xp boot up

[val9494]

I turned my laptop on tonight and received an error message saying the computer did not shut down properly or software could be causing a problem. It gives me multiple choices to boot: safe mode, w networking, w/ command prompt, last known good config, or start normally. I do not get a choice to choose which drivers to load. Trying all the options just runs through loading the drivers. Then it switches to the XP screen acting like it is loading. Then it goes to a quick blue screen stating something like, registry error loading software. (Can't read it, too fast) It then goes on and on in the same routine. I do not have a floppy drive to try a start disk. The only disks I have a recovery disks which will erase my hard drive. EEKS! Can anyone help me? Is there a way to make a bootable cd startup disk? Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance!!!

 

[Rick]

Most manufacturers include a bootable Windows XP CD.

This will allow you to boot into something called "recovery console" to view and manipulate your files via command line. It's not a user-friendly tool though.

What I might look for is the CAUSE of this problem. Most likely, it is hardware failure, such as a bad hard disk or memory. But it can also be a software problem... So you should figure this out first before you try to fix it and make it worse.

Run a disk diagnostic:
https://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7602

Then run a memory test:
http://www.memtest86.org

You'll need access to a computer with a CD burner to make a bootable CD. With most disk diagnostics, you make a bootable floppy disk and then use that disk to make a bootable CD using popular burning programs such as Easy CD Creator and Nero.

Memtest has a bootable ISO for download, which you can burn with virtually any CD burning program capable of burning image files.

I think these steps are important, because I have seen this problem VERY often.. And typically the cause is a bad hard disk.

Once your computer passes or fails the test, then you can be relatively sure of what the cause is and fix it appropriately.