Computer not starting (friends, plz help quick)

My friend is having a problem with his computer and I want to know if anyone can help so I can get back to him. When you turn on the computer it goes to a black screen and asks you what mode to put it on, (safe mode, windows, etc.) he was clicking use normal windows xp and it doesn't work- it simply shuts down after it loads. It loads and shuts down. He cant go into safe-mode with cmd prompt, it says he has no secondary slave (which he says he normally has) and safe-mode with networking isn't working. What can he/hould he try? (I am heading over to his house soon and I will give it a look over, so please try to help fast) I don't know what I should even try but I will be over there for a while and might not be able to check up on this. And also, is there anynon program threatning ways to end this (so he doesn't lose all his programs)

Try "Last Know Good Configuration", or completety reinstall the OS (but back up files). As long the hardware is not affected, he should be fine.

Check the IDE cables inside his pc the secondary slave will be a bit thats hangin off the one connected to his HDD (I think) if it's as it should try bios and look at the configurations, as to why it expects one that doesnt exist. I'm no expert :)

sounds to me like your friends computer has a major HDD problem on the master, does your friend have a spare HDD or a free one with no valuable data. if so the he/she could install a fresh copy of their OS onto it and reset the master slave jumpers on the HDD's, if the jumpers don't work use the bios to change the boot priority. by doing this windows will start a fresh copy and hopefully allow your friend to browse and save all files and data they need before they need to format. the same sort of thing happened to me a few months back. (so now i always keep a sapre HDD with a totally new version of windows installed, on the shelf). I hope i've helped if not then sorry i couldn't.

I am at his house right now… If anyone has any questions post them here or pm me. What it's doing is turning on and it has been saying "Off Mode in 5 seconds" and now it is missing the primary slave. (not detected) it is detecting master and secondary though. It appears like it is just restarting, but I don't know how to stop it. I can't find a way to enter safe-mode either. If anyone knows anything, Please pm it or post it here.

Check memory I think thats the problem!

It's always nice to know what type of computer you have, Does it give out any beeps in any order when starting? Do not fully reinstall xp run a simple repair on it and you will only loose service packs and updates.

ye i agree with korg i think i had this same problem ones i was going to just do a repair but in the end i just installede the whole xp package again tried getting my computer back to as if it was brand new :D

Ok. Im checking verything again right now (he runs XP)….. okay. It beeps twice like it normally does, beeps again and the screen turns on. It goes ro a selection page with safe mode, safe mode with networking, and safemode with command prompt. It also has best known configuration and run normally. All the safe modes on select sends alot of file names from the bottom of the screen. Run windows normally sends it to the loading screen and soon it restarts. Last known config does the same as run normally. When it begins loading for the first time (when you just turn on the computer) it sounds like the drives are making weird noises like spinning or something and it starts clicking when ever it processes information like the selection screen. I am just leaving it alone and it is just restarting- selection screen- restart- etc. But my main thing is that the drives are making weird noises. Would this have anything to do with it? If so, how would I fix it. I can only be here for a while longer.[edit] How would I run the thing? Just wondering. (oh, btw, you can get into a bios prompt if that helps. I have no idea what to do with bios.)

did you try and use the bios config to reset the boot configuration for the hard drives, try it and on the slave install a new windows xp while keeping the systems curent configurations

get live cd if it's a hdd problem it will boot fine,

Live cd? (btw, I am no longer at his house and have to explain everything to him over the phone)

live CD - A bootable CD with (usually) a linux distro on - http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

If the harddisk is making wierd noises, clicking etc then it is probably about to die. if it hasnt already …

Download some bootable diags, i.e. PCcheck ….. find it where ever you normally get whatever …

–Unreb

No clue if this is resolved or if this has been said but:

It sounds like your friend has an incomplete/incompatable upgrade to windows XP on his machine. which in simple terms means that he has a corrupt operating system. I have run into this a lot in my last job. The only options you have are system restore, try to do a fix from the windows CD OR re-install the OS.

This does not sound like a Hard Drive error at all so do not worry about that. People seem to jump to that right away when an OS problem occurs. This is (in my experience) rarely the case. I have never had a computer that will boot to safe mode but not into the actual OS be a hard drive error. but again I am only 12 years into computer building so what do i know right?:evil:

Hope this little bit helps you man. If not drop me a line I will try to get back to you. :xx:

Thanks alderhawk. We haven't fixed it yet, but I will try to get a hold of him to try it. I didn't think it was a harddrive problem, but you can never b e too sure ;) I will try whenever I can. (He at least has another insanely crap computer he can sort of use for now :P)