Laptop not booting up unless in safe mode.

[Drake5]

I'm trying to fix my mates laptop without having to format it. When it boots up it just keeps looping on the windows splash screen, but it will boot into safe mode.

What could be causing this? Would the best plan to get an antivirus on and do a scan?

Can you install anything in safe mode though? OS is Vista.

Cheers

 

[marc2003]

in safe mode, right click "computer">properties>advanced system settings>startup and recovery>settings. under "system failure" uncheck "automatically restart".

now it may BSOD on startup but it will hang there giving you a chance to see some detail. a bad driver perhaps?

edit: i assumed windows 7 - i hope the directions to these settings exist on vista.

 

[Drake5]

Hi thanks for the reply.

When I meant looping I meant the bar you see when Windows starts up just keeps going along for about 5 mins, and then it will freeze on a black screen.

Cheers