A few days ago, I tried starting my computer and ran into some trouble. I get the blue Pentium III screen as usual to start, but it is followed by the "Windows was not shut down properly..." message, and asks if I want to start Windows normally, or in safe mode. If I ask it to start normally, it'll just go back to the blue Pentium screen, and the loop will continue. (Sometimes it will go to the next screen before restarting, the black screen with the Windows logo in the center and the status bar in the center). If I ask it to start in safe mode, it also goes back to the blue Pentium screen, but it first scrolls through what appears to be several lines of text. It scrolls a little too quickly for me to catch it, but if it's important, I'll try to get some of it down when I get home.

Anyone know how to solve the problem?

Have you tried all the options from the safe mode screen?

Last known Good Configuration?

Safe mode with Command prompt?

etc.

Also what disks do you have?

A full verssion XP? An OEM Recovery?

Also just to try: Unplug everything for 10 or 15 minutes. Then try try again.

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reviewing your previous posts:
http://www.d-a-l.com/help/search.php?searchid=45399
I see you have a full XP CD.

First off if the above safe mode options continue to fail try to enter the Recovery Console by booting your XP CD. Details here:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm

Run chkdsk

& then any other options that you might wish to try.

If that doesn't help boot the XP CD & do a Repair Install.

Detals here:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm



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What happens with Safe Mode and its variations is that it'll run through those lines of text as mentioned above. I managed to copy the text down...

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partitition(0)\WINDOWS\Syst em32\Drivers\_________.sys

The word in the space was, of course, different in every line.

I booted from the CD, and the Repair Installation option wasn't available, so I ran the Recovery Console. When I tried the "CHKDSK" command, it said it found "one or more errors on the volume," which it apparently fixed, as it said the drive was fine when I ran the check again. From that point Windows would load, but not completely. After entering my password, it would go to a black screen with the cursor in the center, where it would stay for a few minutes. At this point, the only thing I could do was open the Task Manager.

When Windows finally loaded, there were a lot of things missing. My antivirus program and network card would not run automatically. The Quick Launch icons were gone. I was not permitted to send anything to the Recycle Bin, because I was told it was corrupted, and that I would only be able to delete permanently. When I ran my antivirus program, it found several files located in part of the drive it said it was unable to read. The only virus it could read was located in C:\RECYCLER, but when it tried to repair/delete it, it froze the program. I also tried to defragment. When clicking the "Analyze" or the "Defragment" buttons, the button depressed as usual when clicking on it, but the program did nothing.

When I restarted the computer, it got slightly worse. The start bar is now completely inaccessible. I just see the thin grey bar at the bottom of the screen as if it's been completely condensed, but when I try to expand it, it does nothing, even though it shows the outline of where the bar would be as I move the cursor.

Is there any way to salvage this mess?

By the way, once, I did get an error message once that doesn't seem to be an issue anymore, but I think it might be important. It said if it was the first time I saw it, just reboot and forget about it. I only have seen it once, but I wrote down what seemed to be important just in case. It said to check all new hardware, and make sure it was connected properly. I haven't added any new hardware recently, but I checked all connections anyway, which appear to be secure. At the bottom of this message, though, it did say,

***STOP: 0X0000006F (0XC0000020, 0X00000000, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)

The heading of the message said,

Session3_Initialization_Failed

Something I should worry about?

There is info here on the Repair Install not available:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepa...l.htm#warning2

That error is also in regards to boot issues as mentioned in the above link.

If the Repair Install continues to fail then a Clean Install is about all that I can see.

That link directed me here, and I followed the instructions, but I ran into a problem. During step 2, where I'm supposed to copy those five files from the System Volume Information folder to the temp folder, it allows me to copy, but not paste. The paste option is actually not available when doing something as simple as copying one of those sample pictures from My Pictures to My Documents. I tried to get around this by copying using the Repair Console, as I was instructed to do in the first step. I got a message saying "Access denied."

Also, the Start Bar problem hasn't been resolved. Although Windows went back to its basic form as mentioned in the article (default background, default XP layout, few programs running, not much hardware supported, activation is required), it seems to have removed the Start Bar entirely. The only sign of it is the "Take a tour of XP..." bubble pointing to an icon that would be next to the time. It won't even appear when I press the Start Menu key on the keyboard.

Where do I go from here?

Did you try these steps from: http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepa...l.htm#warning2

Possible Fix by reconfiguring boot.ini using Recovery Console.

1.Boot with XP CD or 6 floppy boot disk set.

2. Press R to load the Recovery Console.

3. Type bootcfg.

4. This should fix any boot.ini errors causing setup not to see the XP OS
install.

5. Try the repair install.


One more suggestion from MVP Alex Nichol

"Reboot, this time taking the immediate R option, and if the CD letter is say K: give these commands

copy K:\i386\ntldr C:\
copy K:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\


(two other files needed - just in case)

1. Type: attrib -h -r -s C:\boot.ini del C:\boot.ini

2. Type: BootCfg /Rebuild

which will get rid of any damaged boot.ini, search the disk for systems and make a new one. This might even result in a damaged windows reappearing; but gives another chance of getting at the repair"

After that all I can see is a Clean Install:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html#steps

No luck.

Thanks, though.