**HELP*** computer wont boot up

[durrett syndrom]

ok i go to turn on my computer today running xp home edition. When i boot up, the 1st screen is the one you get when you hit f8 (boot in safe mode/safe mode with networking/Last know good configuration/etc). when i choose any of the options, the system goes to the next screen where is shows xp trying to load. it trys over and over then says "power saving mode" and shuts down. Please help.

PS: if i have to do a restore, is there any way i can put the computer on a network turned off and save the files before the restore? thanks a lot

[flared]

If I were you the easiest way and this ensures you won't lose any data is to buy another Hard drive, they are so cheap now. Do a fresh install on that drive (having put it in the machine and set it as master the existing drive as slave.) Then when all done, you have all your files still available on your old drive and somewhere to keep data backed up and backup emails too in case this happens again....

[Zxian]

Is it Windows that says "Power Saving Mode"? or is it BIOS (just plain text on the screen). When do you see this message? After the Windows boot screen (the one with the scrolling bar across the bottom)? Before?

Find a copy of Knoppix (Google it) and burn it to a CD. Boot from the CD.

If the problem doesn't arise (i.e. you can get into Knoppix) then it means that we've got an XP problem.


If the problem is with XP, try taking your hard drive out of the computer and installing it in another computer. You should be able to access all the files on the other computer. If you run into troubles in your My Documents folder with permissions, you can reset the permissions for the folders. Write back here if you need to do that.

Once you've backed up all the files, we can start playing around to see if we can resolve the problem.

Put your Windows XP CD in the CD-Drive and boot from it. You should see a message right at the start that asks you to press a button to load the Recovery Console. Press the button (I think it's F2). Once the recovery Console has loaded, type in sfc /scannow. Once that has completed, see if the computer will boot.

Let us know how things go.

[Disk_Contented]

If the problem is with XP, try taking your hard drive out of the computer and installing it in another computer. You should be able to access all the files on the other computer.

That will cause a stop error.

I do agree with the bios theory though. Turn off power saving functions, XP overrides them anyway.
Press F eight yourself and select "last known settings that worked". failing that, a repair is what I would try.

[malkis]

I'm having the exact same problem described here. Did you manage to sort it out? and if so how?

any help appreciated..