XP Freezing

[Tony]

I run XP Pro on my laptop and have successfully done so
for 18mths. Closed down laptop properly a fe nights ago
but when I wen to power up next day, desk top did not
appear.
I got th usual xp boot screen with the progress bar which
then changes into the xp screen of pale blue with 2 dark
blue stripes top and bottom and xp logo in middle.
BUT....that's it - it just freezes there
Any ideas?
Thnx

 

[Walter Clayton]

Try to bring the machine up in safe mode (keep hitting F8 while the BIOS is
POSTing to get the boot menu), then shut down and restart. Safe mode will
some times correct registry errors.

If that doesn't work and you can get the machine up in safe mode, then bring
it back up in safe mode and use msconfig (start->run->msconfig) to start
disabling startup items (do not disable MS services) to see if can find the
culprit.

If that doesn't fail you may be looking at a repair reinstall, but hold off
on that until other options have been exhausted.

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org

 

[Guest]

Thnx but I cannot get safe mode running - I hit F8 and
selct safe mode BUT same problem with same blue screen!
Have also tried last known good config but to no avail.
I have no start button now!

Does this look like it was caused by incompatible hardware?
I did install a vodaphone datacard last week and got a
stop creen IRQL not equal to messge but th card seeme ok
after that.
Thnx
Tony

 

[Walter Clayton]

The drivers for that hardware might be an issue. Generally when the system
throws a BSOD, it's in trouble and the results can get rather ugly.

Try safe mode command prompt. If you can get that far then try to run
rstrui.exe from %windir%\system32\restore to perform a system restore. If
system restore doesn't start, then manually launch explorer and try
rstrui.exe again. If that fails then it's time to use recovery console in
conjunction with pulling the hardware. What you want is to remove the
vodaphone hardaware and if need be disable the associated services/startup
tasks. With recovery console you can do that via listsvc to see the startup
items then use the disable command to disable them. Be careful that you do
not disable required system services.

Alternatively, pull the card and attempt a repair reinstall. It's possible
that crashing the system has corrupted one of the registry hives.

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org

 

[Guest]

Thanks again. However, when I run safe mode command prompt, I do not get a command prompt!
I do not see recovery console as an option - perhaps it did not come pre-installed? Is it on the system recovery discs
I am desparate not to lose latest data
Thn

----- Walter Clayton wrote: ----

The drivers for that hardware might be an issue. Generally when the system
throws a BSOD, it's in trouble and the results can get rather ugly

Try safe mode command prompt. If you can get that far then try to run
rstrui.exe from %windir%\system32\restore to perform a system restore. If
system restore doesn't start, then manually launch explorer and try
rstrui.exe again. If that fails then it's time to use recovery console in
conjunction with pulling the hardware. What you want is to remove the
vodaphone hardaware and if need be disable the associated services/startup
tasks. With recovery console you can do that via listsvc to see the startup
items then use the disable command to disable them. Be careful that you do
not disable required system services

Alternatively, pull the card and attempt a repair reinstall. It's possible
that crashing the system has corrupted one of the registry hives

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP
Associate Exper
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzon
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced
http://www.dts-l.or

 

[Walter Clayton]

Recovery console must be accessed by booting the XP CD. It's generally not
installed on the system outside of managed environments. Typical home use is
generally limited, except in this instance, to repairing boot strap code and
if boot strap code is damaged you can't fire up RC from the HD. Classic
catch-22.

Unless your system builder gave you an image restore CD, you can do a repair
reinstall without loosing your data. If you can boot the CD to get into
recovery console then odds are you can do a non-destructive repair
reinstall.

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org