My friend was working at her computer the other day and had a power bump.....Now she can only get to the scree

Question

screen that says windows xp and then a screen comes up that says the power was off or shut down wrong. You can choose to start windows the normal way but it won't go any further than that!! She called Compaq and it would cost &70.00 for 15 minutes. She can't afford that...could someone help her??

Answer 1

My compaq did the same thing! The first place that looked at it said it was a virus. I got it home and it worked for a couple of days then we had a power outage and it went back to doing it again. We took it to a different place and they say the hard drive has errors on it and it has to be replaced. grrrr

Answer 2

First off I'm really sorry for your friend's problem. It is a real pain.

However for 10 years I have been saying that everyone who owns a computer will at SOME time need the help of a professional OR a local guru.

In most town and all cities there are computer clubs. A phone call to the club President will tell you where those 50 or 100 folks go when they have problems. Some members don't have a lot of money in their retirement years but there are lots of older PC users who enjoy helping folks out. They may help you too !

In our city there are a half dozen "techies". They are all computer science graduates and they charge about $25 an hour to come to your house. They ALL have wonderfuk professional disks and formulae whereby they can usually solve most problems in an hour or less.

I have had mine in almost once every year for the past five. Once it was a power supply, another time a Registry conflict, another time it was program incompatibility. The cost to me was much much less than an nice dinnner out with my wife.

Everyone need a local guru. Find one even though you don't need him right now. Ask your friends, ask your local dealer.

The guys to AVOID are the big companies ON LINE. You can spend $100 with these guys. Of course they are important for businesses where down time may cost a fortune so they have to pay top dollar. These guys are NOT for simple users like you and me.

The secret is to shop around and find a local source of help. I'm sure the pros on ANSWERS have dozens of customers just like you.

Answer 3

I'm not optimistic, but the following phrase from a page sounded encouraging:

"A Repair Install will replace the system files with the files on the XP CD used for the Repair Install. It will leave your applications and settings intact, but Windows updates will need to be reapplied."

That comes from

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

and I found the link at

http://www.bootdisk.com/

In Windows Me there was a way to boot to a command prompt and restore the registry, but I'm not sure that XP offers the same option or that a floppy drive is available. Perhaps you could copy the files that would be on the diskette to a CD-R or -RW, though, and booting from it.

If none of that works, it may be possible to put the hard drive into a different computer as the slave drive and copy all the important files to CD or DVD before trying a clean install of Windows on the drive.

And though there are many distributions to sort through, some of the Linux distributions are geared toward disaster recovery. They should be among the other distributions at

http://www.linux.org/dist/

Good luck.

Answer 4

there are a few questions that have to be asked inorder to determin where the problem may lie. Does the computer run through the doss prompt and then start the count down bar (the bar at the bottom of the screen moving) or does it pause with a black screen white writting and ask to you slect the boot order.

Answer 5

Sometimes a computer comes witha bootable disk. This disk is designed for booting up or starting up you computer should an error like that happens. IF you have the disk try putting it in your disk drive and start up the computer.

Most of the time it will fill in the missing line and you should be back to normal.

Answer 6

Let it start the "normal way". Windows will probably correct the problem automatically by using the last known good configuration to boot the computer to replace the configuration that was corrupted when the machine was shut down incorrectly when the power was lost.

If it will not start and run in normal mode, try to start in safe mode.

To run in “Safe Mode” read:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/boot_failsafe.mspx?mfr=true
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2001052409420406

In safe mode,
Start> Run> enter "sfc.exe /scannow" in the run box.
Run. You will need the windows XP disk. This utility will check all system files against the disk and repair if needed.

System File Checker (sfc.exe)
http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html
http://www.networkclue.com/os/Windows/commands/sfc.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/185836
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310747

Restart computer and run normally.

If it will not start in safe mode or it will not start in normal mode after running sfc.exe,

Repair install. (should not lose data)
Backup files first if you can.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx
http://www.fujitsu-siemens.co.uk/rl/servicesupport/techsupport/software/windows/xp/Repair.htm

--------------------------------------------
Once you get it running, you will want to fix any disk and registry errors that may have occurred when the power loss shut down the computer.

Run "check disk" check both options and restart. (runs a long time) . Then Run Disk Cleanup then Disk Defragment.
4 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer's Performance
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx

Microsoft OneCare Live, run “full service scan”
Updates windows, virus and spyware scan, disk cleanup, disk fragmentation (if needed), backs up registry and then cleans registry, and checks for open firewall ports
http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

Answer 7

You could try restoring your computer to like it was when you bought it buy pressing F9 while it is starting up and peform a destructive recovery. That is the only way. Everything that you have installed like songs and videos will be erased. It will be restored to like when you first bought it. But make sure you unplugg anything like your internet modem printer, router or anything else that is connected to your computer. You don't have to disconnect your mouse or keyboard.

Answer 8

You should choose to start windows in the safe mode, or start windows from an older registry.

Answer 9

I would try to boot in safe mode and look at the event logs. Or you can enable boot logging and see where it is hanging...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222