Windows XP won't load

Hi
I have been using Windows Xp for about 6 months. All of a sudden it hangs right at the Windows XP screen where the blue line goes across the screen just before windows starts. It just stays there--forever. I'm wondering if my CD-Rom drive died or something like that. I tried reloading XP with the 6 startup disks and it won't let me read the windows xp disk in the cd-rom drive to finish. Does anyone have any ideas for me?
Thanks in advance.

 

Try Safe Mode, watch the files load and post the last couple of files shown if Safe Mode does not load
If Safe Mode does work post the most recent hardware or software changes you have made.

 

FYI - If you don't know how to get into safe mode, press the F8 key before windows starts. If you can boot into safe mode, then try to remember the last hardware change or software you installed (this could be an update to existing software as well). Try removing what you recently installed and restart normally.

If this still will not work, what you can do is boot off the Windows XP CD (assuming you have one and this is not a name brand machine which may not have come with one) and when you enter setup, choose the repair option.

 

I can not load in safe mode either. It gets to the part when I can choose safe mode and then stalls. I can not get it to read my cd, the light comes on but nothing happens.
Lennymay

 

Can you give some more specs on the system itself? If it is fairly new, there should be a "boot menu" option where you can choose what to boot from.
Also, if you cannot boot from a CD, it is possible that your BIOS is set to boot off the local hard drive before the CD-ROM. Again, it would be easier to select the CD-ROM from a boot menu, sometimes this can be done by hitting F10 or F12 as soon as the POST has finished.

 

Be careful. If you lead someone through a repair install and its registry related, you've just sealed their fate. Thats why you don't see me reccomending it very often.

 

I wouldn't tell someone to change registry items unless I was absolutely positive it was what they needed. The Repair choice during setup as far as I know repairs the C:\Windows folder (or C:\WINNT). It either works or it doesn't.

Thanks for the tip, maybe I should post a disclaimer with my signature....

Something something, blah blah, whatever I say, if you choose to follow, is at your own risk, no guarantee. Blah. You all know what I mean.

 

Well, the repair process takes your current registry (no matter how screwed it is) and overwrites the backup in C:\windows\repair.

It also deletes all restore points--which also have backups of the registry in it.


So, if its a registry related failure, a repair usually just makes it worse.