Startup problems XP - anyone help?
Discussion
Long shot,
My parents home PC won't start up Windows XP. They're in Wales, I'm in Belgium, so haven't actually seen it myself, but apparently it comes up with a black and white screen with lots of text and a countdown timer of 30 seconds to make your choice.
Says something like "apologies for the inconvenience but windows start was unsuccessful. A recent hardware or software change may have caused this"
Then it has 5 options, the first three are "safe mode start" then "normal start" plus one other. They've tried them all, they all cycle back to this page. Also tried pressing R (idea from the microsoft website) with no effect.
PC was working normally last night, it's a few years old, no recent hardware or software changes. Can anyone help?
My parents home PC won't start up Windows XP. They're in Wales, I'm in Belgium, so haven't actually seen it myself, but apparently it comes up with a black and white screen with lots of text and a countdown timer of 30 seconds to make your choice.
Says something like "apologies for the inconvenience but windows start was unsuccessful. A recent hardware or software change may have caused this"
Then it has 5 options, the first three are "safe mode start" then "normal start" plus one other. They've tried them all, they all cycle back to this page. Also tried pressing R (idea from the microsoft website) with no effect.
PC was working normally last night, it's a few years old, no recent hardware or software changes. Can anyone help?
BliarOut said:
Get them to try to start it in safe mode. If that works get them to do a system restore (while still in safe mode) to the most recent restore point before the problem occured.
They say they've tried all the available options including safe mode, and it just cycles back to this screen...
v-spec said:
Well they do have the disk so I got them to put it in and reboot but it still goes back to the same black page
Its probably still booting from the hard disk - you need to get them to check the boot up sequence in the bios - change it to go CD-ROM, Floppy Drive then hard drive.
Jinx said:
v-spec said:
Well they do have the disk so I got them to put it in and reboot but it still goes back to the same black page
Its probably still booting from the hard disk - you need to get them to check the boot up sequence in the bios - change it to go CD-ROM, Floppy Drive then hard drive.
Can you tell me how to do that, if it's a simple thing to do?
As the Pc boots up - just after the memory test it will pop up with the message "press del to enter setup" or words to that effect. Pressing the "del" key should take you into the bios (probably Cmos or something).
There will be a list of menus to pick from - e.g. standard, extended, advance settings, and within one of these should be a boot sequence.
Using the cursor keys, return key and space bar (to cycle through the options) the boot up sequence should be changed to boot from the CD-Rom first. Press escape and hit "y" for save settings and exit. Unfortunately as the bios is machine dependent I can't give exact instructions.
There will be a list of menus to pick from - e.g. standard, extended, advance settings, and within one of these should be a boot sequence.
Using the cursor keys, return key and space bar (to cycle through the options) the boot up sequence should be changed to boot from the CD-Rom first. Press escape and hit "y" for save settings and exit. Unfortunately as the bios is machine dependent I can't give exact instructions.
Edited by Jinx on Tuesday 8th August 15:14
v-spec said:
Apparently it just has a blue HP screen, then directly to this error page. No opportunity to press delete or any other key to halt.
They're getting someone in to look at it tomorrow. Thanks for your help though guys
They're getting someone in to look at it tomorrow. Thanks for your help though guys
Just an fyi for the future. A lot of OEM's (HP, Packard Bell, et al) hide the entier BIOS sequence with a pretty picture to make the computer appear less 'scary'. Often they also use odd-bod keys to get in to the BIOS. If tapping Del repeatedly before and during this image doesn't work; try just wedging a key down whilst turning it on.
It'll break out of the picture with the usual "Keyboard error or not present press F1 to continue" message and somewhere it'll say "Press X to enter setup/BIOS"
thepassenger said:
Just an fyi for the future. A lot of OEM's (HP, Packard Bell, et al) hide the entier BIOS sequence with a pretty picture to make the computer appear less 'scary'. Often they also use odd-bod keys to get in to the BIOS. If tapping Del repeatedly before and during this image doesn't work; try just wedging a key down whilst turning it on.
It'll break out of the picture with the usual "Keyboard error or not present press F1 to continue" message and somewhere it'll say "Press X to enter setup/BIOS"
It'll break out of the picture with the usual "Keyboard error or not present press F1 to continue" message and somewhere it'll say "Press X to enter setup/BIOS"
I never knew certain OEMs did this - doesn't seem a good idea to me.
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