I have an XP home computer that stall during startup. It stall right after
the logo screen when it turns blue almost displaying the user accounts.
What is the history of this? What changes were made to the system right
before the problem started? Has it otherwise been running well? What is
the malware status of the system? How do you check that?
Restart and as the BIOS splash screen disappears repeatedly tap the F8 key
to get the Advanced Options Menu which includes items like Safe Mode and
Last Known Good Configuration.
Try Last Known Good Configuration first. Highlight it and press enter.
Will it boot? If yes, good. If not repeat but try safe mode. Does it
boot?
If not, do you have a full and complete backup of important data? If not,
that should be done first before going further. Install the drive as a
slave drive in another XP or Windows 2000 computer and copy the important
data. Then put it back in the original machine.
Boot from the windows XP installation CD. Take the first R for repair.
That will go to the recovery console. Type in the windows installation #,
normally 1. Then the password for the built in Administrator account.
Normally for XP Home it's blank so just hit enter.
At the command prompt type chkdsk /r. It will take some time.
How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654
When finished reboot. Does it start now?
If no, then do a repair install:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm