please help. XP-pro will boot/load in safemode, not boot/load normal

Hello Everyone!
I am in desperate need of help please!I'm not so techy, so pls bear with me. My PC is a Compaq pentium processor which I bought in 2002 with XP Home on it. It crashed earlier in the year so my "tech" pal helped me install XP pro. but installed in on a partition, so I still have XPHome on it but can't load it directly. My C drive still has docs and programs that I had on my XPhome and I still access them from the XPhome via my XP pro.

Now, everything has been just peachy for about 6 months now, up untill today when the XP pro will only load/boot in the safe modes. When I try to boot normally, it just shows that initial BLACK windows log in screen with the little horizontal blue thingy going from side to side and the windows flag/colors. And it just keeps showing it indefinitely till I press the power button to shut down.
I opened the PC to look for foreign bodies and there was nothing there. I also performed a system restore about 3 times and nothing changed. The computer boots in other modes except the normal mode. And I can see all our user icons as well as the administrator, which of course shows when you boot in a safe mode.
I tried a whole bunch of stuff, rebooting, etc but still nothing

I am just about ripping my hair out now! Please help guys...
Thanks in Advance!

 

Did you change or install anything prior to the problem arising?

It sounds like a 'buggy' driver, possibly. Mine occasionally does this with the video driver.

Once XP is booted in Safe Mode, look in the Event Viewer (Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer), and see if there is a clue to the cause of the problem in there. Also, look in Device Manager and see if there is a hardware device that is displayed as having a problem.

Hope some of this might help.

 

Thanks hongkongphooey!
I had actually installed Visio 2000 recently and while trying to install it , I got an error message saying it was not compartable with my version of windows. I checked the Event viewer and have error messages to that effect, but nothing significant. Well maybe not significant bcoz I'm not "that" techy, so I might not know.

Long and short, I uninstalled the visio and tried to reboot in normal mode. Still at the BLACK start upscreen, with the horizontal blue thingy...indicating that it is loading.
Anything else you think I should do? More suggestions are also welcome please, anybody. I have no clue what to do next.

So honKP, did you uninstall the software that caused you problems?

Thanks again!

 

The same thing was happening to me. Have you overclocked anything in your computer? ie processor, RAM, video card. If so, it could be that your power supply isnt strong enough. I found that it helps by unplugging my any USB devices that you have plugged in. After I did that, it booted fine. Ill know for sure if that was the problem once I get a new power supply. Good luck.

 

O yeah, wait till windows boots all the way to plug the USB stuff back in.

 

Thanks guys!

Will let you know how it goes tomorrow.(Saturday)

I appreciate this a great deal!

 

I'm having bascically the same problem caused by a bad virus. I got that cleaned up but now it won't boot normally, only by using the xp disc. My comp is a Dell XPS P3 with a clock speed of 133 mhz, 512 mb of memory and a 40 gb hard drive. Can someone help me out by telling me how to fix the setup as i think thats where the problem is. I'm not very Techy so if someone can help please email me at swede7377@yahoo.com Thank you

 

Try this. Someone gave it to me from the software forum here on majorgeeks:

1. disconnect from the internet (if you have an always on connection
and are not behind a decent hardware firewall)

2. Go to start, right click on "my computer", click properites, go to
the hardware tab, click "device manager". Anything in the list with a
yellow exclaimation mark, a yellow question mark, or a red X?

3. Start->run->type "msconfig" (no quotes). Put the dot into
"selective startup", uncheck process system.ini, process win.ini, load startup
items. Then click on the "services" tab along the top, check "hide all
microsoft services" (right above the "OK" button, make sure you find it
and check it before proceeding), uncheck anything left, click apply,
click ok, click restart. Does the computer boot? If it does, slowly
undo the above steps until you find out what is causing the problem
(Careful not to touch the microsoft services, that could cause issues and
erase your restore points)

4. (Recommended only if there is no CRITICAL data on the drive which
isn't backed up)- go to start, go to run, type "cmd", click ok, type
"chkdsk" in the window that appears, hit enter. Wait for it to finish,
read the text displayed to see if it says anything about finding errors on
the drive. If yes, type "chkdsk /r", press enter, type "y", press
enter, reboot, wait for the process to complete (may take an hour +). Then
see if you hit desktop!

Hope this helps, let us know if you find any devices in device manager
with marks or "bangs" over them!

Good luck!