Frequent boot failure

[Mike Hunter via AdminLife]

My desktop PC (HP Pavilion 512n, Celeron 1.4Ghz, 256MB RAM, WinXP Pro SP1) failes to boot into Windows very often. If I shut itdown, and turn it back on, I get a dark-grey screen afterloading the BIOS.

I have to press the power button to shut it down then turn backon. The next time it boots, I get the error message "Windowsfailed to load ... previous ...." with options like "LoadWindows normally". If I choose any of the options, the samething happens. I have to reboot several times for it to loadwindows and everything works fine after that.

I finally resorted to leaving the PC on all the time to same methe hassle. I can't reinstall at this time because I have to doa major backup first. Any idea why this is happening?

 

[R. McCarty]

In this case, I would do a Chkdsk C: /R to verify that the drive
& data are O.K. Pavilion's are generally a PITA as far as XP.
I've found that most of them need the latest BIOS updates to
run XP properly. Also check your Device Manager, Computer
category and make sure the thing is using a ACPI HAL. Also,
loading up the latest Intel Chipset driver wouldn't hurt. Finally,
I would check the BIOS settings for IDE/Drive settings. HP
made a big mistake not including a "Soft Reset" button on the
front of those PCs. Anytime you abruptly shut-off a computer
there is a good chance the drive/volume will be marked "Dirty".

My desktop PC (HP Pavilion 512n, Celeron 1.4Ghz, 256MB RAM, Win XP Pro SP1)
failes to boot into Windows very often. If I shut it down, and turn it back
on, I get a dark-grey screen after loading the BIOS.

I have to press the power button to shut it down then turn back on. The next
time it boots, I get the error message "Windows failed to load ... previous
....." with options like "Load Windows normally". If I choose any of the
options, the same thing happens. I have to reboot several times for it to
load windows and everything works fine after that.

I finally resorted to leaving the PC on all the time to same me the hassle.
I can't reinstall at this time because I have to do a major backup first.
Any idea why this is happening?