help needed crashed pc

[polarstar]

my son has crashed his pc again lol
OS xp pro it starts to boot up but then reboots and won't load xp
which are the easiest method's to sort this out bit pushed for time at the moment
can i reboot from the windows xp disc if so how
or reload windows and how as i can't get into anything

[Neo]

Easiest way would be to do the repair install.

[polarstar]

Easiest way would be to do the repair install.
thanks m8 but i don't know to do that?
i can't access the cdrom as it won't boot get's to the the windows logo then reboots

[nimbles]

access the mother board bios and change the boot sequence so it boots from floppy (optional-could send this to the back of the line), then cd, then hd. at the moment i guess the cd is coming after the hd so it will always try to boot to windows, even if a cd is in there

accessing the bios occurs before windows starts so literally as the pc comes on you need to press the corrrect button to access the bios. Make sure the monitor is not in sleep mode other wise you may miss it before it powers up, but the keystroke required for accessing the bios should come up before it loads windows:

If you got no video and know what the bios is i found this site that has some of the keystrokes for the mother board bioses out there- dunno if it is the definitve guide.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

Its wierd for my laptop i have to press "del" and for my desktop i have to press "f2" so i wouldn't like to give a key to press but like i say a key should flash up before windows loads something like

press ** to access settings
HTH

[polarstar]

thanks nimbles that is the problem i can now access the windows disc
i have tried to repair but get lost after you choose windows 1

but atleast i can reload windows now if the repair don't work only problem he will loose all his games

ps:going to ghost the it after this

[nimbles]

yeah never actually done a windows repair before- always gone the whole hog and reformatted it.

One thing you could do is paritition the drive if you do choose to do a complete reformat, so say have 10gb for system files and the other parition for the rest your files (e.g. documents games movies etc). that way if you ever have to reinstall windows you only have to reinstall c and won't loose stuff thats on the d drive-its almost like having a separate har disk- just make sure when he reinstalls games he installs them to the d: drive

[Chris IOW]

When I have XP computers in the Workshop that keep resetting I always try the "fixboot" command in the Windows XP Setup. If that dont work then I format the thing :)

[-JS-]

When you load the windows setup DON'T go for the first repair option you see - that'll take you to the console. Go for the one that says install. Then you'll see a list of your current windows installations. Hit R on the one you want to repair and let it run. You may need to enter your serial number etc again, so have it handy.

[Chris IOW]

Never done it that way before. What happens if you do it that way? just out of interest?

Many Thanks

[polarstar]

some one gave me this link but all i can get it to do is reload windows
but later this week i will be formating and a full install

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm)

[-JS-]

Never done it that way before. What happens if you do it that way? just out of interest?
Basically, it re-installs windows, but keeping your settings & files. Obviously its not as good as a fresh install by a long long way, but it's a bloody useful feature.