xp startup problem

s4ch117 · 2 May 2009 at 11:16

hi

recently when i start my computer it would load into windows and then it would instantly freeze so that i couldn't actually do anything (not even click on the start menu) and then after a minute a blue screen would appear for a second and then it would restart itself. Now its got to the stage were i cant even get into windows and the pc gets stuck at the boot sequence stage. I was wondering if anyone knew what the problem would be and how to fix it. Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you

J.B · 2 May 2009 at 12:33

Have you tried tapping F8 and going in to safe mode?
It could be a dodgy driver for something.

I would say it's probably more likely to be failing hardware. If you have more than 1 stick of RAM trying running with just one in at a time. Could also be a failing hard drive or a few other things.

Do safe mode and report back.

s4ch117 · 2 May 2009 at 21:17

i tried to start up in safe mode but it wouldnt let me. I stops at the verfiying pool dmi stage on the boot sequence and the weird thing is that it stops at boot from cd. The hard drive is my first boot device.

Berserker · 2 May 2009 at 21:34

I'd go with hardware too then. If you're confident with hardware, start by removing any performance tweaks you've done in the BIOS (i.e. overclocking). If that doesn't help, then start pulling out - one at a time - any hardware that isn't essential (including all but one stick of RAM, for example), and take it from there.

Hardware folks will probably help out further with this.