Laptop problems - XP Home

[mdnblaster]

I have a laptop with XP home, 512MB and 40GB HD. Windows XP tries to start up then blips to a blue screen then reloads to the 'safe mode, 'regular mode' option screen - that is the constant loop. I cannot access XP Home in any mode - it always blips into that blue screen then back to the start-up option mode - it does go through a list when I try the safe mode start-up: "multi(0)disk rdisk partition=>system32 etc etc. I cannot find a way to read the blue screen, I have done a complete restore once already and it still does this. Any ideas?

 

[Slikkster]

Do you have an XP CD at all? If so, you can try to boot to the CD (vs the hard drive) and run the first Repair option (which is the Recovery Console).

1. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.

Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted.

2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the Recovery Console.
4. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
5. At the command prompt, type the appropriate commands to diagnose and repair your Windows XP installation.

At the prompt, type (no quotes) "chkdsk c: /p" and tap the enter key. When chkdsk is finished, type "exit" (no quotes) at the prompt. Eject the CD so it doesn't boot from the CD vs. the hard drive. See if the problem is fixed.

 

[mdnblaster]

I was reading that UMAX dlls can cause problems like the one I had. How do I remove those? I tried all the safe mode tricks but nothing worked.