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Help! Windows not starting/ black screen

7K views 39 replies 3 participants last post by  Claymore 
#1 ·
Yikes! Help :eek:
When I turned on my gateway computer (not sure if this is relevant) this morning it had a black screen on it with white lettering, (I have windows XP) it read:
'We apologize for the inconvenience, but windows did not start succesfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this. If your computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly, or was automatically shut down to protect your files and folders, choose Last Known Good Configuration to revert to the most recent settings that worked.
If a previous startup attempt was interrupted due to a power failure or because the power or reset button was pressed, or if you aren't sure what caused the problem, choose Start Windows normally.'

Underneath that text are options that i can choose using the up and down arrows on my keyboard. They are Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe mode with Command Prompt, Last Known Good Configuration, and Start Windows Normally. I had chosen Start Windows normally, and it ends up giving me the regular windows xp loading screen with the loading bar, then a blue screen with text shows up in a flash, then shows a screen with the hp logo on it. Then it goes back to the black screen with the options. This also happens with the Last Known Good Configuration option. All of the Safe Mode options (with networking, with command prompt, and regular safe mode) when I have choosen to use the Safe Mode it goes to my desktop, but it wont allow me to get on the internet.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much, since I know nothing about computers :(
 
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#2 ·
OK. Try this:

While in Safe Mode:

Right-click My Computer and click on Properties.
Click the Advanced tab and in the 'Startup and Recovery' section click Settings.
In the 'System Failure' section check these boxes:
'Write an event to the system log'.
'Send an Administrative alert'.
Uncheck the 'Automatically restart' box.

Also,
In the 'Write debugging information' section, select 'Small memory dump (64KB)'.

=========================

Restart the computer in Normal Mode and see if you can read what's on the blue screen this time.

Restart in Safe Mode again and then:

Go to Start => Run and type in "eventvwr.msc" {without the quotes}

Look under Applications and System for any Errors (with the red cross icon) at about the time of the failure. These error messages often don't help much, but can sometimes give us a clue. The more essential information is the EventID, the faulting module, file or process, the Error Code from the blue screen. If you're still not sure, click the double-page notepad-type icon which copies the error information to the clipboard. Paste into Notepad and/or into your next post. If there are many Errors, collect them into one Notepad .txt file and attach it to your next post.

Also,
A minidump file will be created.
The minidump file(s) are located in C:\Windows\minidump. They are dated - month-day-year. You can attach this folder to your next post. If possible, zip it first.

================

All this stuff is to help us try and find what is causing the startup failure.
 
#3 ·
Hi Ashley

I think you said you could get up in Safe Mode only, not clear!

But....

If you can get up in Safe mode try System Restore to restore back past yesterday.

To do that!

1. Click Start-All Programs-Accessories-System Tools, and then click System Restore.

2. On the screen, click Restore my computer to an earlier time, and then click Next.

3. On the Select a Restore Point page, select the Highlighted date from the calendar that shows the point you'd like to restore to chose a day back before your problem.

4.On the Confirm Restore Point, verify that the correct restore point is chosen

5.Click Next if you are ready to proceed or click Back to change the restore point.

6.The computer will shut down automatically and reboot. On reboot, you'll see the Restoration Complete page, and then click OK.

If you are lucky you will find a Restore point to use, if you are double lucky when you reboot it will report successfully restored.

If you are not so lucky it will report it could not do the restore.

Then get back and we will try something else.

Mike
 
#5 ·
Thanks you guys for posting and trying to help me. I tried to do the first step that Claymore stated to do and when I click ok a box pops up that says Windows cannot send administrative alerts unless the Alerter service is running. In that same box it gave instructions on how to make the Alerter run. I did that process and then another box came up saying that it cant start the Alerter in Safe Mode. Should I proceed with the other steps?
Thank you :)
 
#6 ·
If Claymore were still online I would defer to him!

Yes I would proceed with my steps to system restore!

But cross your fingers and knock on wood!

If it comes back do not try to do to much until we have a close look. Because a little fly did not fly into the fan and cause this.

And don't do anything to try to fix it your self.

Mike
 
#8 ·
Oh! One more thing should I redo what I did first with Claymore?

"Right-click My Computer and click on Properties.
Click the Advanced tab and in the 'Startup and Recovery' section click Settings.
In the 'System Failure' section check these boxes:
'Write an event to the system log'.
'Send an Administrative alert'.
Uncheck the 'Automatically restart' box"

Should I uncheck these?
 
#10 ·
I guess I am unlucky :(
I did the steps to restore my computer to a past date. Then I restarted my computer and a blue screen popped up and said session3_intialization_failed

Then it went onto say if this persist take these steps and it said to press F8

then at the bottom of the page it said Tecnical information and it read
***STOP: 0x0000006F (0xc0000130, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Yikes! Then it restarted itself again and I got the same page with the black background with the white lettering. :(
 
#12 ·
No when I did the system restore it said it needed to restart windows so it restarted and then it went to the blue screen, then shutdown and went to the black screen with the white lettering.

Yes I can still get into safe mode.
Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate it :)
 
#20 ·
OK fantastical!

So the "Thumb drive" was in the computer? Yes/No?

If it was do not use it on another computer until I clear it OK!

Test if you have Internet access do no real browsing all I want to know is if you can get out!

OK I will be preparing a longer set of instructions for you so will be just a few moments.

In meantime get me the answers to above.

Mike
 
#23 ·
Ok here is some work to do.

To look deeply at you system:
Download RSIT http://images.malwareremoval.com/random/RSIT.exe

Run it, allow several moments for it to run it will finish by popping up a log. Copy and paste the log back here. Then the second log is minimized so max it and post it here also.

This is important as it will allow a deep view of your system and hopefully allow me to see the cause of your problem.

Mike
 
#25 ·
Hello Ashley,

Did you do this part?:

While in Safe Mode:

Right-click My Computer and click on Properties.
Click the Advanced tab and in the 'Startup and Recovery' section click Settings.

In the 'Write debugging information' section, select 'Small memory dump (64KB)'.

If so, then:

A minidump file will be created.
The minidump file(s) are located in C:\Windows\minidump. They are dated - month-day-year. You can attach this folder to your next post. If possible, zip it first. Or, just attach the files you find there.

And ...

Oh! One more thing should I redo what I did first with Claymore?

"Right-click My Computer and click on Properties.
Click the Advanced tab and in the 'Startup and Recovery' section click Settings.
In the 'System Failure' section check these boxes:
'Write an event to the system log'.
'Send an Administrative alert'.
Uncheck the 'Automatically restart' box"

Should I uncheck these?
Leave these checked. If you are asked to Start the Alerter service do this:

Go to Start => Run and type in "services.msc" {without the quotes}
Maximize the window that opens.
Double-click on Alerter (at the top).
Select 'Automatic' in the drop-down selection box.
Click the 'Start' button.
Exit Services

Restart the computer in Normal Mode and let it fail. Restart in Safe Mode and get the minidump files and check the Event Viewer as I indicated earlier.

And ...

Two questions:

1. Do you have an XP installation CD?

2. Is your C: drive formatted FAT32 or NTFS? To find out, open My Computer; right-click on the C: drive and click 'Properties'. Look at what it says for 'File system'.
 
#26 ·
Hello!
I did the first part. But I cant seem to find the minidump file. Well I can but its under the folder WINNT and there is just one folder in there from 2005. Would that be it?

I do not have the XP CD. I wish I did :( I cant find it anywhere!
And I looked to see what format it is and its NTFS. Thank you for replying :) I really appreciate all the help I can get
 
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