can't boot up computer

[mad_chinacat]

It all started when I was deleting unneccesary programs from my
computer because it was running slowly. When I restarted my computer,
the screen resolution was quite small, which I was unable to adjust to
make normal, and there was a message bubble coming from the bottom
toolbar that said something about missing a graphics driver.

Then I restarted again, which brings me to my current problem. After
the initial "Dell" screen comes up with the F2 & F12 options at the
top, and after the Windows screen comes up and does it's thing, all I
get is a black screen. I called customer support and we tried F2, F12,
F8 as well as doing tests with my "Drivers & Utilities" CD. After that
they said it must be a software, not a hardware, problem. However,
that's not covered by my warranty and I can't afford to get this
problem fixed thru them.

Please help! I have important audio, music and photo files on there
that cannot be erased! How do I fix this w/o erasing everything?

 

[Guest]

The webs we weave......Try installing the xp cd (which you should have),then
boot to xp cd (you might need to adjust for this in the BIOS-priority boot
device,
or similiar),then at cd boot info screen,select install xp,select,repair
this copy.
You'll only loose xp updates,all else stays intact,except it repairs the
copy of xp.

 

[mad_chinacat]

I put my Operating Systems Reinstallation CD (I assume that's what you
mean by XP CD), pushed F12, booted from CD, the windows logo screen
came up, and then black screen again. Did I miss something in this
process?

 

[Malke]

I put my Operating Systems Reinstallation CD (I assume that's what you
mean by XP CD), pushed F12, booted from CD, the windows logo screen
came up, and then black screen again. Did I miss something in this
process?

Please retrieve your data first. There are ways of getting the data even
if you can't boot into Windows. Whether or not you can do this yourself
depends on your skill level. Only you can answer that. Here are two
ways of getting the data first.

1. Slave the drive in a different computer that has a working XP
install. Then use Explorer to copy the files to the working XP's hard
drive.

2. Use Knoppix to get the data. Knoppix is a Linux distro on a live cd.
You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a
cd/dvd-rw OR a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data.
To get Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast Internet connection and
third-party burning software. Download the Knoppix .iso from
www.knoppix.net and create your bootable cd. Then boot with it and it
will be able to see the Windows files. If you are using the usb thumb
drive, right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties
and uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it.
Note that the default mouse action in the window manager used by
Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS
Windows' double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn
the files to cd/dvd-r's.

Once you have retrieved the data, do a Repair Install. Here is a link
with details about that:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Good luck,

Malke