more puter trouble.

[Kerplow]

So i left my computer on all night (something I've done numerous times with no issue) and when i came home at lunch to use it it locked up on me when i tried to close firefox. I restarted it with the reset button and since then it will not get passed the windows boot screen unless i use safe mode. The OS is XP. Any ideas?

[orangeglo]

XP...

Dude bro.

Ok, try disconnecting any USB or HDMI devices and try again. I haven't run XP in a minute, I won't be of much help.

[MikeH1]

if you boot up with a Windows XP install CD, eventually it will detect an existing installation and prompt if you want to repair it

it will replace whatever system files it sees as missing or damaged, most of the time that fixes it

[paul0660]

Orangeglo is correct, this can be caused by peripherals. Otherwise, find a source for ERD (emergency rescue disk) and boot to it. It will have many options, including repairing corrupted system files, which is likely, or rolling back to an earlier restore point, which might work as well. Both options have worked for me. I think the repair option in windows starts you back at SP1, which would necessitate upgrading to sp3, and dozens of others. They could have stopped at XP pro, imo. The rest is flash and bang trying to keep up with Apple.

[rolli12]

this is the most popular trouble to shoot

[Kerplow]

thanks for the info guys. I read that i can repair the boot process with the XP disc so I'm gonna try and find that for now. If that doesn't work i will procure an ERD.

[Montu]

you should be able to just go into safe mode and do a system restore back to a previous date

if you don't have the windows disk you can download this

http://www.ubcd4win.com/index.htm

you can get into the recovery console from there and use it to run fixboot or check disk (chkdsk /r) which are the 2 things I would try first if you can't restore the machine to a previous date

here is an ms article on using the recovery console

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

[paul0660]

thanks for the info guys. I read that i can repair the boot process with the XP disc so I'm gonna try and find that for now. If that doesn't work i will procure an ERD.

like I said, windows repair takes you back to the original install, ERD does not.

[loose_electron]

you should be able to just go into safe mode and do a system restore back to a previous date

Smartest Option!

[meaty-btz]

The smartest option is to stop using XP. I have supported thousands of XP desktops, well since XP came out. It was better than what came before, but it has its own issues. Issues that make you want to scream. XP explodes very easily.

One of the largest improvements with windows 7 is how robust it is and it's own automated self-repair systems. That and it doesn't explode all the bloody time all on it's own due to a screwup in the hive or something similar.

[Kerplow]

So, I tried all the repairs my feeble mind could think of until i broke down and formatted the HD and reloaded windows. Computer seems to work fine now, except for two little things. When formatting the hard drive I thought i set it up to have two partitions, yet I'm only seeing one partition and it's the size i thought i delegated for my 2nd partition.

My other problem is I cannot get the puter to recognize the modem to get on internetz, not sure what I'm doing wrong.

[Kerplow]

ok, so installed the motherboard drivers and now i gots me sum internetzzz. now my only boggle is this hard drive partition. hopefully I don't have to reformat and reload the OS.

[26er]

You may have to make your second partition active.
Right click My Computer choose Manage
Click disc mgmt.
You should see an inactive partition, right click it & choose Make active.
Something like this anyway

[nine mil thrill]

kerplow.....that is a very common problem with xp. google..."xp repair console" (read description) first !
you boot to your xp disc.....and instead of reinstalling windows....you select repair. you are then dropped into a "dos" like screen. type help...and you will see a menu of commands. type ckdsk and run, then type fixboot, and run.....when complete, reboot computer without the xp disk in.........it should act normal after. advice....do not fool with any partitions !!