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Refuses to start either normally or in safe mode
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Refuses to start either normally or in safe mode
Tuesday, July 13, 2004 at 7:02 am
Posted by Tony Whitlow (1 messages posted)

I start the computer. It starts to boot normally and goes to the splash screen. It then jump to a screen giving me four choices: normal , bootlog, step-by-step, and minimal start up. I choose normal and it immediately jumps to a new screen giving me the choices of start up in: normal, safe, and step-by-step. It also says that Windows failed to start properly on last boot. Windows will now start in safe mode. No matter what you choose Windows shuts down and reboots again starting the same cycle all over again. I can start it with the start up floppy and load the diagnositcs. It won't restore to a previous date, a surface scan finds no problems, a registry scan finds no error. I have started using Norton's SystemWorks 2004 and scanned for viruses and found none. I have done each of these things several times over the last few days and gotten nothing. Even though I bought my ME retail and never used the free support, Microcrap, doesn't support it free anymore because they are trying to get everyone to upgrade to XP. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. I'm trying not to take it back to the shop or upgrading to XP since I intend to buy a new machine in a couple of months. TW

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re: Refuses to start either normally or in safe mode
Tuesday, July 13, 2004 at 9:40 am
Posted by Cam (4178 messages posted)

Free MS Update CD
You can try taking Norton 2004 off the system. Or you can try these: STARTING SYSTEM RESTORE FROM A COMMAND PROMPT [DOS] Q279736 THE COMPUTER ALWAYS STARTS IN SAFE MODE (Stuck in Safe Mode) Q306615 Troubleshooting MS-DOS Compatibility Mode on Hard Disks
Mac WINDOWS HELP RAM

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re: Refuses to start either normally or in safe mode
Tuesday, July 13, 2004 at 10:52 am
Posted by Jack Gulley (5917 messages posted)

Try running a standalone memory test on your system. A bad memory module can cause this type of problem, and all the DOS based things you have ran would not be trying to access the bad memory area. You could try booting into the BIOS CMOS Setup and see if you have the option to run the Power On Self Test for memory. This is normally disabled with the option "Enable Quick Power on Test" being Enabled. Disable it so it can check the system memory on power up as a quick check.
See: page for links to making good standalone memory test diskettes or a bootable CD.
If a standalone memory test runs for several hours without finding a problem, then try selecting the BOOTLOG option. When it reboots, use a boot diskette and from it run EDIT C:\BOOTLOG.TXT and view the boot log generated. (You may have to first delete the old one, it is a hidden file, so you can see what is going on and if it is generating a new BootLog.TXT file.) How far it is getting into the boot process might give you a clue as to what is going on or what might be corrupted. There may also be a BOOTLOG.PRV file that you could compare with to see what happened on a previous boot.
Also use EDIT to look at the hidden MSDOS.SYS control file and see if that short text file is corrupted.
The type of problem you are having can be caused by bad hardware (network adapter, Graphic Accelerator, USB adapter - things that are not accessable from DOS) or corrupted program files or control files. Even virus and trojans that do not show up with manual DOS based scans.

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