XP won't finish booting up

Hi Folks

Laptop was fine when I shut it down lastnight.

Today I type my Login, then wait.
It gets to show me the background wallpaper, but then stops loading.

I can CTR-ALT-DEL, if I try to 'RUN' explorer.exe it says "Can't find explorer.exe".

I can use the 'BROWSE' box to get to C:\windows\explorer.exe, it still says "Cant find explorer.exe".

HELP!!

PS. Booting in SAFE mode has same result - blank screen with 'Safe Mode' in each corner.

Is there a 'Repair' I can do to the harddisk from another machine?
I can whip out the HD and run it on another machine to do stuff to it if need be?

thanks!

Will

 

?? did not understand the issue here.

But Try pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL and end any unnescessary services.

 

The issue is that XP stops loading when it gets to the wallpaper - no Icons, no Menus, no System Task Bar, no HD activity.

A screen full of wallpaper, and nothing else!

Luckily I can get to the 'RUN' command from CTR-ALT-DEL, but can't even run explorer.exe even though I can browse to it - it's as if the system doesn't recognise it as a program.

 

Have you installed any new applications/softeware or hardeware prior to this issue?

 

No, its been running unchanged for a couple of months.
Its my office workhorse, so no experiments, games or fancy stuff going on.

Like I say, it was fine when it shut down the night before.

Next morning - no go.

 

I'm stumped, but don't let me get you down. I will look into this issue a little more and let you know of the results I find.