Hi, Can some please help me work this out:

I hav the above problem on a toshiba laptop. I hav no floppy drive or boot
disk, no installation of XP recovery console. The laptop displays XP logo
then blackscreen when booting up. If you press nothing it stays like that.
If you press F1 safe mode options are listed, but it doesn't matter which one
is selected they all work for 10 seconds or so before quickly flashing the
blue screen and rebooting. I CANNOT ACCESS DESKTOP AT ALL, thus can't switch
off the "auto restart sys on failure" option in 'My Computer'.
I hav got hold of XP setup disk but when selecting "R" recovery console, i
do not get the "1.C:Windows" option. Mine says "C:\>". If i "DIR" i get the
message "An error occurred during directory enumeration". If i "LOGON" it
takes 2 mins before listing the "C:\>" prompt.
I want to try and repair this XP laptop. Can anyone help.

Rex, take a look at this MSKB.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058



"Rex" <Rex@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6AE86881-3DC1-4D6D-AB85-3F81AA1D5D2A@microsoft.com...

So you can at least get to the menu option for Safe Mode?

While booting, hit F8 to get that menu...then quickly scroll to the
last option when the menu comes up, you may even be able to just hit the
up arrow once and "wrap around" to disable automatic restart on systems
failures.

This will let the system fully blue screen and give you a "google-able"
message.

If recovery console is not finding a windows directory, I think
"repair" is not going to be much of an option.

If you can lay your hands on ERD Commander, you can boot off that cd
and get your restore points and try to roll the system back.


--
lhosbrough

Thanks Rich Barry, I had found that article which lead me to just run chkdsk
which allowed me to get to the desktop.

Thanks to you too ihosbrough for getting back to me. I did disable the
automatic restart through the desktop.

I ran a chkdsk and found that there were errors on the "C:\" volume. I used
" chkdsk /r" and managed to get my self to a stage where the system boots
into safe mode. I checked off the restart option and did a defragment and
event log check. "Event id 51 has occurred many times predicting harddisk
failure" but I can't tell why. I'm gonna do a virus check.

The boot process has now changed:
I get the toshiba splash and then the screen goes black. It stays that way
no matter what i press. I don't even reach the XP splash screen. F1 allows
me to get all the usual XP Home edition options and they all get me to a
point where i can logon to desktop with or without safe mode and work. I

want to get rid of the black screen at the beginning. Do you have any
other suggestions. I still cant track the blue screen error that was
flashing by so quickly before. It doesn't appear right now but I'm not sure
that it has been permanently fixed. I will check through articles for my
current black screen issue but would really appreciate answers if you have
any.

"lhosbrough" wrote:

Sorry,

I got it wrong. The current boot process has changed again after the
defrag. The laptop displays the toshiba splash, before turning into a
completely black screen. The only key that gets me out of this is "F1". It
takes me through the windows XP splash to the logon screen where i select the
user and password and then access the desktop. I am no longer getting the
safe mode options.

How do I remove the blackscreen and where can I find the blue screen error
details.

Thanks
Rex


"lhosbrough" wrote:

If you are now able to login, you simply need to go to System
properties, either by right clicking my computer-properties, or
selecting system from the control panel.

Under the advanced tab, hit the Settings button by Startup and
Recovery.

Uncheck the box by System Failure that says Automatically Restart

The next blue screen will stay up and we can go from there.


--
lhosbrough