Windows XP start up fault.

[gash09]

Hi
I'm having trouble starting Windows XP, when i start up i get a blue screen just as the XP screen finishes loading but it immediately reboots the system so i never get chance to see the error. I know of a key which you can press to stop the XP logo screen which enables you to see the fault that is occuring on start up.

Can anybody tell me that key?

[Statica]

There is no key that will allow you to stop and see the error message; what you need to do is to disable auto-reboot on error so that you manually have to press the reboot button after a BSOD.
To do so go to Control Panel > System > Advanced tab > Startup and recovery Settings > and UNCHECK 'Automatically restart' from the System Failure section.

[HyperTF]

It might pay to go into XP in safe mode (press F8 during initial boot) and select the Enable Boot Logging option, then when XP loads (hopefully!) locate the ntbtlog.txt file to try to determin where the failure may have taken place.
You can also check out the Event Viewer in system log to also find clues as to what i going wrong.
With safe mode you may want to consider initiating a System Restore if there is a good point to return to, but be aware it may affect more than just the problem, but may be the safest way to rectify the problem...
Do you know what might have caused it... have you installed any hardware or software which may have done it? have you changed any of the system settings?
Good luck, tell us how you went.

[gash09]

Tried enable logging, did not work. Still getting the same problem, flash of a blue screen displaying error then reboot, so unable to see error. May have to try windows repair, have never used this, any ideas?

[Statica]

Did you disable autoreboot? Autologging will not stop auto-reboot, it will create a text bootlog that you need to open up.

[gash09]

I cannot start up the computer at all, not in any mode.

[HyperTF]

Sounds like Windows is not loading full stop. Statica, by rights, if safe mode is not allowing Gash09 to get to a stable windows environment to disable the auto-reboot, and system restore does not work then are we looking at a posible OS reinstall?
Gash09, ok, the Auto log did not stop the problem, it records what happens when the machine starts up and loads into windows. Can you try starting in Safe mode only by using F8 again? then you can hopefully
- disable auto-reboot as Statica said
- checkout the ntbtlog.txt file to see when failure occurs
- Check out the Event viewer log (system log) in Computer management under
Start / Control Panel / Performance and Maintenance / Administrative tools / Computer Management / Event viewer / System then look for critical errors

[HyperTF]

Sorry Gash09, I was writing reply as you replied, so safe mode doesn't work at all? and you are not given the option to do a system restore?

[bailey]

if your at that point, then I might suggest going into the bios and set it to boot from the cd rom drive, and use the xp cd to do a install repaire, that should get you back to where you can boot up again.

[gash09]

yeh will not start at all, will have a go at windows repair tomorrow, off to work now, cheers for your help, anything u can think of let me know and i'll log on tomorrow. Thanks.