Hi,newguy here. My XP computer has given up on me.Yesterday while Norton was doing its' scan ,I decided it was time to clean out the dust bunnies under the desk(I can multitask some ,but I hesitate to ask the same of my computer).Anyway, seeing an old,unused serial cable still attached, I removed it.When I looked back at the screen, the scan had halted, and I had no control over machine.I tried rebooting,but get as far as that black "XP" window. I have started in safe mode ,can't find anything wrong(not that I really know what I'm doing) and have tried Ssytem Restore,but it seem to be doing it's thing,but still won't boot.I have tried restore CD,it loads tons of files ,a screen opens saying "loading Windows" and never goes any further.Don't know if cable thing can be cause,but more importantly don't know what to do. Thanks for any help. mk

What was the cable connecting?

From Safe Mode did you try "Last Known Good Configuration"?

Your "Restore CD"; what is it? A full version of XP or an OEM recovery disk?

If the later what is the make & model of computer?

Jephree, The cable was connected to nothing,a year ago I was trying an external modem and never crawled back there to remove it.
I tried last known good configuration but nothing changed. The cd is not a MS disc but one from what was at the time nutrend computer, since gone under. I was wondering if the problem could be with the AV as that what was running and doesnt that run as windows is opening?Thanks for reply mk

Can you still start in Safe Mode?

Yes, Norton would run at boot. If you can start safe you can disable it to see if that would work.

I am unsure what running your recovery disk has done. Were there specific instructions to run that disk or did you just boot it & go?

fwiw: nutrend now directs enquiries here:

http://www.abspc.com/

Sometimes these recovery disks have unique instructions is what I was after.

But back to the beginning: can you start in safe mode?

yes safe mode works well

The little documentation I have says to change bios to boot from cd and then boot from cd, which I did .It then says to follow insstructions, which I think I did. It seemed to be working,loading files, but never got beyond "starting windows". I will try disabling Norton tonight. mk

In Safe Mode go to Start | Run | msconfig | startup

unclick all boxes here & try a normal boot.

Jephree, My mother always said troubles come in threes.Last night I tried disabling AV,it didn't help so I went to watch the news.When I returned my monitor had died.I had noticed that for the last few minutes it had been going in and out of focus.So.. I went to my trusty Thinkpad 760 that has never skipped a beat(I keep it for when th power goes out and can run it for several days on the extra 12v battery I keep around when my tractor wont start).It wont start,saying it's missing some xms or such memory file.Back to problem at hand I got monitor working this am (one thing you learn from Windows is keep trying)by on/off/on/off and unchecked everything ,when prompted hit restart, but it just gets to the black WinXP window with no little green progress bar. mk

So we are talking about 2 computers now?

As to the latter (the original in this thread) go back in safe mode & try ticking one box at a time to see if you can get into xp normally. If you want to post the startup list we could try to see what (if anything) is neccessary. You can do this by running HijackThis & posting back JUST the 04 entries.

http://www.isecurity.org.uk/downloads/hijackthis.exe

As to the other computer what are the exact error messages & where are they coming from? From the BIOS or from Windows?

Jephree. Hi, I'm back w/"new" monitor. By "ticking one box at a time" do you mean selecting one at a time as in last attempt, I deselected everything in start-up. If I select one item and apply it calls for a restart, which I do, but of course I get to the black XP loading windows screen and no further.Nothing happens and so I must hit the reset button to try again.I worry, maybe wrongly that this is bad for the HD ?