Diagnosing a Windows XP startup problem
If your computer
has a Windows XP startup problem much of the time it can be
fixed relatively quickly and easily, the firstly don’t panic.
Luckily for us just
about all versions of Microsoft Windows have a built in menu
system to help us through many problems. The later versions such
as XP and Vista even have a restore facility to enable you to
restore your computer to an earlier time, before an issue
occurred, checkout our restore page below for more info. In this
article we are more interested in Windows Advanced Menu Options,
to access this simply hit the F5 key when your computer is
booting.
You’ll be presented
with a Black DOS screen with the heading Windows Advanced
Options Menu.
This menu gives us options to boot Windows in various
configurations, the option we are most interested in is Last
Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)
choose this option, which allows your computer to boot the same
as the last time it booted without issue.
Other options
on the menu include
Safe Mode –
Boots your computer without loading any drivers.
Safe Mode With Networking – Boots your computer with
network access only.
Safe Mode With Command Prompt – If your pc won’t boot
from here you can repair many system errors and invoke Windows
System Restore.
Enable Boot Logging – Creates a log file on boot up,
useful for seeing where a computer is failing.
Enable VGA Mode – If a pc is having graphic card issues
invoking this option will boot in a low default screen
resolution of 640x480 pixels.
Directory Services Restore Mode – Allows restoring of
Domain Controllers (you must have a network with 2 or more
domain controllers to use this).
Debugging Mode – Checks for boot problems without
unpredictable results.
Disable Automatic restart on failure – Stops a pc from
restarting if system errors are generated.
Using the Windows
Advanced Menu should really be one of the very first steps in
diagnosing / repairing operating system related computer issues,
generally it will only take a few minutes and can save hours in
the long term.
Be sure to
checkout our other articles
Checkout our other windows Xp startup
problem articles including system restore
computer adviser
windows xp startup problem article |
