy or CD. Let each one run for at least 24 hours.

Memtest86+
http://www.memtest.org/

Windows Memory Diagnostic
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

DocMemory Memory Diagnostic
http://www.simmtester.com/page/products/doc/download.asp

To cover another base, download a drive diagnostic utility from the drive
manufacturer's web site. That will create a bootable floppy or CD. Boot
from that and run the diagnostics on the drive.