Blank screen at bootup

Hi, someone just gave me an XP machine and I would like to use it. When I boot it, I get a screen for about 3 seconds and then the screen goes blank with a slight background lighting. Can someone help me get past this point? Thanks, Jim

 

I just realized that the hard drive may be bad.

 

I plugged in a working drive from another XP machine but got the BSOD.

 

what is the make, model and model number of the machine you are trying to boot??

what was the bsod stop code from the working drive with xp??

did you try to replace the original ide with a sata perhaps??

 

Hi Elizabeth, thanks for your help.

The machine that I am trying to boot is a HP Pavilion a810n.
It does not have a bsod when I am using it's original drive. It flashes the boot screen and then goes to a blank screen.

I tried installing a ide drive from a Dell Dimension 2400 and that is when I got the bsod
Stop: 0x0000007E

I believe the drives are both ide

I do not have the original XP distribution disk.

 

the bsod may be due to the drive being from a dell pc, the install on a dell has booting parameters that are for a dell and not an hp, if you were to wipe the dell drive and then place in the hp pc, you should be able to install xp on the drive with your discs, but the bsod is because an hp is trying to read a dell installation.

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on the hp, can you boot to safe mode??

Turn on the computer. and immediately start tapping F8 key
.
From the Windows Advanced Options Menu, select Safe Mode and press ENTER
When the Windows XP desktop appears, Safe Mode is displayed in the four corners of the screen and the desktop will probably look much worse due to the reduced colors.

if you can boot to safe mode, then you can get to run to run checkdisk:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265/en-us
How to perform checkdisk

if you do not have Recovery Console installed, then run from the start menu

go to start, run, type in cmd

in cmd type in chkdsk c: /r and press enter

type Y for yes and press enter

type exit and press enter

restart pc, allow checkdisk to finish and run again

this is a lengthy process depending on the size of your harddrive, the percentages will fluctuate, this is normal, you can view report in the event viewer.
go to start>run> and type in eventvwr.msc, click on the applications directory, and in the right hand panel choose winlogon.

 

Thanks Elizabeth.

No, I can't boot in "Safe" mode. I get the message:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

I can't create a new hard drive from the Dell disk because I don't have the original XP distribution disk. There are lots of XP disks on eBay. Would one of those work?

Thanks again, Jim

 

you can go here for info on how to use recovery discs on a new drive:

you should be able to use the recovery discs to reinstall xp on the original drive

The recovery discs will boot the PC, and the recovery process will format and partition the hard drive.



First press F10 at boot, go to Diagnostics tab, and ensure that the Short Drive self test will launch and run. This ensures that the PC can 'see' the new hard drive.



If the PC isn't booting from the discs, try ensuring your boot order is set - Press F9 when booting, and select the CD/DVD drive as a one-time boot option.



If that doesn't work, it is possible the discs are bad, or much more rare, that the optical drive is bad.



To test the discs, put disc one into another PC and ensure the PC is set to boot from the CD/DVD drive. The discs will startup, and eventually provide a message that the discs "are not for this PC". If you do NOT get this message on another PC, then order a fresh set of discs.



If you DO get this message, then you may want to try and re-seat your optical drive. Review your "service and maintenance guide" for diagram, available for your model from hp.com/go/customercare (enter in your model number, select "manuals" and then Service and Maintenance guide)

above info is from the link given above.
====

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/manualCategory?product=443069&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en

above link has user guides for your hp pc.

are you able to run the short test as described above??

I will check back in 20 or so minutes to see if you have replied.

 

Hi Elizabeth, thanks but I have to go to bed now. I'll catch up with you later.

 

okay, will check back tomorrow, it is 12:30 am here.

 

Elizabeth, thank you for your help. A friend gave me a disk and I did a fresh install and I'm out of the woods on that issue. I now have other problems but they are completely different so I'll start a new thread.

 

okay, will look for that thread.