Toshiba Tablet-PC won't start up.

[StormInterceptor]

First off, I'm a complete moron on computer tech. so i will try to explain whats happening the best i can.


when i turn it on, the lights that indicate charge and power come on. it shows the Toshiba screen, then the windows screen pops up for less than a second, and a blue screen flashes for less than 1/2 a second, and it goes to a screen that tells me windows could not start up and that a recent change in something may have caused this. it gives me 10 seconds to choose from safe mode, safe mode with networking, last successful start up, and start up normally. than it starts up again, and the cycle continue for all of eternity.

is there anything i can do without taking it to someone?

[shadowpr]

Have you made any changes recently? installed anything new?

[StormInterceptor]

nope. last thing i can remember was delorme GPS and that was 6 months ago.

[shadowpr]

I would try to start up in safe mode then, and run some antivirus scans, and anti-spyware scans.

[StormInterceptor]

it wont start up in any of the options. when i choose one, it just restarts the cycle.

[Statica]

What version of XP are you using? Had you set XP to download and install updates and patches automatically? Do you remember the XP administrator password? (If you haven't set one, then the password is usually blank).

[StormInterceptor]

its windowsXP tablet edition. there is no password. it downloaded updates automatically, unless i was in a hurry and canelled it. which wasnt often.

[Statica]

Windows XP SP2 updates Windows Tablet PC 2005 to the latest version. I'll proceed with the information assuming that you have servicepack 2 (SP2) .. the broad strokes would be the same but adding updates will take more time. You will need your Windows XP CD to run the repair in your optical drive. When you start your laptop .. at the Toshiba In Touch screen press F2 and boot from the CD ROM.
a) Boot from the XP CD and allow for it to go through the initialization procedure.
b) At the "Welcome to Setup" screen Press R to repair XP
c) You should come up with a choice for your Windows installation (usually just one) .. select it
d) Enter your admin password (blank)
e) You should get a command prompt.
Here I'd recommend you run the most basic troubleshooting procedure for now .. a disk check
type: chkdsk /r and give it some time to run through a disk scan.
f) When you're done, hopefully, there were some errors that were fixed .. now you can simply remove the Windows CD and reboot your laptop.

Hopefully by now it should have booted up .. if it doesn't you might have to consider a repair installation. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm has extremely detailed instructions .. please make sure you read what the repair install does and the warnings before you do it. If you need help on it, feel free to post here. You will need to update your Windows when you boot up after a repair install.

Now if you don't have a Windows CD, or if the repair install for some bizarre reason didn't help then you might have to consider a more drastic option of doing a recovery from Toshiba's recovery CD. This will erase your complete drive contents but I'm hoping you've been diligent at making periodic backups and have the installation CDs for the programs that you've added on later. Your manual is probably the best resource for a recovery .. http://www.asklaptopfreak.com/laptop...e-recovery-cd/ may be right, I don't know.

[StormInterceptor]

heres the kicker. its a small tablet, so it has no cd-rom drive. also, i bought it from a friend and i have no manual. ****.

[Statica]

What's the (complete) model number?

[StormInterceptor]

not exactly sure, but i believe its the TOSHIBA M200 .

[Statica]

Can your M200 boot from a USB memory stick? If so you could try loading up the Ultimate Boot CD from http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html .. follow the directions on how to create a bootable USB memory stick.
If not you might have to consider buying an external optical drive so that you can try to run the UBCD and try running an antimalware check or at least to backup the contents of your hard drive onto some CDs. You might also have to consider buying an OS if you are going to nuke and pave. Flip the laptop over, you should see the complete model # and specs also check to see if there is a sticker for the Windows license # if you do .. then you could try borrowing a windows install CD from a friend to perform an installation but make sure you use the license key on the sticker! Or if you can't find an alternate media you could call Microsoft support and buy replacement media .. usually cheaper than buying a brand new license.

[glc]

On the screen that offers all the startup modes, is one of them "disable restart on error"? If so, choose it and the bluescreen with the error messages will stay up and you can read it for clues.