XP startup problem

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Guest

Sunday morning my computer ran fine. I unhooked everything and put it in my
car to go back to school after spring break... I got back to my dorm and
hooked everything up. Now something is messed up.

When it boots up it gets as far as the XP load screen, but never gets as far
as the login screen. After the load screen with the blue bar, my monitor
just goes black and then turns off.

I've managed to get it to start in safemode, and I've tried system restore
twice, to two different dates as much as a month ago. While in safemode,
I've run virus scans with updated definitions to no result. I also used PC
doctor on everything (including my harddrive, which took about 3 hours)
without actually finding anything wrong.

I tried the "start in last known good configuration" option, but that got me
to the same place as a regular startup -- my monitor turns off and the system
does nothing.

I've tried using the reinstall CD that came with my system, and I made a
diskette when it asked me to, but that seems to do absolutely nothing.

I can get to a DOS screen that gives me the option of repairing my
harddrive, but then it won't actually do it because I'm using an NTFS rather
than a FAT or FAT32. Apparently because of the protections on it, I'd have
to reformat in order to "repair" whatever it is that's wrong with it. When
I'm in safemode, none of the diagnostics I've used have found a problem.

Overall, I can get the system to run in safemode, but that's about it. None
of the diagnostics I've run have found anything wrong with the system. I
can't seem to figure out WHY XP won't start up normally.

Obviously I'm reticent to format my hard drive or lose information.

Help would be appreciated. Please ask questions if it will help you
understand the problem.

Thanks.
 
Peter, try opening up the box and remove the ram. Then reinstall and make
sure it's fully seated and locked down.
 
Pulling the RAM cards didn't change anything. Was I supposed to try and boot
it up without the ram?

I went into the device manager and tried something different though. I
asked it to "show hidden devices" and there's actually something that appears
to have a problem.

It's "SYMTDI" under "Non Plug and Play drivers". I don't know what that is.
I ran a Google search and found stuff about Norton Antivirus, which I
have... but I'm not sure what it has to do with XP not starting up... if
anything.
 
Peter, try disabling SYMTDI in Device Manager. Or if you have the Norton
CD try uninstalling Norton temporarily.
 
I can only run in safemode, so I can't access the installer for Norton in
order to uninstall it.

I disabled the SYMTDI device, but that didn't do anything.
 
That worked! I'm able to start XP normally now. Thanks.

However, now it's spending several minutes on the blue screen before the
login screen. The one that says "windows is loading" stays around forever,
and there are no sounds coming from the box. Everything works... eventually.
 
Run a Check Disk now to see if you have file errors or bad sectors on your
HD.

Brian
 
Actually, I think the problem was solved by downloading all the necessary
updates. But I'm looking into that bootvis program. Sounds very handy.
Thanks!
 
My Media Center Edition 2005 Dell computer can only start in Safe mode, and I
have no recovery disc, since Media Center Edition is for OEM computers only.
I can't fix this, tried scanning for viruses with updated software, and etc.
There are only 3 restore points, and this happened after installing updates
and restarting when i was downloading. Help!
 
I've had this problem in the past and it turned out to be that the display
settings were changed to a combination not supported by the monitor. I went
to safe mode and set it back down to vga and then it would come up normal,
only needing to reset the resolution to a supported value. Thought it might
help next time.
 
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