For some reason this morning my pc wouldn't start up, it started the first bit saying xp was loading then went blank. Put the xp disk in and tried to repair but now i get a bsod and it won't even boot in safe mode. Any advise as i can't even do a fresh install now.

Computers crashing half way through the start up can be shagged memory. This is one reason why I've got dual boot linux / XP on my system so I can boot into linux if I want to test that windows crashing is due to windows and not a hardware issue.

You could try burning a memtest CD rom and booting of that....

Otherwise XP might need a fresh install.

I can now get it to boot from a cd by changing settings in the bios but it still won't load xp. I don't mind doing a fresh install but i have stuff on there that i need that wasn't backed up.

First thing you should do in these situations is unplug everything from the PC except the monitor and power supply cable and try a reboot, quite often a defective USB device or mouse/keboard can stop a PC booting.

If that dosen't work open the case up and check the drive cables and memory are seated properly.

Tried all that and nothing works. If i install xp to a new HD will i be able to recover my files?

best solution will be to remove the HD. plug it into another pc and copy the files. the prob will come that, the second pc will try to boot from the newly installed HD, to stop this, u will need to change the jumper settings on the back of the HD, and possibly the one in the second PC. it should be explained on the HD itself, but u want the second PC to be set to master, and the HD u want to copy from set to slave.

What message is the BSOD giving you? If you install XP on a different drive and make it Master you might be able to install your old one as Slave and get what you want from it as long as it is not the drive causing the problem. How much memory have you fitted as you may be able to remove a stick at a time to see if it is faulty but usually Bios will spot that at startup.

It says ' A PROBLEM HAS BEEN DETECTED AND WINDOWS HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN TO PREVENT DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER.'

then at the bottom

'TECHNICAL INFORMATION;'

*** STOP: 0X0000007E (0XC0000005, 0XF747D2B2, 0XF789E498, 0XF789E198)

*** FLTMGR.SYS - ADDRESS F747D2B2 BASE AT F7465000, DATESTAMP 480251DA


makes no sense to me.

Reset the bios by pulling the power lead and taking the battery out for a few seconds. Often works. If not then load Ubuntu and use that and if you must have windows installed you should be able to see your files and transfer to another drive/storage device under Ubuntu before sorting out XP .

I only use XP Pro on my laptop where I have some tuning software and Maxsea sat nav which won't run under Ubuntu. On my PC's I run Linux (Ubuntu) only now which seems to be a lot better than the much patched XP Pro for everything else I do!

EDIT:
You can run Linux from a ROM without even having to install to your system if you want to. If you are stuck then let me know and I'll post a disc to you 1st class so you should have it on Tuesday. Just put it in your drive and run Ubuntu from there!

[Edited on 25/9/10 by Strontium Dog]

You might be able to recover most of your data by booting from a bootable Linux CD.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Interestingly An Xp virtual system running as a virtual system using Sun VirtualBox a Mint Linux OS will run every bit of tunning Windows software I have thrown at it.
But it has to be Sun Virtual Box not the community supported GPL version if you connect via a USB dongle.

[Edited on 25/9/10 by britishtrident]

did you try cleaning your computer?

i have seen excessive dust cause this.

Ohh and PSU if you have a compressor and do not want to risk electrocuting yourself

Are/were you running Symantec AntiVirus?

Yes was running symantec but it ran out a few days ago. Can you point me to a download link for linux that i can burn to a disc please. I'll give that a go first. PC is very clean, i clean it alot with an airline.

[Edited on 25/9/10 by Davegtst]

I still can't get this working, i downloaded ubuntu and burnt it to a cd. When i try to boot from it it just goes to xp loading screen then blue screens again. Is there something i need to do to ubuntu before i burn it to a disc?

It works! Using Ubuntu i am now copying all my stuff to disk then reinstalling xp. Somehow the first download didn't work so i downloaded it again. Thanks very much for that tip. One question about Ubuntu, is it much good for gaming? I see there is a 64 bit version too.