davegtt

OK guys, my PC stopped booting up, it'd power up, you'd here the HDD's going and the processor fan spinning etc but nothing on the monitor, we put it down to the motherboard so I ordered a new one the other day and fitted it this morning, rigged it all up and pressed power and it burst into life then after going through the usual screen showing whats connected it goes to a page that says because the PC didnt power up correctly before what do you want to do?

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt
Last known Config
Normal.

Ive tried to boot it in safe, last known config and normal mode but all it does is reboot from the beginning and goes straight back to the above page, is there something Im doing wrong or something I need to reconfigure in the Bios or something? really want my PC back before the weekend....

Thanks for any suggestions.

bob269

Windows xp gets a bit shirty when you change major hardware. Try running the repair option from the xp cd.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

davegtt

thanks, will get onto it now

davegtt

Update, inserted the XP CD and got it too boot up from that, it said it was loading a few files etc then asked if I wasnt to start windows or repair windows etc, so I asked to repair, it went to a command prompt, asked for a login password so logged into the HDD and all it did was give me a command prompt of C:\WINDOWS What do I do now? Ive typed in HELP and I dont see any commands that looks like repair windows etc....

Thanks

bob269

erm, maybe it's not quite the repair option, but instead repair install.

1. When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below
2. This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
   Windows XP to run on your computer:
   
   To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER. This is the option you want to enable to proceed to the Repair Install.
3. To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
   For the Repair Install do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R", (you Do Not want to load Recovery Console). I repeat, do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R".
   To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.
4. Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.
5. Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows installations.
6. Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair. If Repair is not one of the options, read this Warning!!
7. Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot. Do not press any key to boot from CD when the message appears. Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your applications and settings will remain intact.

doobiedoo

EDIT TO SAY: Ignore this unless BOB269's suggestions fail.

The command prompt you have found is the recovery console.

Sounds like the PC is probably 'blue screening' but it set to auto restart on system failure so you are not seeing the STOP error code.

Almost certainly driver related and due to the hardware change. Basically windows is failing to start because your hardware is not as Windows thinks it should be.

Could be a tough one to crack. It would be much easier with the STOP error or a memory dump file but doesn't look like you can get to these easily.You should be fine to reinstall Windows into a different folder (or ideally partition) on the disk - i.e. when you go through the build, choose c:\Windows2 (or d:\windows perhaps) and make sure you DON'T (!!) format the drive or you'll loose your files and data.

I'm sure the existing OS is recoverable given time and effort but from experience you will take longer trying to fix it and end up with an unstable system.

If you really want to keep the existing build you could try installing a second copy of windows to a different folder then copying system hive info over from the new install to the old one (c:\windows\system32\config\) and then see if it will boot.

Apologies if I am getting too complex - reply to the forum if I am waffling and you don't understand anything!!

Hope this is of some help

davegtt

Bob, your a genious, thanks alot the PC is running again, lots of things to set up now though but I should manage all that

Doobie, didnt need the info but appriciate you taking time out to try and help

Cheers guys

bob269

Glad it's sorted