freezes at windows login?

[Chiz]

When trying to run windows i'm greeted by the windows xp page just slightly before the actual login page itself. It freezes here and doesn't continue to the login page at all. It's my friends computer and he is currently running;

windows xp home edition sp1,
2.8 pentium 4
1gb ram

and there's been no additional hardware or software installed.

I've tried running the recovery option within the xp disk, and chkdsk /p and /r but to no ovail.

I'm not sure what else to try really.

Any pointers or tips would be appreciated.

 

[firewallblocked]

If you have no soundcards etc plugged in do you have a usb flash drive or any other external drive etc plugged into a usb port? My mates laptop will freeze on boot up if his 512mb usb flash drive is plugged in on boot. Have you tried a safe mode boot? (F8) this may point to driver problems if this lets you get past the login screen.

 

[earlyflash]

run with logging on - this is an option on the safe boot menu. Then boot into safe mode the next time and take a look at the log - it's in the root of C:

 

[theredguy]

Not trying to highjack the thread but I too have the same problem with a friends machine, xp home with sp2 this time. I don't know about you but i can't get past that spot even in safe mode and have tried everything, does anyone know if we could try any DOS editing to get round the problem?

 

[earlyflash]

Try a logging startup, then boot into the recovery console to read the log.

 

[Chiz]

how do you read the log? what are the commands?

 

[earlyflash]

In the recovery console, you should be able to 'type <logfilename>'