XP won't start

[oddity711]

When I tried to start my Toshiba laptop this evening, I can only get to
the very first screen before it stops and starts all over again. The
splash screen never comes up. I tried to start up in safe mode but that
doesn't work - the system just restarts. I did a virus scan last night
and everything was ok. Everything shut down as normal and now it's
kaput. Anyone have a solution or an idea of what might be wrong?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Ron Martell]

When I tried to start my Toshiba laptop this evening, I can only get to
the very first screen before it stops and starts all over again. The
splash screen never comes up. I tried to start up in safe mode but that
doesn't work - the system just restarts. I did a virus scan last night
and everything was ok. Everything shut down as normal and now it's
kaput. Anyone have a solution or an idea of what might be wrong?

Thanks for any help.

Your computer is probably encountering a "system failure" class error
of some kind with the default option to "restart on failure" in
effect.

Because your computer is restarting right at the beginning of the
startup process it is quite possible that the problem is caused by a
hard drive problem of some kind, such as an Unmountable_Boot_Volume
error.

Do you have an actual Windows XP Installation CD or is it a "System
Recovery" disk provided by Toshiba? If it is an installation CD then
boot the computer with the CD and choose the Repair (Recovery Console)
option from the opening menu. When it has finished booting into the
Recovery Console enter the following command:

CHKDSK C: /R

and see if that will fix the problem. It might.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[oddity711]

Your computer is probably encountering a "system failure" class error
of some kind with the default option to "restart on failure" in
effect.

Because your computer is restarting right at the beginning of the
startup process it is quite possible that the problem is caused by a
hard drive problem of some kind, such as an Unmountable_Boot_Volume
error.

Do you have an actual Windows XP Installation CD or is it a "System
Recovery" disk provided by Toshiba? If it is an installation CD then
boot the computer with the CD and choose the Repair (Recovery Console)
option from the opening menu. When it has finished booting into the
Recovery Console enter the following command:

CHKDSK C: /R

and see if that will fix the problem. It might.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

Thanks so much for your quick reply.

I don't have any disks at all. Everything was installed. What I do have
are the disks from another laptop (my daughter's). She has XP Home SP2,
(HP laptop) which I don't have. I have her Operating System CD and
Application and Driver Recovery DVD. Can I use either of them without
creating more problems? Sorry to seem so dumb, but this hasn't happened
to me before and I'm rather at a loss.

Thanks again.

 

[Ron Martell]

Thanks so much for your quick reply.

I don't have any disks at all. Everything was installed. What I do have
are the disks from another laptop (my daughter's). She has XP Home SP2,
(HP laptop) which I don't have. I have her Operating System CD and
Application and Driver Recovery DVD. Can I use either of them without
creating more problems? Sorry to seem so dumb, but this hasn't happened
to me before and I'm rather at a loss.

Thanks again.

I would be very careful about using the HP disks in your computer, as
they will almost invariably attempt to do a "slash and burn"
treatment, wiping out the hard drive completely and then installing,
or at least attempting to install, a fresh image of the HP Windows XP
as it was on your daughter's computer when it left the factory. This
will ultimately fail, because your computer is not HP, leaving you
with an unrecoverable mess.

What is the make and model of your computer? There may be something
specific from that manufacturer that might be of help.

One thing you could do is to download Bart's PE Bullder from
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ and use that to create a bootable CD that
you can use to start the computer. If you get to that point you can
use the CHKDSK C: /R command I suggested earlier and see if that will
fix the problem. Or you can copy off important files to a network
drive or USB memory stick.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."