Computer starts but won't boot up Windows

Gepetto · 23 Jun 2009 at 21:26

A mate has a PC that starts up normally until it gets to the Windows starting screen. Then it goes back to the beginning and does that over and over.

Can anyone tell me what's knackered? I figured HDD, but I took that out, put it in my machine and I can read it fine on my PC. Didn't try booting from it mind!

siumatfung · 23 Jun 2009 at 21:41

by read it u copy and pasted files over , etc etc?

could try the RAM but very doubtful tho

RJC · 23 Jun 2009 at 21:57

Can you get into safe mode.

Gepetto · 23 Jun 2009 at 22:09

siumatfung said:
by read it u copy and pasted files over , etc etc?

could try the RAM but very doubtful tho

No, I must confess I didn't try to do anything with it. Just opened the folders to make sure the info was still there.

RJC said:
Can you get into safe mode.

No RJC, 'fraid not, it didn't give me the option.

J.B · 23 Jun 2009 at 23:53

Gepetto said:
No, I must confess I didn't try to do anything with it. Just opened the folders to make sure the info was still there.

No RJC, 'fraid not, it didn't give me the option.

Didnt give you the option? What option did it give you?

Does it happen in the exact same place everytime? If it does then it is probably a driver issue. Best bet is to go to safe mode and reinstall/uninstall the main drivers.

Alternatively you could try removing any hardware thats not needed such as PCI cards to run a barebones system and see if that boots.

Gepetto · 24 Jun 2009 at 08:35

J.B said:
Didnt give you the option? What option did it give you?

Does it happen in the exact same place everytime? If it does then it is probably a driver issue. Best bet is to go to safe mode and reinstall/uninstall the main drivers.

Alternatively you could try removing any hardware thats not needed such as PCI cards to run a barebones system and see if that boots.

Thanks JB, I'll try that. I didn't see the safe mode option, and I have no idea how to get into it from startup, so I'll do some reading. :cool:

matthewhotdude · 24 Jun 2009 at 08:38

Keep pressing F8 at startup to get the safemode option (I think)

razer1978 · 24 Jun 2009 at 08:43

you press f8 just before the windows loading screen come's up, best way is to keep pressing f8 after the post screen

also +1 running bare bones but sounds like a software issue to me, one of my mates had a problem like this after upgrading his vga drivers

hope it helps

Ucof · 24 Jun 2009 at 09:55

Ditto the video card driver problem.

When did this start happening?
Did the user change (install) anything before it screwed up?
What graphics card does he have and did he install the latest Catalyst software before this happened?