WinXP Won't Start

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m3incorp

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Time for me to ask a question.....My son is visiting and brought his computer with him. It is about 6 months old AMD 2700+ Compaq running WinXP.

When we turned it on, it shows the Compaq logo (it will not let us access the bios by pressing any of the F keys). After the Compaq screen goes away, about 5 minutes later a message appears that says " Disc error, insert Sytems Disc and press Enter". A young child was messing with his computer before he brought it here, so almost anything could have happened.

He didn't bring his system restore discs otherwise I would try to reboot with them.

I have a WinXP Home Edition that came with another computer. When I insert this disc, the files will download and go to the windows is starting message. It then gives a message that this particuliar disc can't be used and Windows is shutting down to prevent harm to the computer.

Any suggestion as to why I can't get in to the Bios?
Suggestions as to how to get him up and running?

I have removed all cables and reattached.
I have removed memory and reinserted.
Power comes on normally and fans spin.

I have thought about downloading the WinXP start up disc (6) and try booting from them to see what will happen.
 
Yea, I tried every dog gone key on the key board. Tonight when I have time to sit down and take my time, I'll look more in to it. Hopefully I can find a way to get in to the bios so that I can go in safe mode and restore it to a former working configuation.
 
When I think about it, since the computer does see the CD ROM, there is no need to run the 6 set up discs. Just got to figure how to get to the restore points.
 
run the bare minimums in the case. strip the pci bus, unplug extra cdroms, floppy and h/d. Leave only the CD-rom and h/d your doing an install on connected. Try re-seating the memory. try different IDE cables, check jumpers on the hard drive. something hardware related is preventing the machine to POST. NIC cards and modems are notorious for this. So are compaqs.......thats another story :p good luck!
 
SHAWN said:
run the bare minimums in the case. strip the pci bus, unplug extra cdroms, floppy and h/d. Leave only the CD-rom and h/d your doing an install on connected. Try re-seating the memory. try different IDE cables, check jumpers on the hard drive. something hardware related is preventing the machine to POST. NIC cards and modems are notorious for this. So are compaqs.......thats another story :p good luck!

i don't agree... this sounds more like the files are corrupted, they can be replaced from the WinXP cd, or system restore disk, however it is not the same disk you used to install XP it may find conflict in the CDkey thus preventing you from booting from an XP cd other than the one you installed with... depending on what version of XP and what releas it is.

i would stick with the major on this one, although checking your hardware won't hurt... i don't believe it's the problem
 
When trying to fix from the Win XP CD from the other computer its says: Set Up is starting windows.

I then get a blue screen that says XP Setup

The following list show the existing partitions and unpartitioned space on this computer.

Use the UP and DOWN ARROW keys to select an item in the list.
.To set up Windows XP on the selected item, press Enter.
.To create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press C.
.To delet the selected partition, press B.

Then In the box that list the partitions, it shows this:
76317 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on atapi
<setup cannot access this disk>
 
OK, got in to the bios. Still never booted to windows. How do I get to where I can do a safe mode restart and get to the restore points. thanks
 
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