Hi,

I've got a problem with my XP machine. A pretty bizarre thing happened yesterday. Right when I signed in to MSN Messenger 7.0 I started to see "artifacts" and distorted images on the screen. I also started to see double, as if the screen were split in half, with two half displays. Anyway, I thought it might be the monitor, so I rebooted. Now, I can't get into Windows. It boots as normal, and shows that black screen which says "Windows XP" on it, and so forth. Then, when it would usually transition to go to the blue screen which logs me in, it goes bad. At that point, the monitor shows the orange light as it would when no signal is received. I've tried it on different monitors, same problem. I've also seen that when it does the system check when booting, it did show that MSN Messenger had some files that needed to be repaired.

Anyway, I can't restore, that won't work, as I tried the system restore points. I also tried "Last Known Configuration that Worked." No go there. The only thing that works is to log into safe mode. I can get in that way and access all my files on the hard drive, as well at the registry editor and MSCONFIG.

Any help would be appreciated. I know my way around a cpu somewhat, so I hope with some help this can be resolved. I don't want to have to reinstall Windows. I believe this is a software issue, as I can boot in safe mofe, and access the hard drive and its files. It appears something has gone wrong with one of the boot registries.

Thanks!

Some usefull reading:

Resources for troubleshooting startup problems in Windows
XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...B;en-us;308041


How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in
Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;316434


How to troubleshoot by using the System Configuration
utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=310560

Also: look in your Event viewer: rt. click My Computer then click Manage then Event Viewer.
Or: Administrative Tools/Event Viewer or Start/Run/ eventvwr
Open the system as well as the application tabs & look for X errors. Click error line for details.
Post back the source & event id especially of errors that seem to coincide with this issue.

Also view your Error Log via:
[1] Start Menu
[2] Help and Support
[3] Pick a Task
[4] Tools
[5] Advanced System Information
[6] View the Error Log

Also try to run Check Disk:
start > run > cmd
in the new window type chkdsk/f
when prompted to run on boot choose Y & reboot
this will check for & fix any disk errors.

Also try to run sfc /scannow
http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html