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XP won't load in regular mode (black screen), but will in Safe Mode

2K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  Prophet 
#1 ·
Hi all!

Today I started up my computer (an XP machine running SP3) and after it went through the BIOS, it showed the Windows startup screen (the Windows logo with the blue progress bar), but when that was done, it went to a black screen and won't do anything else.

I restarted and tried a few different things; Start Windows Normally, and Last Known Good Configuration both got me the same black screen.

CheckDisk ran, and it made it to the end, but froze when it said "please wait while your computer reboots" ... after waiting more than 10 minutes, i hit reset and tried to reboot it myself. It did the same Bios-Windows-blackscreen thing as before.

I also tried booting into Safe Mode, which DID work, and when I got in there I tried to do a System Restore (two, actually... for two previous dates) but both did nothing to resolve the problem. I tried simply copying my "important" files to my external HD (which it sees), but it won't copy in Safe Mode

When loading in Safe Mode, the driver list pauses and says "press esc to cancel loading of SPTD.sys" but I've tried it both ways and it doesn't make a difference that I can see.

I tried using my XP CD to boot from, which takes me into the Recovery Console, and I chose to hit "R" to repair, but when it asks me what drive I want to login to (which is C:) I don't really know what to do from there. I haven't booted from a CD before, so I assumed it would run a "Repair Wizard" or something, but it just brings me to a C:/Windows prompt.

I even tried booting with a Knoppix disc that a friend gave me many years ago when I had a different problem. Knoppix loads, but I can't see my external HD with Knoppix, so I can't copy my files.

I have about 20 gig of files that I want to copy (I had more, but I backed up everything else weeks ago), but if I get those off of the computer, I'm completely okay with just reinstalling Windows from scratch. In fact, I was probably going to do that soon anyways.

Anyone got any ideas or suggestions? Thanks!
~Joe
 
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#3 ·
Just in case anyone else has a similar issue, I never did figure out how to get the USB drive to work in safe mode, or to get Knoppix to recognize the USB drive. I couldn't get the repair installation to work either.

I did manage to get the files I needed off of the computer by using Nero (which I had installed previously) in Safe Mode to burn the files to some DVDs.
 
#4 ·
let's see I've run into similar problems when running dual monitors and one of them is off. Also ran into same problem with a new lcd monitor that couldn't handle the screen resolution windows was set to. Just so I'm clear you have backed up the files you wanted to save but your pc still won't work except in safe mode even after clean install?
 
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