Xp Freezes on the Blue Startup screen

[Steveee-B]

Hello,
I'm trying to fix a friends Laptop.
It freezes on the blue startup screen (after the black one but before the login screen).
Any ideas as to whats happened or any programs I can use that run with Windows Recovery disk?

Thanks

 

[aford10]

Try booting into safe mode. Then try using the restore points to roll back to before the problem started.

 

[Steveee-B]

Yea sorry ment to say, I tried all the options in the F8 menu and none of them get past the Blue Startup screen.
Normally I would just wipe it and Re-install windows but my friend has important stuff on there he needs to backup before I can do that (plus he cant find his instalation disks, typical!).

Think its possibly a missing .dll file but I know little about this subject. Normally I'm pretty good with computers but this has me stumped.

Any other ideas?

Its a Fujitsu/Siemens Amilo Pro V2055 Laptop running Windows XP Home Edition (Dont know what service pack he has installed on it).

 

[aford10]

Try booting with only 1 RAM chip at a time.

Look for a CMOS reset button on the bottom. If it's there, press and hold it to reset the CMOS.

 

[Steveee-B]

Just looked and there is only one fitted. Tried it in the other slot but still no joy.

 

[aford10]

Any luck on a reset button? Some laptops have them, and some don't. I looked up that model, but I couldn't tell if it does or not.

Try it using the AC adapter, and then try it using battery power. Is there any change?

 

[soundguruman]

One other suggestion is to repair the existing installation with an XP disk. Put the XP disk in the computer, start the computer, start the installation, don't delete the partitions, don't format the drive, instead select: repair existing installation.
But first:
One other suggestion to recover files is to take the drive out, install it as a second drive in another XP computer. Use the functional computer to drag files out of the malfunctioning drive, and to make a backup.
Then reinstall or repair install windows on the malfunctioning drive.
These two ideas frequently work when nothing else will.