Operating System Not Found

Hello all! My husband and I have a problem with our computer. We have Windows XP. He was in the middle of writing on Word Perfect last night when the computer shut down. He rebooted to find this error message:

Mi {sino opmritino {y{ tmm
Mis:ez Joot (Rmcorl Mrzoz
Xrms { i key

***

Whenever we try to type in commands, "Operativng System Not Found" comes up.

Any ideas of where to start? We both save a lot of text files to the hard drive. We have both had trouble with Word Perfect freezing up on us. Is there anyway to get the computer to reboot with out losing all of our saved info??

Thanks!
Katey

What program is giving you that error? It's not an error of anytype I've seen before. Does windows start to load at all before this message appears?

Were your running any sort of up to date Antivirus software?

The computer is still in DOS when this error pops up. The HP logo pops up, and then XP will not load. That gobbledegook message comes up everytime. We've restarted the computer like 20 + times. However, we have not shut it off from the back....

No anti-virus programs were running when this occurred....


Any ideas?

When the HP logo loads up, try hitting the Esc key and watch the messages displayed. How far does it get? Does it detect drives? List Device IRQ's?

In any case, if you have a working PC (what your posting from), you should attach the drive from the Erroring PC to the working PC and see if you can copy off your data. This way we can be sure that your data is safe before trying to rescue your installation.

Thanks Panic X!

We shall try it and let ya know.

Katey