WXP stops loading at start splash screen

[pheasant]

Dell laptop Inspiron 3800.
Has been working just fine until it went to college. I got the university's
firewall installed and all was well for a week. Daughter called last night
and said she powered it up and it "keeps the little green bars scrolling in
the little white window" is what she tells me. So it's making it past the
POST; says the power button had no effect, so she unplugged it and drained
the battery. I did tell her about
the 6 second power button trick, and also to unplug the battery to power it
down, but she can't get XP to load. :\

She's too new to campus to know where the IT dept is, so am trying to
troubleshoot long distance.

Ideas appreciated.

Thanks
Mark

 

[Shawk]

Dell laptop Inspiron 3800.
Has been working just fine until it went to college. I got the
university's
firewall installed and all was well for a week. Daughter called last
night
and said she powered it up and it "keeps the little green bars scrolling
in
the little white window" is what she tells me. So it's making it past the
POST; says the power button had no effect, so she unplugged it and drained
the battery. I did tell her about
the 6 second power button trick, and also to unplug the battery to power
it
down, but she can't get XP to load. :\

She's too new to campus to know where the IT dept is, so am trying to
troubleshoot long distance.

Ideas appreciated.

Thanks
Mark

Installed SP2? Perhaps automatically over the net? Some are having issues
with it. Might be an idea to try the 'microsoft.public.windowsxp.general'
newsgroup if you havent already. Shaun

 

[BigJIm]

I have seen this happen many times, sometimes it can be fixed with a repair
install other times you need to format and do a clean install of winxp.

 

[pheasant]

I have seen this happen many times, sometimes it can be fixed with a repair
install other times you need to format and do a clean install of winxp.

Thanks guys. Kinda what I figured.

I did start with the software groups, but find tinkerers are usually more
adept with these issues than most of the folks that populate windows
groups.( no offense intended) and get better answers from those that hang
around the hardware groups.

Mark

 

[JAD]

can she boot to windows from safe mode?

a winxp.

Thanks guys. Kinda what I figured.

I did start with the software groups, but find tinkerers are usually more
adept with these issues than most of the folks that populate windows
groups.( no offense intended) and get better answers from those that hang
around the hardware groups.

Mark

 

[pheasant]

can she boot to windows from safe mode?

I've asked her to try this; but she's too busy rushing the sororities and
other non school functions to settle down to the reason she's supposed to be
there. :\ Reckon I'll have to try it this weekend.
It's the first thing I'll try.

 

[Kitsune]

University LANs are always rife with nasty computer virii, it could be
that one she picked up has damaged her system.ini or her boot.ini.

Try booting from the windows XP disk, and doing a repair installation.
If that fails (error message popping up near the end of
installation), do a fresh install of windows. While this will not
format your hard drive, you will need to reinstall everything that
was on there (as important system DLLs will now be missing).
Everything saved to her desktop and in her 'my documents' folder will
still be there, don't worry. Simply access it through the 'folders'
sidebar under "Documents and Settings -> (username)". If she uses
the same username for her fresh install, it will take on the form of
(username.COMPUTERNAME).

Once you get it up and running again, I suggest doing a full
virus/spyware sweep. If you do not have a virus program, I suggest
purchasing one, as they are invariably cheaper than the cost of
taking it to a repair technician.

You can scan for viruses free of charge at
http://housecall.trendmicro.com

For spyware checkers, go to http://security.kolla.de to get Spybot -
Search & Destroy, and www.lavasoftusa.com to get Ad-Aware SE
Personal. Both are free of charge, though ad-aware may try and get
you to purchase their full version. Spyware can be just as damaging
as any virus, and virus checkers like Norton can (and most likely
never will) provide decent protection against them.

==============
Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.

 

[KCB]

I've asked her to try this; but she's too busy rushing the sororities and
other non school functions to settle down to the reason she's supposed to be
there. :\ Reckon I'll have to try it this weekend.
It's the first thing I'll try.

Check this link from other thread, maybe SP2 is your problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555185&Product=winxp