Need Help, Windows won't start up properly

[Mr. T]

So I own an HP Pavilion laptop about a year and a half old running Windows XP. I havn't installed any hardware to it recently and the last thing I downloaded I believe was iTunes for my new iPod.

Out of nowhere when I go to start it up this morning this it goes through the regular windows loading screen but then a blue screen flashes really quickly then it takes me to a black screen that says:

We apologize for the inconvenience , but windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might of caused this.

Then it lists the following options:

-Safe mode
-Safe mode with networking
-Safe mode with command prompt
-Last known good configuration(your most recent settings that worked)
-Start windows normally

If I click either Start Windows Normaly or Last known good configuration it just does the exact same process, the windows loading screen appears and then the blue screen with some text on it quickly flashes (too fast to read) then it takes me back to the same black screen.

If I press "Safe Mode" then it just makes a big list of Windows commands like "multi(0)disck(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)/WINDOWS/system32/DRIVERS/"
and nothing happens.

I'm trying to search through the Microsoft website for anything but wanted to know if anyone here knew how to fix this problem.

Thanks alot in advance.

[Schuyler Colfax]

I had that same issue about a month ago. You're gonna have to call in and have people troubleshoot it for you. I forgot the number so I hope you have it. You're also going to need some type of CD I think it should say "Operating System" on it. You give them some info on you're computer and they should have it fixed in a good 15 minutes.

[Beowulf]

Take your OS install CD. Boot off it. Use the repair option. If that fails, you'll need to reinstall. Best of luck to you.

[Mr. T]

OK,

Thankfully I got it working again. All my documents are still there. I did it by pressing F11 at the loading screen and re-installing Windows like that, then it just loaded up the operating system again. It's been a big wake up call, I'm backing up any important files on to my external hard drive now.

Only one problem, my settings are changed. So things like my internet favourites and settings for programs that I have on my computer no longer appear. I know that there's restore points, but I can't seem to find them, I guess it makes sense that if I re-installed the operating system it no longer has restore points, does anyone know if I can restore to my earlier settings?

[Stark]

I had that same issue about a month ago. You're gonna have to call in and have people troubleshoot it for you. I forgot the number so I hope you have it. You're also going to need some type of CD I think it should say "Operating System" on it. You give them some info on you're computer and they should have it fixed in a good 15 minutes.

Oh god. Tell me this isn't real.

I always loved how the safe mode verbose boot would fail, and give people the totally wrong idea about what the problem is (like 'mup.sys was last on list it must be broken' etc).

[Beowulf]

OK,

Thankfully I got it working again. All my documents are still there. I did it by pressing F11 at the loading screen and re-installing Windows like that, then it just loaded up the operating system again. It's been a big wake up call, I'm backing up any important files on to my external hard drive now.

Only one problem, my settings are changed. So things like my internet favourites and settings for programs that I have on my computer no longer appear. I know that there's restore points, but I can't seem to find them, I guess it makes sense that if I re-installed the operating system it no longer has restore points, does anyone know if I can restore to my earlier settings?

You reinstalled windows; the registry got wiped, along with all the other state windows maintained. You're going to need to set everything up again.