XP Home Installation - Stumped:(

[timswim78]

I am working on a friend's computer, and this problem has got me stumped. He was having trouble with his (XP HOME) machine, so he started windows and inserted the XP Home CD and selected upgrade or something similar. Now, when the machine starts, the XP splash screen comes up and it then goes to a black, blank screen with a mouse pointer.

My first inclination was to attempt to do a Repair installation. This will not work because it says that an upgrade is in process and that I can either try to continue with the upgrade or install a second OS on the same partition. So, I tried to continue with the upgrade and go through the process. When the computer restarts, the XP spalsh screen comes up and it then goes to a blank, black screen.

Is there anyway that I can do a repair installation of his original XP Home installation? I am really trying to avoid having to reformat and reinstall windows and all of his software. Perhaps there are some files that I should delete? Maybe the registry can be rebuilt from DOS? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[redbeard1]

Went it's about to boot to XP, can you hit the F8 key and get in in safe mode?

On another note...did you get that old laptop to load windows?

 

[timswim78]

Originally posted by: redbeard1
Went it's about to boot to XP, can you hit the F8 key and get in in safe mode?

On another note...did you get that old laptop to load windows?

Yes, I can hit F8 and get the boot menu. When I boot in Safe Mode, I get the same black, blank screen with the pointer, and it has the safemode message at the top of the screen. When I tried last good configuration and debugging mode, I got the black, blank screen with the pointer.


About the laptop. The floppy that a user sent me was not compatible, so I ordered a laptop-ide hdd adapter over the weekend. I'll let you know how that goes.

 

[timswim78]

bump. any ideas?

 

[dbwillis]

Maybe try booting off the CD again and trying another upgrade?
Sounds like an addin card or something is hanging up...onboard video maybe?

 

[timswim78]

Originally posted by: dbwillis
Maybe try booting off the CD again and trying another upgrade?
Sounds like an addin card or something is hanging up...onboard video maybe?

Indeed, I did try to complete the upgrade. However, after the upgrade is complete, Windows boots back to that blank screen. It could be a peripheral hanging because it is an all-in-one mb. I'll look and see if I have a PCI video card and give that a whirl.

 

[timswim78]

I tried a new video card, reset the bios, nothing helped . . .

 

[crisp82]

when you boot up, does it give you the option to boot into Windows XP installation from the Os list? Pop the XP cd in and run repair console/Fixboot. Sounds like every time it boots, it is trying to finish installing, even though it may already have.

 

[dbwillis]

Sucks Tim...one of those weird problems I guess...

 

[de8212]

I can't be of much help but my laptop did almost the exact same thingn about two weeks ago. It would boot to a blank blue screen and only had the mouse cursor. I could ctrl-alt-del and view the task manager, etc. I booted off the win2k disc and tried to reapir, etc and never could get it.
The odd thing is that I hooked it up to a coworkers laptop via crossover cable/nic's and I could access my drive form his pc. I ended up copying all my important files and formatting.

hopefully you can get it to work without doing that. If you do please let us know.

de

 

[GoingUp]

Might have to delete the partition and reinstall