Cannot boot in safe mode

[marvontherim]

I am having a problem with booting in safe mode. A blue screen comes up with the following statment:
Please select boot device
*Removable device
*Hard Drive
*ATAPI CD-ROM
If I hit exc it boots up to XP, if I select Hard Drive it boots up to XP, if I put in the XP disk it boots up XP.
I no longer have the ability to get to safe boot. Could it be something with the BIOS settings?
Any advice would be appreciated.

[edrod13]

right after the post you should see a screen instructing you to press F8 to go into safe mode.

Edrod13

[rjfvillarosa]

If the F8 key doesn't work for you another way is boot your machine and then switch it off again just before XP loads, do this two or three times and it will automatically boot to the safe mode option screen.

[bailey]

sometimes on the systems of today, you got to be real fast on the f8 key or you will miss the window of opertunity,
I usally reboot the computer while contunesly taping the f8 key real fast and it always works.

[marvontherim]

OK, I tried turning the system off and on in succession, No change.
I tried rapid f8 taps and the same blue screen comes up and there is no instruction for the f8 key.
I have gotten into safe mode before when I needed to.
Recently I updated my BIOS through the mobo manufacturer. I'm not sure if that had any effect. The system seems to want to go into safe mode but this blue screen asking to select a boot drive keeps comming up first. I have never seen this before.
Any other suggestions?

[bailey]

did this problem just start after you flashed the bios ?

[marvontherim]

I'm not sure I didn't try to get into safe mode directly after the update.
I got hit with some viruses a few weeks ago and spent the afternoon removing them, during that task I attempted to get into safe mode to remove a tough one and that is when I realized I was unable to.

[rjfvillarosa]

Marv... I see you are running three hard drives, is it possible to strip down your machine a little to eliminate a faulty piece of hard ware? How about reinstalling windows on to one of the other drives? or are they full?

[glc]

Select Hard Drive and start tapping F8 again.

[marvontherim]

Thanks glc,
U DA MAN

That worked great, selecting hard drive and retapping the f8 key.
Safe mode here I come.
Thanks again all for your help

[billstur]

Thanks glc!
I was having the same problem. I noticed it after installing sp2. It could have been there earlier, but I'm not sure what caused it to begin with.

[glc]

With some motherboards, tapping F8 too early brings up the BIOS boot menu. The boot process has to start before F8 becomes effective for the Windows boot menu.

[RVFmal]

Wouldn't it be easier to run msconfig and change your start up to "safe" from there?

Found it easier than sitting trying to hit F8 at the right time.