Stopping at Startup

[Guest]

Trying to fix an elderly friends machine. At Boot, comes up with screen
saying that there was a problem and asks whether you want normal startup,
safe (w/ network or prompt) or revert to previous loaded config. If we try
to go to normal, desktop screen appears with mouse, but system stops loading
with no icons or startup button. Mouse moves, but systems locked
(alt-ctrl-del does not do anything). When trying to start in safe mode,
basically the same thing happens, just with black screen and Safe Mode noted
in corners.
It is a Dell and when I put the Dell restore CD in, it sees it for a moment
(CD appears wtih cursor) the stops there.
Where do I go from here???
Ray

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

It's Dell's restore CD, you'll need to contact Dell tech support.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the response. I appreciate that the Restore CD may be defective,
but why is system freezing at both the normal and safe startups? What would
cause that?

 

[Malke]

Thanks for the response. I appreciate that the Restore CD may be
defective, but why is system freezing at both the normal and safe
startups? What would cause that?

I doubt the Restore CD is defective unless your friend just threw it in
a drawer where it got all scratched up. It's impossible to tell from
your post what the cause of the problem is. Your friend's machine could
be infested with viruses and/or malware, file system could be
corrupted, or there could be a hardware problem.

Usually Dell provides not a Restore CD but an actual operating system
CD. Boot with it (the XP CD) and go to the Recovery Console. In the
Recovery Console, type:

chkdsk /r [enter]

and let Chkdsk run. When it is finished, try and get into the system.
Post back with results.

Malke