the computer thats giving me problems is a bit old. but its still useful its an HP Compaq dc5100 with a Pentium 4 processor. wen i turn it on it tells me sorry for the inconveniance but windows did not start successfully a resent hardware or software might have caused this.

it gave me a 5 choices
safe mode
safe mode
safe mode with command prompt
last known configuration(most recent settings that worked)
start windows normally

the first 3 choices show me a page full of different words. the other 2 just restart the computer and bring me back to the same black screen with the choices i stated above.
now i know that if i had the original xp disks i would be able to fix it. but i dont. is there any other way fix this problem? thanks in advance

Hi,
How long do you leave it in the first 2 options "Safe Mode"? It can take quite awhile to load, depending on the system. I have had to wait for close to an hour on some machines.
If that fails try getting hold of a boot disk with Check Disk "CHKDSK", you can get one from BootDisk.com http://www.bootdisk.com/ntfs.htm just follow the instructions. When you run chkdsk it will fix any errors on the drive....so they say. Most times it works for me.

Hope this helps. God luck

Dave

hi thanks for responding. well when i choose any of the 2 first ones it looks as if its going to work. then it stops,and reboots to the same screen.lol well thanks for the advice i'll let u know if it worked. thanks.

Hi, no worries....there is also the possibility that ram is bad as well. Always pays to check these things. Good luck

Dave

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