XP not booting..

Hello guys.
Well on my desktop, today when I went to boot it up, it turns on.. Goes past the Dell loading screen, goes to the XP screen with the bar running across.. than after that, it goes to the black screen where the mouse pops up (normally it'd start going "Welcome" and all after the black screen where the mouse loads) but it just stays there on the black screen not moving....


Could someone tell me what the problem might be?

 

Is this a recent issue and have you installed anything lately? Try booting into safe mode and run a system restore back to the day where your computer was booting correctly.

 

Nope I can't think of anything I've installed (Family uses the desktop as well so they might've installed something so I'll try it anyway)
But,
I can't seem to find how to get it into safe mode now...
When I hit F12 it goes into a list of options, boot from primary master, boot from hard disk, boot from cd-rom. Etc.
Where would I get into safe mode now?

 

as soon as the dell logo starts to disappear press F8 continuously then you will get boot options for windows xp then select safe mode ...

do you have any external HDD connected ?

 

Thank you. Nope no external HDD connected. Only thing connected is the powercords/monitor/mouse/keyboard/wireless adapter.

 

Could be corrupt system files on the hdd, which would indicate that the hdd might be failing.

 

I tried running it in safe mode.
when I hit Enter on Safe Mode, it drops down the list of drivers and etc...
Than goes to a black screen with "Safe Mode" in the bottom left and right corner. Than at the top it says something like "Windows xp blah blah blah SP2 Safe Mode"
And stays on that screen...

Any ideas?

Also, I ran the full check for the system, every thing passed, including HDD.

And, I figured I'd put the XP disc in and see if I could repair it (Everything works, can get to BIOS, etc, just wont go past the black screen after the bar that goes across saying XP is loading) But than remembered, the computer didn't come with a disc... Bought it new from Dell around 2006, they said they don't add the OS disks anymore, they said they preload all of the info thats on the disk onto the computer itself nowadays?
When I heard that I was like ? But could someone explain how to get the prestored info that would be on the disk?

By the way, my buddy has a XP SP2 Recovery disc, I tried to use that but it doesn't read it.
At the bottom it say its an HP and stuff so I figure thats the reason it wont work...


Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

Here's a tutorial on the Dell restore partition:

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm

When you say "it doesn't read it", do you mean the disc doesn't spin up at all?

 

Thanks, I'll read the tut.

The disc spins, the green light flashes a couple times, than nothing happens... I tried booting off the CD drive in the list of options to boot from... still stops on the black screen.

 

I would shut down the computer, and then remove and reinstall all of the memory modules, video card, and any PCI cards. After that, disconnect all of the IDE/SATA cables and reconnect them.

Once that is done, try rebooting.

 

Me again...
One problem with that restore thing, I need everything on my HDD...
Do I have any other options to get it booting again?

 

IDE/SATA cables as in inside the desktop?
I'm not all that skilled with computers... Just working with software... Not internal hardware..

 

When I go to boot in safe mode I get...
This reading across the top (black screen, white writing)
Safe Mode (R) Microsoft Windows XP (R) (build 2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.080814-1233: Service Pack 2) Safe Mode

Than on the bottom two corners of the screen it says Safe Mode.
On both sides.
And stays on that screen...

 

Give this tutorial a try:

http://www.pcguide.com/byop/index.htm

After reading that, you should have the basic skills necessary to remove and reinstall memory, video cards, and PCI cards.

 

Thanks.
What're the possibilities that its one of those though?
I mean the whole thing works, just not the OS.
The bios work, the Utility program thing (tests all the components) works, etc..
Everything before the XP loading bar works...

 

the userinit.exe is most likely the culprit or the lsass.sys.. see if you can get that file from another computer or the xp install..

also try a boot.ini removal and repair. this has recently been a common issue it seems from reading around and ive fixed a number of them lately. from my experience it turned out to be the userinit.exe that was missing or corrupt

 

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=userinit.exe+black+screen

 

i know this is for vista but with xp it seems to be the userinit.exe causing the issue.. but this gives you and ida of what im talking about

The Vista Black Screen After Login Mystery...Solved!
I have struggled for some time with a problem that I know has plagues other Windows Vista users too - after logging in, instead of going to the usual desktop, Vista would bring you to a black screen with Windows Explorer as the only thing visible. Many have discovered the work-around, which is to press CTRL+ALT+DELETE and run explorer as a new task. But this is not a solution to the problem.

I am happy to offer those struggling with this issue a genuine solution. It can presumably be accomplished by actually editing the Windows registry, but as I used a program that helps with startup problems, and since that is the best option for most users, I will describe that method here.

