My grandfathers computer will start up and bring me to the safemode select screen (windows did not start successfully please revert back to the most recent working settings) So i pick one of the safe modes and every one of them leads to a screen with all the processes that are working and that arnt then the screen will go black then go back to the process screen If i start up normaly it will go to the windows boots screen then the screen will go black we have not installed anything to it recently Any help?

Do you have the original XP instal CD? Is this a brand name system or a custom built? Any repair at this stage will need to be done by booting up the XP CD. I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

c.harding, Which safe mode do you choose? Are you choosing the diagnostic mode? If it tells you to revert to the "last known good configuration", why don't you try that? Or, if you have System Restore enabled (or if a back up of the system was done), can also use Sys Restore to put it back to an earlier state. However, w/ Sys Restore, you have to choose the restore point (date). If you know for sure when the prob started, use a restore pt a day or 2 or 3 before that. Otherwise, select the option to start it using "last known good config". That will likely solve the prob.

Assuming you have SP2 installed - press F8 before windows starts trying to load - this will give you the full 'safe mode' menu - not just the short version after a failure. One option is to disable restart on failure. Select this - then try to boot. Hopefully you'll get a blue screen with some info about reason its not booting. Post back with said info, and we'll try to help further.

Its a factory made dell all safe modes lead to a loop of black screen and that list of enabled processes The Windows XP cd will lead to a screen where I can run a diagnostic or reinstall windows The diagnostic says that the only thing that fails is the cd rom drive I want to exersise all options before reinstalling windows And the Last known good config will leave it the same as it is

Additional info*** He ran desktop cleanup and after that his msn browser wouldnt work he thought the desktop cleanup did it so he rolled the computer back a few days. This was taking a while so he went and had dinner and when he returned the screen was black and it was in this condition.

Try searching on MS support for "How to Recover from a corrupted Registry that prevents Windows (XP) from Starting".