Windows XP Home help Please?

Question

My friend has gave me her computer to try and mend and I am stuck!!

It is XP home (genuine) and when you turn the computer on it starts to boot ok, but as the XP Home sign comes up the little green "line" goes across for a few seconds and then the computer just re-boots, back to same point and does the same again.

She had lost her install disc, although the genuine sticker is on the PC case.

I imagine I need to get a "recovery" disc, can I download one for free anywhere off my own computer?

I do not want to risk making her copy "non-genuine"

All help greatly appreciated

have tried to boot in safe mode and does exactly the same

Answer 1

This problem happened to me, there is a recovery boot disk available to download on the official microsoft website, u will need to save the file off the site onto your pc, then open it and follow the instructions to copy it onto floppy disks (you'll need 6 formatted floppy disks), which u then use on her computer, but must be used in the order u copied them. Good luck!

Answer 2

Hey guys

Okay there seems to be some amazing debate over which disk to use so let me make this simple:

Two options:

Put in a original xp home disk or recovery disk. Pre installed versions or ones that have already been used are a no no.
I guess you don't have the needed disk so moving on to option two.

Option two:

Safe Mode and system restore.

Restart the pc
Keep tapping F8
Hopefully you will be shown a new boot up menu
On the new menu select run Windows in safe mode
Lets xp launch as normal
When you reach the log in menu log in as the administrator
Let xp log you in

When you are logged in as the admin
Go to system restore in the system tools, found under accessories.

I suggest you go back at least a week.

Now follow the instructions.

Now time for the test, reboot as normal and everything should be fine and dandy.

Here are the possible errors:

Safe mode menu is not found - then you really do need a new xp home disk
There is a set admin password - should be blank so don't worry
System restore has no save points - then I recommend you search for the most recently installed software (within a week or so) and remove it. This is normally a common problem.

The worse thing is that non of this resolve the issue. If that is the case email me and we can talk shop (more possible ways)

Answer 3

Try and press and hold F8 on the keyboard just after the computer BIOS screen (the part that tells you your computer's stats). A menu will come up asking you what to do. Select 'last known good configuration', this should work, if not retry it and select safe mode. Then ask her if she installed anything recently. Remove any programs, and restart windows. This should fix windows. If it doesn't there would be no harm in installing a pirated copy of windows. You might not be able to get service pack 2 though.

Answer 4

the problem with your freinds p.c is the boot ini has become corrupted,this is the part of windows that is responsible for booting and loading the programs during start up
you wont be able to download a recovery disk from the internet but if you ring the p.c,s manufacturer ,even if the warranty has run out,be nice to them and polite and they may send you a new recovery disk out
as for using a copied disk thats a excellent idea,just install as per normal and once windows loads for the first time you will see a balloan pop up asking you to "activate windows"
do this and the activation will come back as a copied disk,all you need to do is backspace and delete the current product key and enter your product key from the side of the p.c case
as long as you are the only person using this key,then windows xp will activate succesfully
however if your p.c is a 64bit machine go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/facts/trial.mspx,and download the 180 day(6 month) trail of windows xp pro 64bit,i know this is only a trial but at least you will get 6 months out of it
if you are using broadband(adsl) this file takes around 40 minutes to download as i did it last week
i hope this helps you
good luck

Answer 5

You might have to buy Windows XP Home OEM at around £60 plus download drivers at least for the motherboard and graphics card.

Have you tried loading in Safe Mode - Press F8 or F5 before XP Home display.

Answer 6

i once had the same problem, and it turned out that the little switch on the back of the power supply was set to 240V instead of 120V and it was plugged into a 120V outlet. Try this, but remember, there is a huge number of things that might be wrong.

Answer 7

Some machines come with a pre-installed recovery system on them usually its the F9,F10,F11 or F12 key on boot, this should start the machine from the recovery partition if one is available its usually F10 if I remember correctly.
It would help if you had the machine name and model??? any clues?

Answer 8

both above answers are wrong . and here is why , dell uses a OEM disk for their machines , meaning if you took a dell restoration disk from say your machine , used it to attempt to install xp on her PC and used her key code it's not going to work because the dell OEM knows it's not the correct code . you need a full install xp disk . o

Answer 9

it should i think be ok to reinstall using a pirated copy of xp as long as its the exact same version, as long as you use a genuine cd key there should be no problems.

although it sounds like you may have an overheating problem, is the cpu fan attached and working properly and set to the correct speed?

Answer 10

Before reformating and reinstalling try the following:

http://www.petri.co.il/last_known_good_in_windows_2000_xp_2003.htm

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6031733.html

You may have a config issue. This procedure could return your system to a working state before the problem occured.

Good luck.