First, download the free Autoruns program, which is made by Sysinternals (a Microsoft-owned company). Thanks to Scott Dunn, whose article "Fast Windows Fixes" in the latest issue of PC World recommended this program.

Once you've downloaded and installed the program, right click on it and run it as an administrator.

Next, once the program is running, you will see a list of all the start-up functions in the registry and elsewhere. You will probably want to look for places where it says a file that the registry is supposed to load is not found, and either uncheck that entry or change the location to the one where the file is, if it still exists on your computer.

The key to solving the black screen is a file called lsass.sys. I found the problem initially because it was looking for that file in C:\Windows\Config\ instead of in C:\Windows\System32\ where it is actually located. But changing the location did not solve the problem (I mention my doing so simply because this was a step I took, and I have no way of telling whether it was significant in the resolution).

The final step I took that solved the problem was to uncheck the command to run lsass.sys at startup/login. Once I did this and then closed the program and restarted my computer, it worked properly.

I hope this is helpful - it is certainly a relief for me to finally have this issue sorted out. Now I'm struggling with another problem - when these other problems arose, another symptom was my printer no longer being recognized and functioning with the computer. Uninstalling and reinstalling the software/drivers that came with it doesn't help. Instead of installing the drivers, I get the bizarre message (stemming from rundll.exe and/or newdev.exe) that there is no program associated with this file! Any suggestions would be welcome.

Finally, there are things that can help Vista run faster on slower computers. Some are mentioned in the article in PC World I referred to earlier. But when trying one, namely SystemPropertiesProtection (type it in the 'search box' on the Start Menu), I discovered by accident that it is possible to switch off features such as icon shadows, animated drag-and-drop, and other features that have no value other than to make Windows "look cooler". If your computer is sluggish, switch off all these options and it will certainly help.
Posted by James F. McGrath

 

Thanks.
But thing is..
I can't get anywhere.
I can't get to the OS.
So I can't download anything off the net .....
Is it possible to get to the registry by the boot up options screen..? Cause that, the bios, and the utility thing is all I can get to...

 

you need to use a dos based utility or the recovery console with the xp disc imo i recc bart for this purpose

http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/Recovering_Windows_XP.htm#bartpe

http://www.bootdisk.com/

please see this site for xp problems and fixes also:

http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/Recovering_Windows_XP.htm

 

Alright.
A little confused about now.
So I download the BartPE thing, burn it to a dvd (any burning program works..?).
Stick it in the messed up desktop.
Than what.........?

 

try booting to safe mode and it should stop at a point and not go any further. tell me where it stops. i'll bet it stops where i am thinking it will.

what you need to do is boot to a repair type console and do repairs from there you are bot booting to windows. imo i dont recc this if you are not familiar with doing this tyoe of thing.

bartpe or pebuilder create discs you can use to boot to and repair your windows. so you would need to boot to it and do the repair that way. if you create a dos based disc you may be able to do repairs also but it depends on what the issue turns out to be

you have a tough issue to fix imo if you dont know how. this took me even a while to figure out what was casuing it the first time and i do repair every day

 

if you wanted to make it easy you could always install another copy of xp. then boot to the new one. move your documents from the old user folders to the new ones or burn to a disc and then remove the old version or simply format and do a single fresh install. this does require a reinstall but at least you could get to the files and not loose info

just make sure when installing a second copy not to install it to the same directory as the first one. so if you have a "windows" make the new one windows1 or similar. if you install to the same as the first one you may over write the documents folders and loose your info

there is no simple easy fix for your issue from what i have seen so far

 

I think I'll go with the 2nd option... Installing another copy of XP...
So do you want to break this down into steps for me?
I buy another copy of XP...
Insert it...
Guessing instructions come on the screen itself from here?

 

no just reinstall the disc / copy you have or any xp disc will work borrow one or download one etc.. this is just to reinstall you will still have to use the lic key you have. i recc the one you have with the pc since you have the key right on the machine. but when it asks where to install it tell it to go somewhere other than the normal directory it lists. so install it to say windowscopy2 or something like that. just follow the direction on screen but DO NOT FORMAT DURING THE INSTALL, and do not delete or change the parttiton. just put the disc in and install it. i usually will call it windows2 when i do it this way. once you boot to the new copy you will be able to open all the folder from the old one. remove what you want to save or move them to a cd or dvd or external hdd then either format and reinstall. or remove the old version of windows

 

The PC didnt come with a disk.... Thats the thing...
When I called Dell about why it didn't come with the disk it said all the info on the disc was now preloaded on all their newer systems (this was in 06).
So I don't know if that was BS or not because I can't find that info anywhere...
So how would I go about downloading one or something..?

 

that i cant discuss here. you can borrow one from someone but to use your dell key it will have to be a oem version. all i can say is google is your freind