I have an old Compaq Presario 5000. The disk drives have not been working for a long time, but the system has still been working just fine. The only thing it is used for is to access the internet and I don't want to replace it for that. The system will only boot to safe mode. I have already tried to restore to a previous point, but that doesn't help. I really want to reset to factory settings, but cannot figure out how to do it. I have tried restarting the system and quickly pressing F1, F8, F10, F11, esc, etc., to no avail. F10 takes me to a screen that asks for the language (English, etc.) and then to other settings that are useless to me. I cannot use any disks, so I'm going to have to reset from the hard drive partition, but how can I get there? I can get into safe mode...is there any way to reset the system from safe mode?

Try this. Windows XP defaults to Safe Mode at every startup http://windowsxp.mvps.org/safeboot.htm

If the System will boot only to Safe Mode, how is it "working fine?" EEOC

Thanks for the quick reply, I tried the suggestion from Johnw. When in the system configuration utility, under BOOT.INI, the SAFEBOOT box was NOT checked. Now, on the GENERAL TAB, the SELECTIVE STARTUP box was checked. I changed it to NORMAL STARTUP, clicked APPLY, and tried to restart. It went right back into SafeMode. When I went back to the system configuration utility it defaulted to the SELECTIVE STARTUP box. I tried it a couple of times, and the NORMAL STARTUP won't stick. The system is still defaulting to Safe Mode. By the way, the operating system is Windows XP Home. I can't manually change the configuration because that is only available in XP Pro. Any other suggestions? Also, btw, I thought it was obvious when I said the system was working fine otherwise, I meant "BEFORE" the Safe Mode loop occured. Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear.

Contact HP and get the OEM disk. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

You may get more info from minidumps. Make sure it is Enabled. Control Panel --> System --> Advanced --> Startup and Recovery --> Settings ---> Write debugging information --> Complete memory dump. On XP and 2003 systems, mini dumps are located at %SystemRoot%\Minidump, or c:\Windows\Minidump; kernel and full dumps are located at %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP or c:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. How to solve Windows system crashes in minutes http://www.networkworld.com/news/20... http://www.codeproject.com/KB/debug... http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devto... Install Debugging Tools for Windows 64-bit Version http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devto... http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devto... http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showth...

Maybe this is how you get into your bios. # Compaq Presario - Press <Alt> <Ctrl> <Esc> at boot when you see the "Compaq" log in big letters. http://www.computer-firstaid-servic... If you can, I would try disabling your com ports.