Guest Rhysy Posted July 17, 2007 Posted July 17, 2007 I'm having a problem starting the computer. It gets to the "Microsoft Windows" screen, with the green loading bar, but then it just goes black. Strangely the mouse pointer is visible and responds, as does the keyboard, but the usual blue login screen does not appear. I've tried waiting several minutes but nothing happens. Rebooting doesn't help. Ctrl+alt+delete does nothing. I've tried clicking around randomly incase the login screen is somehow active but not visible, but nothing happens. I can't try starting in Safe Mode because the last time we took the machine in to be repaired, a password appears to have been placed on the boot menu and I don't know what that is. I'd prefer not to take the machine back into the shop because that will undoubtedly cost a silly amount of money, and I really only want access to the hard drive to transfer my old files to my new PC. Thanks for any help.
Guest Gerry Posted July 17, 2007 Posted July 17, 2007 Re: Problem starting XP Try booting with only keyboard, mouse, and monitor connected. Leave it for far longer than several minutes. Even an hour if it results in the machine booting. You need it to boot to find out what is wrong. What reports in Event Viewer? Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for the last boot. No Information Reports please. You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description are important. HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you should double click for further information. You can copy using copy and paste. Often the link will, however, say there is no further information. http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp (Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only) A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from Event Viewer. -- Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~ FCA Stourport, England Enquire, plan and execute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rhysy wrote: > I'm having a problem starting the computer. It gets to the "Microsoft > Windows" screen, with the green loading bar, but then it just goes > black. Strangely the mouse pointer is visible and responds, as does > the keyboard, but the usual blue login screen does not appear. I've > tried waiting several minutes but nothing happens. Rebooting doesn't > help. Ctrl+alt+delete does nothing. I've tried clicking around > randomly incase the login screen is somehow active but not visible, > but nothing happens. > > I can't try starting in Safe Mode because the last time we took the > machine in to be repaired, a password appears to have been placed on > the boot menu and I don't know what that is. I'd prefer not to take > the machine back into the shop because that will undoubtedly cost a > silly amount of money, and I really only want access to the hard > drive to transfer my old files to my new PC. > Thanks for any help.
Guest Rich Barry Posted July 17, 2007 Posted July 17, 2007 Re: Problem starting XP I would physically remove the hard drive and attach it to the new PC either as Slave or Master. From there you can retrieve your important data and copy or move it to the hard drive of the new PC. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=How+to+Install+Second+Hard+Drive&btnG=Google+Search "Rhysy" <Rhysy@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:DDCB529E-8534-482A-B8AC-9E27BB2E9931@microsoft.com... > I'm having a problem starting the computer. It gets to the "Microsoft > Windows" screen, with the green loading bar, but then it just goes black. > Strangely the mouse pointer is visible and responds, as does the keyboard, > but the usual blue login screen does not appear. I've tried waiting > several > minutes but nothing happens. Rebooting doesn't help. Ctrl+alt+delete does > nothing. I've tried clicking around randomly incase the login screen is > somehow active but not visible, but nothing happens. > > I can't try starting in Safe Mode because the last time we took the > machine > in to be repaired, a password appears to have been placed on the boot menu > and I don't know what that is. I'd prefer not to take the machine back > into > the shop because that will undoubtedly cost a silly amount of money, and I > really only want access to the hard drive to transfer my old files to my > new > PC. > Thanks for any help.
Guest Rhysy Posted July 17, 2007 Posted July 17, 2007 Re: Problem starting XP Thanks for the suggestions. I tried waiting for an hour but to no avail. Then I tried hitting buttons randomly, happened to hit return and managed to log on... sort of. The background is visible, but no desktop icons. If I right-click and try Properties, the mouse pointer hourglass flashes briefly, but that's it. Also, the screen resolution looks quite a bit higher than I was using previously - a large border is visible around the background image. I suspect it's some kind of weird display problem, but I don't know how to fix it. The background image is a custom-made image, so clearly the files are intact. Bear with me here. Previously for some user accounts the taskbar would not display. Now on those accounts (I can choose which to access at the invisible login screen through the arrow keys), the taskbar is visible. However if I try to access My Computer, or documents, or the task manager (or anything really), it seems to open them to the left of the visible screen. I can move the mouse pointer quite far to the left. I've tried moving it over there and clicking and dragging randomly to try and bring the windows across, but without luck. It used to be the case that the pointer could be moved quite far off screen to the right, this is no longer the case. Users who could previously see the taskbar can't any more. We updated our graphics card some time ago to an NVidia GE-Force something or other (can probably find out which model exactly, if need be). The monitor is plugged in to the graphics card's video socket, as it didn't work at all on the ordinary socket. I'd rather not remove the hard drive, I don't know anything much about hardware (and ideally I'd like to keep that machine working as a spare). I have access to a laptop, is there any way I could connect that to the PC to access it ? Many thanks, Rhysy "Rich Barry" wrote: > I would physically remove the hard drive and attach it to the new PC > either as Slave or Master. From there you can retrieve > your important data and copy or move it to the hard drive of the new PC. > http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=How+to+Install+Second+Hard+Drive&btnG=Google+Search > > "Rhysy" <Rhysy@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:DDCB529E-8534-482A-B8AC-9E27BB2E9931@microsoft.com... > > I'm having a problem starting the computer. It gets to the "Microsoft > > Windows" screen, with the green loading bar, but then it just goes black. > > Strangely the mouse pointer is visible and responds, as does the keyboard, > > but the usual blue login screen does not appear. I've tried waiting > > several > > minutes but nothing happens. Rebooting doesn't help. Ctrl+alt+delete does > > nothing. I've tried clicking around randomly incase the login screen is > > somehow active but not visible, but nothing happens. > > > > I can't try starting in Safe Mode because the last time we took the > > machine > > in to be repaired, a password appears to have been placed on the boot menu > > and I don't know what that is. I'd prefer not to take the machine back > > into > > the shop because that will undoubtedly cost a silly amount of money, and I > > really only want access to the hard drive to transfer my old files to my > > new > > PC. > > Thanks for any help. > > >
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