[musiclover]

A friend asked if I would help him with his laptop today. The machine is only a few months old, hp pavillion ze4800 running windows xp home. AMD 2800, only 192 MB Ram, 30 gb hd. Anyways, the machine will not boot except in safe mode. It pulls up the option screen between safe and last successful normal boot, and when you tell it to boot normally, it gets to the windows xp screen and then after a time, reverts back to the safe mode option screen. It will boot up in safe mode however. What steps should I get into to diagnosing/fixing this machine? Your help is greatly appreciated... Thank you.

 

[MFDnNC]

START run MSCONFIG

On the general tab see if diagnostic is the startup method - Change to normal

 

[musiclover]

Thank you MFDnSC , but no, diagnostic startup is not selected. It is set to selective startup...

 

[etaf]

selective startup means you have stopped (unticked) some startup items in the startup tab.

1) Have you installed any software / hardware at all.

2) have you carried out any virus/spyware scans at all

3) see whats in device manager and if there are any yellow/red/!/X 's
start> control panel> system> hardware tab> device manager button

4) It may be something in the startup thats causing a problem
you could go to the startup tab and uncheck everything except for systray, scanregistry and load power profile(s), then restart.

5) It may be possible to do a restore and take the software back to before the problem occured

 

[MFDnNC]

OK, boot from the XP CD and do a repair

BTW, your friend could really use some more memory

 

[musiclover]

There is quite a bit of software on the machine. I personally have not ran any spyware or antivirus scans. I unchecked everything in the startup except for those you requested, and when I rebooted, just after the windows xp screen, a blue screen appeared with white letters and numbers for a split second and then the machine shuts down and reboots to the safe mode screen. I will try running adaware and spybot, and some antivirus, then repair installation and get back to you all. Question... If I do a repair installation, will he run the risk of losing any files?

I also recommended the memory upgrade. Will it give him that much more speed? The processor is an AMD 2800. The system properties screen says it is running at 2.12 ghz, which aught to be pretty fast. Do you think the Ram upgrade will improve things significantly because he complains that this machine is very slow? for 100.00 we can go to 512 mb through crucial.

 

[Kenny94]

Run msconfig be sure to select the Boot.ini tab and uncheck /safeboot.

 

[natcom]

read this link http://www.micro2000uk.co.uk/techtips/techtips_windowsxp_boot.htm

 

[etaf]

this bit is interesting

just after the windows xp screen, a blue screen appeared with white letters and numbers for a split second and then the machine shuts down and reboots to the safe mode screen.

did it always do this do you think - if so then you may find some thing in event viewer.

you can also set up to not reboot on error - then read the error and see what is causing the crash - maybe a driver problem .

did you look in device manager

 

[musiclover]

I can't seem to perform a system repair with the disk. I get as far as the point where it asks me for the administrator password, which there is none that we know of, and because we can't figure it out, it won't let the repair happen. Anyone know what we are supposed to enter as the password?

 

[otoe1]

System repair should be the next to last step to doing a format for a clean install.

If, and only IF, you are able to git into control panel, do as 'etaf' had first suggested.

""selective startup means you have stopped (unticked) some startup items in the startup tab.

1) Have you installed any software / hardware at all.

2) have you carried out any virus/spyware scans at all

3) see whats in device manager and if there are any yellow/red/!/X 's
start> control panel> system> hardware tab> device manager button

4) It may be something in the startup thats causing a problem
you could go to the startup tab and uncheck everything except for systray, scanregistry and load power profile(s), then restart.

5) It may be possible to do a restore and take the software back to before the problem occured""

Of course all suggestions are up to you to decide on which to use.

Good luck.


I intentions are not to step on n e one's toe's. I truly do apologize.

 

[musiclover]

Thank you, but I believe I am to the point whrere a system repair is necessary. I did all of the other suggestions to the best of my ability. Nothing is showing itself in the device manager, the virus scan and ad scan did nothing for the major problem, removing the programs from startup did not solve the problem, and so I am up to the point where I want to do a system repair, but it won't let me because it is asking me for a password, when as far as anyone knows, there never was any password put into this machine. Do you know anything about passwords, how to bypass or figure them out ect? Thanks for all the responses.

 

[otoe1]

What happens with a 'system restore' is that it will re-install the OS over the existing OS and 'repair' n e corrupted system files.

You will need to run the window updates as you had done(or whom ever) when the OS was first installed. Keep in mind that you will be able to save a few/if not all programs or files that are currently on your hard drive.

Also keep in mind that since the registry had been reverted back to it's original state, you will need to re-activate n e progams that are still there.

If there is 'nothing' that you feel that is worth saving on your hard drive, then skip the 'repair' and do a complete clean install.

If the lap top came with the system cd's (OS, Mother board drivers, extra programs), then you should use those cd's to do the install from.

One question though.....It's a few month's old???....why not take it back and have a tech have a look at it.......They should be able to access the password for you.

 

[etaf]

the password may be blank and you just skip it

 

[musiclover]

No, I tried it as though it was blank, and it did not go. I'm calling the manufacturer today. Thanks.

 

[musiclover]

I feel a bit dense, but I just tried the option to boot with the last known good configuration, and it worked beautifully. I kept going back and forth between safe mode and boot normally. So I have managed to boot to the desktop. I still do not know what it was that was causing the problem from before, and would like to know so I can make sure it does not happen again before I give this computer back to my friend. What should I do or not do to diagnose and resolve.

Also, and maybe I should post this in a diferent post, but I was hoping for some advice on the memory upgrade, and whether or not I can expect a significant diference in speed with the upgrade. In safe mode on the system properties screen it said the processor was a AMD XP2800 2.12 Ghz, 192 mb of ram. But after booting up normally, the system properties screen says it is a mobile AMD Athlon(tm)XP2800+ 508 Mhz, 192 mb of ram. There is a bit of a diference between 2.12 GHz and 508 Mhz, and I am not sure why it gives two diferent listings in the two diferent modes or even now what speed this processor is running at. Help with this Question would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

 

[etaf]

try running these programs
The program is freeware called EVEREST Home Edition v1.10 and can be downloaded from http://www.lavalys.com/index.php?page=product&view=1&subpage=5
or http://www.belarc.com

they will tell you speed and what bus setting you have in bios
also memory slots etc

you may want to o onto the memory sites and see what memory is available etc

you may have to remove a card from the laptop and then install a bigger card
http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/system_select.html
http://www.crucial.com/uk/promo/index.asp?prog=desktop2
http://www.kingston.com/

 

[musiclover]

I appreciate everyones advice. I still have a question:

Do you think a memory upgrade will make a very big diference in the performance of this machine?

Thanks much!

 

[etaf]

if you goto 512M maybe - depends on what the PC is used for.
256MB i would suggest is minimum for winXP
you have 192MB - would i go from 192 to 256 answer : NO

would I goto 512MB
Yep
I use PC for photoshop and editing pictures etc
I also have around 20 windows oftemn open.
My boys often play games on the PC too

But have a look at task manager and see how much memory you use.

whats the laptop used for
web surfing and email - I would not bother