How can I get my laptop to boot up properly?

November 8, 2009 4:36 PM

Was in the process of system restore but now I can't boot up my PC. How can I get it to start up correctly?

I was in the middle of cleaning up (defrag, viruses, spyware, etc.) someone else's laptop when I ran into a problem. There was some spyware I was trying to get rid of using a few antispyware programs but none of them seemed to work. So I went to my last resort and used system restore.

The laptop was never able to boot up correctly. It got to the F8 screen and listed the alternative bootup options (Last Known Configuration, Safe Mode, etc.). I tried them all but none of them had any effect. A blue screen would appear for a second and then it would shut down and try starting up again. It just does this in an endless loop.

By the way, I don't have the Windows XP installation CD.

The only other thing I can get into is the BIOS setup utility.

Any other ideas to get it to startup correctly? I really hope I can get the laptop back to the owner without screwing it up any morewhen I took it.

Thanks for your help.

posted by AngryTypingGuy to computers & internet (5 comments total)

At this point I don't see how you can fix this without an install CD.
My next step would be to boot off the XP CD to do a a repair install.
Maybe someone will have better idea.
posted by tresbizzare at 5:02 PM on November 8, 2009

You can usually order a replacement install CD online. For certain models, you can download one. If you have to get one sent by mail, you can always boot into Linux while waiting for it to show up. (Download, say, a Ubuntu live CD)
posted by Obscure Reference at 5:37 PM on November 8, 2009

There are plenty of XP Cd images available from most bit torrent sites. Probably a faster alternative to ordering one.
posted by white_devil at 6:06 PM on November 8, 2009

I'm leaning towards agreeing with tresbizzare on this one... unless you can read the BSOD that is happening... you're probably looking at booting from the XP disc and doing a Repair install.. (in which case you'll most likely also need the XP installation code). I actually did 2 repair installs this week and they both miraculously worked (surprised me!) ... your mileage may vary.
posted by jmnugent at 6:13 PM on November 8, 2009

If you get yourself a bootcd with an offline registry editor on it, you can turn off the automatic restart of Windows during a system crash. Then you might be able to see what the BSOD is which could conceivably help you figure out what's wrong.

You'd have to change the value of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl from 1 (restart) to 0 (don't restart).
posted by JaredSeth at 8:25 PM on November 8, 2009