start up problems

[dak9912]

About a 3 weeks ago I started having problems turning my comp on. It started as what I thought was just a problem with my OC because I got a warning at start up telling my to reset my cmos back to its default settings. I did that and everything seemed to be fine. but then about a week later I started to have some different problems. now every time I shut down or even put my comp in stand by I have problems turning it back on. I does something different every time, and eventually, for whatever reason, it will start up and run fine. the most common thing I've been seeing is that I get a warning about it not being shut down properly and it asks me what to do (i.e. safe mode, start normal, start from last know working configuration....) none of which work including safe mode. from there it usually goes to the screen that is black with the Windows XP logo and has the bar with the blue thing in it showing that it is loading. then it flashes BSOD very quickly and starts all over again. A couple of time i got a warning saying that a windows file was missing. Ive gotten this a few time and each times it was a different file and to hit "r" at the first screen to repair windows. what can I do to fix this? can I repair window? If so, how? Or am I just completely SOL and have to reinstall windows?

[glc]

If you can start it in safe mode, turn off restart on error so you can read the bluescreen.

Control panel, system, advanced, startup and recovery, uncheck restart on error.

If it wont start in safe mode, do a repair reinstall of Windows - procedure is in Tips and Tricks.

[dak9912]

Thank you for your help. Just one more quick question, will doing the repair erase my HD?

[glc]

Nope - read the thread.