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XP Laptop hangs on 'Windows XP' screen?

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buel

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Posted June 12, 2012 at 10:17PM

Hi, My 5 year old XP laptop hangs on the blue 'Windows XP' screen and does exactly the same when i try to start in safe mode, also the same in 'Last Known Good Configuration'. I do have an OEM XP CD.

Please can i have some/any tips as to what to do?

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted August 17, 2012 at 9:22AM

I typed copy c:\windows\repair\system copy (1 file copied)

That's probably good enough the defective system file has now been replaced

put the drive back in the machine and see if it will reboot normally.

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buel

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Posted August 17, 2012 at 11:39AM

Hi. I did the above whilst the hd was in the pc using the XP CD.

Tried booting up and no luck again. Im really determined to fix this and i appreciate your help.

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted August 17, 2012 at 12:16PM

What symptoms / error messages now?

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buel

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Posted August 17, 2012 at 4:23PM

Ok, No matter what option i choose from Safe Mode, Safe Mode with networking etc, i always get:

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

You can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup CD-Rom

Please may i ask what action i can now take?

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted August 17, 2012 at 5:12PM

That's the same as you had before by copying the system file from the repir folder it should have sorted it.

I can only assume the file in the repair folder is also corrupt.

Next, do the repair install but as you seem to be having lots of problems...

If you have ALL the important stuff copied off the machine I would now be tempted to reinstall windows from scratch making sure you format the drive during the setup procedure.

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buel

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Posted August 17, 2012 at 5:15PM

Just an idea from a very niave pc user-

Being as 'repair' is not an option, i dont suppose there is a way that i can reduce the sice of the C drive and create another partition and put XP on there so my friend could transfer all the files he needs from the C Drive to the new partition (D drive, i assume?). Just a thought....in case there are no other options available?

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buel

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Posted August 17, 2012 at 5:30PM

I would do the repair install if the option of repair was available but i dont get that option, im afraid.

Just a question- If i wanted to complete a fresh install, would i still be able to use the 'windows\system32\WPA.DBL and WPA.BAK' files to bypass the product code potential problem?

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted August 17, 2012 at 6:08PM

Yes

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buel

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Posted August 17, 2012 at 6:10PM

Just an idea from a very niave pc user-

Being as 'repair' is not an option, i dont suppose there is a way that i can reduce the sice of the C drive and create another partition and put XP on there so my friend could transfer all the files he needs from the C Drive to the new partition (D drive, i assume?). Just a thought....in case there are no other options available?

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted August 17, 2012 at 6:28PM

If you have it plugged into another machine you can copy the drive to a folder on that machine. if the machine has vista or windows 7 disk management can partition the drive and you can copy everything back to the second partition and format the first.

XP needs to install boot files to the first partition (root) on a drive for a novice having a system on D instead of C can be confusing.

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