XP won't boot past user selection screen

[Guest]

Three days ago, when I turned my computer on in the morning, it booted up
past the welcome screen to my background (no icons, no task bar loaded.)
After a few seconds, XP logged off back to the user selection screen, with
the saving settings message under my user name. Clicking my name causes the
message to change to logging on, and then instantly back to saving settings.
I cannot boot any further than the selection screen.

The same happens when I attempt to log on via safe mode on either my log on
or the administrator log on. As a rule, I don't even see the user selection
screen, since I'm the only user.

I removed the hard drive from the computer and plugged it into a spare
computer as a slave drive. I ran virus check, etc., with nothing found.

I ran recovery console from an XP upgrade cd, in hopes that KB892893 (a
suggestion I saw for a similar problem on Google) would solve my problem - no
deal.

I have a system restore DVD from the manufacturer - putting this into the
DVD drive gives me nothing but a blank screen on startup, I don't even get to
the scrolling bar.

Without being able to log in at all, either as a user or administrator, in
either normal or safe mode, has me stumped. Anything I can do short of doing
a fresh install? I managed to save my documents to my spare computer, but
there are many things I'd rather not reinstall/recreate if I don't have to.

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.

Jen

 

[Maurice N ~ MVP]

Hello Jen,

You said
"I have a system restore DVD from the manufacturer - putting this into the
DVD drive gives me nothing but a blank screen on startup, I don't even get to
the scrolling bar."

I'd suggest you follow the manufacturer's instructions for using the DVD. You likely have to first set your BIOS to boot pc from DVD.
A major manufacturer will have a web-based support site, with some How To articles.

BUT please keep in mind, a system restore from the manufacturer will put the pc's contents to where it was when it left the factory.
Meaning, you will lose any documents or personal files you had on this system.

On a sidenote, unless you were infected by Blazefind, you should have ignored KB 892893.

On your next post, please clarify whether you have XP Home of XP Pro edition. (only matters if you continue to have major problem).

Given you have obvious access to read the net (surely from some other pc), AND you know how to get into Recovery Console....
I'll suggest you consider the following .... on the presumption that your system has System Restore points older than "three days ago".

Use XP's System Restore to restore to a date older than 3 days ago.

Study this next MS article carefully. If you can follow this and succeed, you should be able to "restore" to an earlier point --- a date before these recent changes.

The MS Knowledge Base article noted below, may help in restoring a "prior XP
System Restore point", in the case where you are unable to do this from a
Windows session. This article describes how to start the System Restore
tool when you are unable to start your Windows XP-based computer normally or
in Safe mode.
You may be able to do it from a "special command prompt"... "Safe Mode with Command Prompt".

It would seem the requirements would be:
1. You had restore point(s) from before. (Which also means System Restore is active on your XP.)
2. You have to be able to "selectively" bootup your pc into "Safe mode with command prompt".
3. Follow the directions to use "rstrui.exe" the XP System Restore program.

HOW TO: Start the System Restore Tool from a Command Prompt ( 304449)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449/

Also, How to restore the operating system to a previous state in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084/

 

[Guest]

Hi Maurice, and thanks for the reply.

I'd suggest you follow the manufacturer's instructions for using the DVD. You likely have to first set your BIOS to boot pc from DVD.
A major manufacturer will have a web-based support site, with some How To articles.

I now have an email in to emachines support for information on how to get
that DVD to work. Is there a way to access the BIOS without logging into the
system?

On your next post, please clarify whether you have XP Home of XP Pro edition. (only matters if you continue to have major problem).

I'm fairly certain I have XP Home, as this is what the machine was
pre-loaded with, and I haven't upgraded it myself to Pro. However, when I
hit F5 on startup to see the boot options, the OS listed is XP Pro. I'm
confused by that, but like I said, I'm 100% certain that I still have XP Home.

I looked at KB304449, and gave that a shot, but I'm unable to log in using
any of the Safe Mode options (regular Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Command
Prompt, Safe Mode with Networking.) On a lark, I also tried entering the
command line mentioned in the KB article at the prompt (after switching to
the correct directory) from the recovery console, no such luck (command was
not recognized.) I can't recall saving any restore points recently, anyway,
so I guess if it had worked, I'd probably be back to square one anyway (guess
that will teach me!)

I put the HD back into my spare computer as a slave again, copied all of my
important documents, and wrote down the programs I had installed that I
wanted to reinstall. So at least now I'm prepared for having to start fresh,
with minimal pain.

I guess my next question is - if I can't get the restore DVD to work, if I
put an XP upgrade CD into my drive and boot from that, will running the
upgrade give me a fresh installation of Windows? I can't remember the exact
options when booting from the CD, but the first is something regarding
installation, the second is to run the recovery console.

On a side note, when going through the programs to find what I wanted to
save, I did find an error log file in a program I'd installed, with an error
listed on 4/12/06 and today. The error is: comdlg32.ocx or one of its
dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid. Would
that have anything to do with my problems? A quck search on Google didn't
bring up anything I really understood.

Thanks in advance, again.
Jen

 

[Lundrat]

I am running into the same or a similar problem with XP Pro SP2. The
computer crashed on its own and if left alone will reboot to the appology
screen stating that "Unfortunatley Windows has encountered......"
No matter what selection I make from open normally,restore,safe etc. the
system will start to launch as far as the welcome screen then I get an
instant blue screen that I have been unable to read and the PC reboots back
to boot up then starts the sequence all over again.
I booted with my WinXP CD and went to the recovery option and tried
restoring the registry as discussed on the Microsoft support page article
307545. The PC would not let me carry out any of the commands including the
first which was just " md tmp". I have the logon configured so no paassword
is required but do have a PW as the Administrator- I just can't seem to get
to anything else to work including the command prompt option to enable
system restore.

Any help would be appreciated

GaryW

 

[Maurice N ~ MVP]

Hello Lundrat,

If utterly unable to get into Safe mode, then power off the pc, power up after say 15 or so seconds, repeat F8 selective bootup & select "Last Known Good Configuration".

If no joy, be sure to try the "VGA" mode boot option.

Following is not a cure, but will give some information on what the problem area is.

When the pc is booting up (after the BIOS has done its POST test and
before Windows starts loading),
Tap F8 Function key to get bootup options. Tap & keep repeat tapping F8 !

You will actually see "Disable automatic restart on system failure" as an option .
Select that and give it a try. This option is available if you have XP service pack 2.

You really need to see the STOP code because there is a fatal error condition.