XP Hangs on Start - Black Screen

[Big Cat]

Dell Inspirion 8100 with WinXPhome will not start.

The system has worked fine for over a year.

Last Friday the use of the computer was normal; no added
or deleted hardware or software, no power outages, normal
shutdown Friday evening.

Saturday morning on power up, the computer goes to a BLACK
screen. Screen contents shown below:


"We aplogoize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not
start successfully. A recent hardware or software change
might have caused this.

If your computer stopped responding, restarted
unexpectedly, or was automaticaly shut down to protect
your files and folders, choose Last Known Good
Configuration to revert to the most recent settings that
worked.

If a previous startup attempt was interrupted due to a
power failure or because the Power or Reset button was
pressed, or if you aren't sure what caused the problem,
choose Start Windows Normally.

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Last Known Good Confuguration (your most recent settings
that worked)

Start Windows Normally

Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to
your choice."


I tried all options with each resulting in a blue screen.
Unfortunately that screen lasts less than a second (so I
cannot read it), then the machine attempts to restart
resulting in another black screen ad infinitum nauseum.

Attempting Safe Mode stops at agp440.sys just before the
blue screen. It could be that agp440.sys loaded and
whatever comes next is what hung. I don't know.

Googling comes up with hundreds of hits on this problem
and I am getting crosseyed reading them all.

Looking for a way to fix this problem while preserving the
data.
TIA

 

[Malke]

Dell Inspirion 8100 with WinXPhome will not start.

The system has worked fine for over a year.

Last Friday the use of the computer was normal; no added
or deleted hardware or software, no power outages, normal
shutdown Friday evening.

Saturday morning on power up, the computer goes to a BLACK
screen. Screen contents shown below:

"We aplogoize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not
start successfully. A recent hardware or software change
might have caused this. (snip)
I tried all options with each resulting in a blue screen.
Unfortunately that screen lasts less than a second (so I
cannot read it), then the machine attempts to restart
resulting in another black screen ad infinitum nauseum.

Attempting Safe Mode stops at agp440.sys just before the
blue screen. It could be that agp440.sys loaded and
whatever comes next is what hung. I don't know.

Googling comes up with hundreds of hits on this problem
and I am getting crosseyed reading them all.

Looking for a way to fix this problem while preserving the
data.
TIA

If you have neglected to back up your data, the first thing you will
want to do is rescue it so you don't need to worry about losing it.
There are a couple of ways to do this:

1. If you machine has two cd drives, one of which is a cd-rw, boot with
Knoppix (a Linux distro that runs from cd) and use k3b to burn the data
to a cd-r.

2. Remove the hard drive and slave it in a working XP box and copy the
data off that way.

Then you can safely proceed with troubleshooting. I'd start with some
hardware diagnosis, beginning with opening the box and making sure
everything is well-seated and clean, and all fans are running. Here are
some general hardware troubleshooting steps:

1) open the computer and run it open, cleaning out all dust bunnies and
observing all fans (overheating will cause system freezing); 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; 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).

Malke