We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start..."

[Jack]

I recently bought 3 computers from Dell, all with XP
Home. Each one would give me this message periodically
(once every 8 - 30 times) during start up:

"We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not
start successfully."

The message goes on to say that the problem might be a
recent hardware or software install and then gives
options such as going into safe mode, etc. On the bottom
a clock counts down from 30 secs to 0, at which point
Windows loads normally.

I know it has nothing to do with hardware or software
installs because on the second computer I bought, the
moment I turned it on for the first time, the message
appeared. It seems to be a Windows XP problem.

Others have asked about it here and on other forums, so
apparently it is a pervasive problem with XP, but I
haven't found a clear answer and/or resolution yet.

Anybody know what the problem is and how it can be
resolved?

Any assistance would be most appreciated.

Thank you very much.

 

[Mike Mulligan]

If you only recently purchased the computers from Dell, they are still under
warranty, and you should contact Dell technical support. I wouldn't jump to
the conclusion that it "seems to be a Windows XP problem".

Mike Mulligan

 

[Albert Sims]

If you only recently purchased the computers from Dell, they are still under
warranty, and you should contact Dell technical support. I wouldn't jump to
the conclusion that it "seems to be a Windows XP problem".

Mike Mulligan

I've been strictly a "Compaq" person since my first PC, got a new one
I've been running with XP since February, no problems at all... prolly a
Dell problem...

 

[Quaoar]

I recently bought 3 computers from Dell, all with XP
Home. Each one would give me this message periodically
(once every 8 - 30 times) during start up:

"We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not
start successfully."

The message goes on to say that the problem might be a
recent hardware or software install and then gives
options such as going into safe mode, etc. On the bottom
a clock counts down from 30 secs to 0, at which point
Windows loads normally.

I know it has nothing to do with hardware or software
installs because on the second computer I bought, the
moment I turned it on for the first time, the message
appeared. It seems to be a Windows XP problem.

Others have asked about it here and on other forums, so
apparently it is a pervasive problem with XP, but I
haven't found a clear answer and/or resolution yet.

Anybody know what the problem is and how it can be
resolved?

Any assistance would be most appreciated.

Thank you very much.

I have an HP AMD 2000+ laptop that has in the last few days started the
same notification and reboot, about one in six boots. I have run every
HP diagnostic, examined everything on the system with System
Information, Even Viewer, cleaned up, defragged, virus scanned, and
there is nothing to relate the error to. I do not believe it is an OS
problem since the computer had been updated from Windows Update well
before this started. I am curious that about a Norton Anti-Virus update
that was coincident with the start of this issue. With the exception of
the notification and reboot event, this computer runs flawlessly.

Q

 

[Steve Nielsen]

Many OEMs' preinstalls of the OS is flakey and Dell is one of the worst
for that. I have seen scores of their Win2k machines having wierd
problems that only fdisk and a fresh re-install would cure. I haven't
seen too many WinXP machines from Dell with this sort of problem yet though.

The cure may well be re-installing Windows. I'd give Dell tech support a
call, since they're under warranty.

Steve

 

[Jack]

For what it's worth, I did speak to Dell - approximately
a dozen phone calls on this issue over the last 2
months. We went through several diagnostics and found
nothing wrong. We tried several things from system
restore to reconfiguring the BIOS to others I can't even
remember. That's why I had to order 3 systems,
exchanging one for another. Since Dell could not provide
an answer, I decided to try my luck here.

 

[Mike Mulligan]

The real experts at Dell are found in the Dell Community Forums...

Mike Mulligan