I am now at the point of chucking the computer out the window. You won't believe it but I can't get it into safe mode, I can't even find it. I do the constant tapping of the F8 key as soon as it starts to boot up.

I can't even see the bit "Please select the operating system to start, press F8" It goes so damn quick.

What I have managed to glimpse is a choice of F2 Set Up and F11 Boot Menu. My only bit of good news is ...... I have now been in the BIOS Not as bad as I thought it would be.

I don't suppose the F8 option would be in the Boot bit would it ?

Thanks for putting me right about which safe mode to select if ever I get the chance to do it. (sore subject)

Bye for now
Lorraine

Glad you saw the BIOS screen - most of what's in there can be left alone. The good thing is that whatever you do in there, you can always get out of it by exiting without saving any changes. I like things like that!

No, Safe Mode can't be accessed from the BIOS. The BIOS just starts your system, loads a few settings and then hands over to Windows. By the time you start booting into Windows the BIOS has gone back to sleep.

Some systems can be tricky to catch at the right moment. Try this instead:

- Go to start, Run, type msconfig and click OK
- Click the boot.ini tab
- Click the box by '/SAFEBOOT' (you should then see it ticked)
- Click OK
- Go to Start, Turn Off Computer, Restart and you should boot straight into Safe Mode
- When you have finished running in Safe Mode, repeat the above (make sure the tick disapears from the box) and reboot

If you want to throw it out the window then remember that is the one time when the instruction "close all Windows" may be safely ignored.

Hello Mister 2,
You have managed to cheer me up once again. I love your last paragraph ha ha ha. Maybe I won't chuck it just yet.

You little angel, I can see what you mean me to do in msconfig. I will do it tom as it's late now - the birds are grinding their beak because they are tired

Looking forward to tom now.
Night Night
Lorraine & feathered friends

Hiya Mister2

I did as you said with MSConfig, clicked on the safe mode bit and it automatically enabled "minimul" I think that's right. Anyway, rebooted and it went straight into Safe Mode ......... phew, at long last!!

I then ran SeaTools, the small box that comes up saying "Scanning for supported drives, please wait" was still scanning after 44 mins. The second box Sea Tools was blank where the drives should be ?????

Am I not leaving it long enough to find the drives ?

Bye for now
Lorraine

Hooray for finding Safe Mode!
Boo for finding your drive.

It should take less than a minute to find your drive. That concerns me as you only have the one hard drive on your system. I need to get a second opinion on this as I'm not sure why that drive doesn't show up.

I will post back when I get more info.

Hi Mister 2,
I'm causing you more probs

Just wanted to let you know I have the following:

XP PRO (C
DVD Drive (D
DVD-RAM Drive (E
+ a Floppy (A

I don't know how relevant this info is to you.
Thanks a lot.
Lorraine

Thanks - it's always good to know these things.
I must admit I don't know why your drive is not detected, but I'll find out!

Just an update:

I'm going back through this whole thread to see if I missed anything the first time. Whilst doing that (site is slow today so it's taking a bit of time) I thought of something else that may indicate what's going on.

As soon as you have pressed the power button, press the left Shift key and keep it pressed until your system has finished booting up (you could stand a one-legged parrot on the key if you like). You'll know when it has booted up completely as the hard disk light will go out, or just flash occasionally.

Keeping the Shift key pressed should prevent your startup programs from running, so you may find that some (many) things don't work when you do this, but they will come back next time you start up.

Is there an increase in speed when you boot up this way? Could you also run another HiJackThis log (while running in the 'Shift key startup' mode), delete everything after the 'Running Processes' section and post it here. That will show what is still starting up - I'm not an expert in reading the last section so we don't need it.

I'll continue reading back tomorrow.

Amendment to my post above - could you get another Silent Runners log instead of the HiJackThis log I asked for in my previous post?

If you can't find your original download then it is here . It doesn't need installing so there will be no problem having two copies on your system.

Did the parrots enjoy the snow last week?

Hiya Mister2

I have been trying and trying but I can't get it to load via the shift key. It ignores what it should be doing and loads straight into Windows.

What is it about certain keys and my computer ...........

Sorry.
Lorraine

Do you still want me to do another Silent Runers log ?

No, our little darlings don't like the snow at all. They prefer a lovely warm day so they can go out in their play aviary for a while.

Best Wishes
Lorraine

Mister2 wrote:

Amendment to my post above - could you get another Silent Runners log instead of the HiJackThis log I asked for in my previous post? If you can't find your original download then it is here . It doesn't need installing so there will be no problem having two copies on your system. Did the parrots enjoy the snow last week?

Hey!

That's exactly what you should see happen. The difference is that, with the shift key held down, Windows will bypass all your startup programs, and probably load a bit quicker as a result. If you can persevere with this (your finger may start aching, hence the suggestion of using a parrot ...) and get a Silent Runners log then I can compare it to your initial log.

If you can get an idea whether your system feels any quicker when booted in this manner then that would be good - just play around opening programs, running your usual things, creating and saving a document and so on. No online work, though, as your antivirus and firewall may be affected. When you're done simply reboot (Start, Turn Off Computer, Restart) and it will boot again normally.

See - you're too quick to blame yourself when you got it exactly right!

_________________
Never stop learning

No, well I never. I was expecting a black screen again without windows ....... at least I make you smile at my ignorance lol.

I will do it again and send you the info you ask.

I think I have a volunteer to sit on the shift key for me. One of our parrots is sitting beside my keyboard resting on one leg, he must have read your message

Parrots say a quiet night night to you
Lorraine

Mister2 wrote:

Hey! greyfeathers wrote: I have been trying and trying but I can't get it to load via the shift key. It ignores what it should be doing and loads straight into Windows. That's exactly what you should see happen. The difference is that, with the shift key held down, Windows will bypass all your startup programs, and probably load a bit quicker as a result. If you can persevere with this (your finger may start aching, hence the suggestion of using a parrot ...) and get a Silent Runners log then I can compare it to your initial log. If you can get an idea whether your system feels any quicker when booted in this manner then that would be good - just play around opening programs, running your usual things, creating and saving a document and so on. No online work, though, as your antivirus and firewall may be affected. When you're done simply reboot (Start, Turn Off Computer, Restart) and it will boot again normally. See - you're too quick to blame yourself when you got it exactly right!

Hiya Mister2,
Well, what can I say ......... I don't know if the shift key method is working as it booted up with my NIS and SeaTools still is not working. I even tried to disable NIS but it won't let me ?

As I said, I don't know if this method worked or not so I am attaching the results of Silent Runner so you can see.

Do you remember me saying that when I went into Safe Mode via MS Config, it automatically selected the first choice "minimal" or something like that. I think there was 2 other choices. Would one of them be any better.

Oooh, don't I sound technical he he he.

Byeeee
Lorraine

Startup Programs (THEOWNER) 2008-04-14 14.00.20.txt
Description:		Download
Filename:	Startup Programs (THEOWNER) 2008-04-14 14.00.20.txt
Filesize:	20.11 KB
Downloaded:	44 Time(s)

Hi Lorraine,

Sorry to keep you hanging about - work has been like the proverbial quart in a pint pot.
Sometimes I think a parrot's life isn't so bad!

I'm away for a couple of days but I will check through everything when I get back - hopefully there's something obvious I'm missing.