bootup

[willper2013]

I have a old Dell laptop that will not start. It get to the XP Home page then stops. I do not have the CD, and it will not load safe mode. I can from the XP start page press Ctrl Alt Del and I do get the task manager come up and from that I can open just about all the files. But it will not start as it should .

 

[Virgorising]

I have a old Dell laptop that will not start. It get to the XP Home page then stops. I do not have the CD, and it will not load safe mode. I can from the XP start page press Ctrl Alt Del and I do get the task manager come up and from that I can open just about all the files. But it will not start as it should .

This could be many things, from CMOS battery to RAM to corrupt boot files, PSU, yr drive... and beyond.

I assume you are trying to boot with the lappy on A/C, yes? As opposed to battery.

When was the last time you remember being able to get the system to boot and load Windows normally? Do you have another computer you might use to run diagnostics on the drive?


Would you feel comfortable opening the lappy and reseating the RAM? Nothing to be ashamed of if not!

Since you don't have original media from which you might try a repair of the OS, I suggest you use another computer and make a Linux boot disk and try to boot from that.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6137522_make-linux-boot-cd-windows.html

 

[Harvey]

Before you start, be sure to save your files and anything else you don't want to lose before you start. Since your machine freezes at the first desktop, you won't be able to do it on your laptop. However, if the disk isn't totally corrupted, you may be able to remove the drive from the machine, attach it to another machine as slave and copy your files from your drive.

Be sure the other (target) machine is fully booted and the AV and anti-spyware software are up to date, and before you copy anything, do a full scan of your drive to make sure you don't infect the machine where you're backing up your data.

Before you start, use another machine to download the most recent drivers for your machine from Dell's support pages. Save them to a folder, copy the folder to a flash drive, and once you get to the first Windows screen on your new installation, copy that folder to the Downloads folder, and install all of them from there.

Microsoft may have already turned off Windows update for XP so I don't know if Windows Update will still work. You can download the majority of Win XP SP3 collected drivers from MS. This won't include drivers issued since the collection was posted, but it will cover most of the bases.

Two possible solutions:

1. Depending on the age of the laptop, it may have a recovery partition that will re-install the original, out of box installation. You will have to update the drivers, either manually or using Dell's software utilities.

2. Any OEM CD will probably work to do a clean installation of XP. The key may be built into ROM, or the code on the bottom of the laptop should work.

Good luck.

 

[Virgorising]

Before I went thru all those hoops, I might just try this:

http://ultimate-boot-cd-for-windows.en.softonic.com/download?ab=2

 

[Matt1970]

I have a old Dell laptop that will not start. It get to the XP Home page then stops. I do not have the CD, and it will not load safe mode. I can from the XP start page press Ctrl Alt Del and I do get the task manager come up and from that I can open just about all the files. But it will not start as it should .

Sounds like a corrupted user account. Try creating a new account in control panel and see if that works.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Try hitting C-A-D twice at the logon screen, then type in "Administrator" for username and leave the password blank.

Unless it was set up with a "true administrator" password when the OS was installed, you should be able to get in.

Otherwise, might have to perform a recovery install with the appropriate CD.