Windows XP Pro Boot Problem

[sephroth777]

A friend is having the following issue: His build is AMD 2600+ sempron, 1GB ram, Asus mb, Seagate 120db, ATI 9800 Pro. He tried running checkdisk with no error but still has the same issue. I have been out of the loop since 03' and will be asking you for help on my new build soon.

"Today when I tried to turn my computer on it wouldn't go past the Windows XP loading screen. It just stays there forever and it won't load past it. I can't get to the user accounts to login or anything. Do you have any idea why it is doing this? It has never done this before. I tried booting it up on Safe Mode with Networking and I could get on the Administrator account but I didn't have any Internet for some reason. It is weird. Any idea on what's wrong with the regular boot up and any idea how to fix it?"

Any ideas?

 

[Severian]

I would assume he's suffered some sort of registry corruption. While you say he has tried running checkdisk with no problems, I would recommend that he boot off the WinXP cd, get into the recovery console, and type "chkdsk /r". This will probably take a while, but may very well get his install repaired enough that he's able to get back to his Windows desktop and start backing up his data. He may need a complete format and clean install of Windows.

good luck