Windows XP won't boot to logong screen

[Guest]

Can anyone please help.
Laptop running XP home, which has been running fine for 2-3 months. Started
to play up on me yesterday (progs crashed, couldn't connect to network and
wouldn't print) and so i rebooted the machine. On reboot system almost
finishes rebooting but stops on a blue screen with dark blue bars top and
bottom, with just the windows XP logo. Won't go to logon screen.

Can move mouse and can't do ctrl-alt-del or ctrl-shift-esc. Alt-tab brings
up 2 options, "logon" and "windows logon" but i can't switch to either, after
trying alt-tab once or twice, then that stops working too.

System stops at this point under any safe mode option, and known last config
option etc etc. Don't beleive it is a reg problem, and i believe it would be
fixed if i could get rid of logon totally. Have used chkdsk in recovery
consol which found some bad sectors.

Really really really need some files off this machine, it being a laptop
means i can't plug put HDD into another machine which is what i would
normally do.

CAN ANYONE HELP?

Many thanks


Jim

 

[Malke]

Can anyone please help.
Laptop running XP home, which has been running fine for 2-3 months.
Started to play up on me yesterday (progs crashed, couldn't connect to
network and wouldn't print) and so i rebooted the machine. On reboot
system almost finishes rebooting but stops on a blue screen with dark
blue bars top and bottom, with just the windows XP logo. Won't go to
logon screen.

Can move mouse and can't do ctrl-alt-del or ctrl-shift-esc. Alt-tab
brings up 2 options, "logon" and "windows logon" but i can't switch to
either, after trying alt-tab once or twice, then that stops working
too.

System stops at this point under any safe mode option, and known last
config option etc etc. Don't beleive it is a reg problem, and i
believe it would be fixed if i could get rid of logon totally. Have
used chkdsk in recovery consol which found some bad sectors.

Really really really need some files off this machine, it being a
laptop means i can't plug put HDD into another machine which is what i
would normally do.

As you suspect, this is probably a hardware problem. You *can* remove
the hard drive and slave it in another machine; you just need a
laptop-to-IDE adapter. They are inexpensive, but if you are in a hurry
call up a local computer repair shop (not a BestBuy or CompUSA type of
store) and see if they have one - most will. They could also do the
hardware tests for you. Otherwise, here are some general hardware
testing steps:

1) Open the computer and run it open, cleaning out all dust bunnies and
observing all fans (overheating will cause system freezing). Obviously
you can't do this with a laptop, but you can hear if the fan is running
and feel if the laptop is getting too hot.

2) Test the RAM - I like Memtest86 from www.memtest86.com - let the test
run for an extended (like overnight) period of time - unless errors are
seen immediately.

3) Test the hard drive with a diagnostic utility from the mftr.

4) The power supply may be going bad or be inadequate for the devices
you have in the system - this isn't applicable to a laptop, of course.

5) Test the motherboard with something like TuffTest from
www.tufftest.com.

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts
with known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a good local
computer repair shop (not a CompUSA or Best Buy type of store).

Good luck,

Malke