XP doesn't start up

[Recycle]

Hi
My computer doesn't boot and have no error message it just blank and in a
loop every time I start it.
Any help or info will be appreciated?
Thanks

 

[R. McCarty]

Does it power on and show it's BIOS post ( or splash screen ) ?
Can you enter BIOS setup and check that the hard drive in the
PC is properly detected ?:

 

[Recycle]

Hi
Thanks for your response McCarty, but how I can access that BIOS thing (
sorry I'm no techy).
Now I get this error message every time I try to reboot, it says:
Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

Any idea?
Thanks for you help.

 

[R. McCarty]

You have a corrupted Registry Hive. It's possible to fix but for a
non-technical person it might be too complicated. However, if you
take your time and follow the instructions C A R E F U L L Y it's
a fixable problem.
See the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article for the steps:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545
*Hopefully you have your important data backed up(?)

 

[3c273]

Unfortunately, the following warning message usually applies to most people
because most people (especially non-techies) have an OEM install rendering
the referenced KB article useless.
From KB307545
"Warning Do not use the procedure that is described in this article if your
computer has an OEM-installed operating system. The system hive on OEM
installations creates passwords and user accounts that did not exist
previously. If you use the procedure that is described in this article, you
may not be able to log back into the recovery console to restore the
original registry hives. "
Now I "am" a "techie guy" and I don't quite understand what this warning
means, (does anyone have a complete description of what accounts an OEM
install creates and how it affects existing accounts?), but I can tell you
from experience that if you try this procedure on an OEM install, it will
most likely end up hosed. It has happened to me twice, (after I explained to
the client the ramifications of this procedure), resulting in a parallel
install to retrieve the data followed by a clean install.
Louis