Windows XP will Not Start Up on HP Pavillion Laptop

[TamiF281]

I have been having issues with Windows XP:

I noticed in the past few days when my computer wakes up from sleep mode
that the normal sound that is played tends to skip(much like a record that
has been scratched). My computer also seems to have been running slower as
well and I have antispy and mccaffe virus on it.
This am I went to wake my computer up from sleep mode and was faced with a
black screen that would not go to my normal windows login screen. I
proceeded to hard boot the computer(meaning turn it off and wait briefly
before turning it back on). It started loading as normal and it gets to the
splash screen then after a few seconds it flashes to a blue screen(I believe
it has something on it as I do see some black amongst the blue) but the blue
screen doesn't even stay up for me to read, it immediately goes to the black
screen which I am assuming it is restarting the computer just to repeat the
same sequence again asking me this time if I want to boot in safe mode or
normal mode. I pick safe mode but it does the samething it does in normal
mode. I printed some information off the HP site on how to create a recovery
disk if needed without going into windows. I was going to go ahead and try
that but was wondering if anyone has any ideas what is going on.
I am debating on whether it is windows xp, the hard drive, or both. Really
hoping it is windows xp because I really don't want to format the hard drive
since i have several pictures of my child at various ages on it that I would
like to save somehow(if I can ever get into windows I plan to promptly burn
those pictures to a cd).

 

[Richard in AZ]

|I have been having issues with Windows XP:
|
| I noticed in the past few days when my computer wakes up from sleep mode
| that the normal sound that is played tends to skip(much like a record that
| has been scratched). My computer also seems to have been running slower as
| well and I have antispy and mccaffe virus on it.
| This am I went to wake my computer up from sleep mode and was faced with a
| black screen that would not go to my normal windows login screen. I
| proceeded to hard boot the computer(meaning turn it off and wait briefly
| before turning it back on). It started loading as normal and it gets to the
| splash screen then after a few seconds it flashes to a blue screen(I believe
| it has something on it as I do see some black amongst the blue) but the blue
| screen doesn't even stay up for me to read, it immediately goes to the black
| screen which I am assuming it is restarting the computer just to repeat the
| same sequence again asking me this time if I want to boot in safe mode or
| normal mode. I pick safe mode but it does the samething it does in normal
| mode. I printed some information off the HP site on how to create a recovery
| disk if needed without going into windows. I was going to go ahead and try
| that but was wondering if anyone has any ideas what is going on.
| I am debating on whether it is windows xp, the hard drive, or both. Really
| hoping it is windows xp because I really don't want to format the hard drive
| since i have several pictures of my child at various ages on it that I would
| like to save somehow(if I can ever get into windows I plan to promptly burn
| those pictures to a cd).

Go to Microsoft downloads and search for "msdart50val.msi.
This is the Microsoft free version of ERD Commander (MS bought it)
The "msi" file will make a folder on your computer that will have an ISO file in it.
Use the "ISO" file to make a bootable repair disk with ERD Commander on it.
ERD Commander will boot and run totally off the CD drive. You can use it to do a system restore
back to when your laptop was working. Or you can use it to copy files from the hard drive. Since
you will be running off the laptop CD, you will have to copy your files to a USB flash drive.

I have used ERD Commander for several years (paid $150) and it is a great tool for repairing
non-starting Windows XP machines and/or copying files off to another storage.