Hope someone has some suggestions (with thanks)... My sons pc won't boot...it will do the following..displays the winlogo with moving blue bar..then briefly goes black as if it's about to go to desktop, but then goes back to the winlogo with moving blue bar. Have tried booting in safe mode...get to a black screen with safemode in each corner, then the screen goes (Desktop?) blue with an hourglass & stays like that. Have tried booting safe mode with command prompt with the thought of stopping some drivers loading but don't seem to get a command prompt...loading items still go wizzing past on the screen.(& then symptoms as basic safe mode) Have tried booting from windows "recovery" cd (as I didn't build this paricular (3yr old) pc). only option I seem to get is to reinstall over existing windows (or another place etc)..no command prompt option seems available. There are no UB devices attached. winxp home 32 bit. sp3 Athlonx2 4200 geforce 7950gtx Abit kn9 sli mobo 4 gig ram. etc etc. Nothing has been installed of late to cause this cock-up...(Except speedfan was recently installed & not sure if son has been on the pc since installation, but probably has) Have tried to search for an answer but where others can get into safemode & I can't appear to, the answers I found didn't help.. Tnx for any info..Andy. MSI k9n-sli mobo Athlon64 x2 6000+ Gainward gtx 260 gs 4 gig ddr2 800mhz mem @3 gigs Corsar tx 650 psu Zalman 9700-led cpu cooler Antec 902 case Samsung T220 20" w/s monitor

What does the Harddrive indicator light show ??? Does it rapidly blink as if getting information ??? OR does it stay on ???? If so, then may be going bad. Mine told me it was going bad, only one year after new.

Forgot to mention that. When it gets to the stalling point the hd light goes off. Tnx. MSI k9n-sli mobo Athlon64 x2 6000+ Gainward gtx 260 gs 4 gig ddr2 800mhz mem @3 gigs Corsar tx 650 psu Zalman 9700-led cpu cooler Antec 902 case Samsung T220 20" w/s monitor

if you have an XP cd http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.ph... larry

Whereas the "recovery" xp cd that came with the pc does'nt have an option for recovery console, I do have another full xp cd which will let me run recovery console. However, the other cd is winxp pro (also 32bit). As this version isn't installed on the knackered pc (home edition) I'm wondering if I can get away with using it without any ill effects? Or at least run checkdsk? Failing that I'll have to resort to putting the drive into my pc & scan it from there..(any files I can alter which may help if this is a last option?) Tnx. MSI k9n-sli mobo Athlon64 x2 6000+ Gainward gtx 260 gs 4 gig ddr2 800mhz mem @3 gigs Corsar tx 650 psu Zalman 9700-led cpu cooler Antec 902 case Samsung T220 20" w/s monitor

Ok I'm posting this from the knackered pc. Managed to get it running again using another xp disk even tho it was xp pro...ran chkdsk /r & it found errors & corrected them....tnx for the suggestions all...Andy. (now the slog of running full AV/spyware/disk scan. ) Then again...son being ten years old....may have been impatient in shutting it down etc...(& if he's discovered porn I'm going to kill him! :) MSI k9n-sli mobo Athlon64 x2 6000+ Gainward gtx 260 gs 4 gig ddr2 800mhz mem @3 gigs Corsar tx 650 psu Zalman 9700-led cpu cooler Antec 902 case Samsung T220 22" w/s monitor