Basic Troubleshooting - Boot Problems
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Author: Tony Stockill
Article source: http://www.selfseo.com/. Used with author's permission.
For many of the procedures mentioned here, you will need to be an administrator, or have administrator privileges.
Having established in the first part of basic troubleshooting that your computer is powered on, the next thing to check is if it boots up normally. We will be talking about Windows XP here, but earlier versions are similar.
The first thing to establish, when you have a problem booting, or even if it appears to boot normally, is if you have recently changed anything. Have you installed more memory, a new hard drive etc., or new software?
Maybe you downloaded some software, or MP3s, or a movie? You stand a good chance of downloading a virus, along with your music!
If you are having a problem booting your system, it may help to boot up in 'Safe Mode'. Safe Mode is a method of booting the system with only the drivers required to run the basic system.
You will be able to use your keyboard and mouse but will see only a basic vga display, and have no network connections etc. This can help, for example, if you had installed a new piece of software, or a new device which requires a different driver.
It may be that the software is not compatible with Windows XP. This should not happen with newly developed software, but does happen.
Another possibility is that the registry has become corrupted, in which case you can go back to a previous state. This is called 'Last known good configuration'.
To boot up in Safe Mode, or 'last known good' restart your computer, and, when the message 'Please select the operating system to start' appears, press the F8 key, (located on the top row of the keyboard). You may need a couple of goes to get this at the right time.
The screen will now show a list of options, select 'use last known good configuration' and hit Enter. The system will retry the boot. If all is well it should boot up ok.
You should now remove whatever you just installed. (Start - Control Panel - Add or Remove Software). Select the item to be removed and follow the instructions. You may be asked to reboot. It is a good idea to do this anyway.
In part 2 we look at what to do next if this did not work. We will boot the computer in Safe Mode.
If the system still does not boot after the above, try to boot in 'Safe Mode' Restart, and use the F8 key as before. This time select 'Safe Mode' and hit Enter. The screen displays a list of drivers and then continues with the boot process.
If you arrive at the basic desktop, the boot has gone OK. 'Safe Mode' will be indicated in each corner of the screen, and the icons will probably appear larger than normal. This is because only a basic video driver is being used, instead of your high speed video card!
Having successfully booted, we can assume that the problem was with one of the drivers which were left out due to Safe Mode. You should be able to determine which driver is causing the problem.
What was the last action you performed? Maybe you downloaded an update for your video card, and selected the wrong version! In this case you can go to Device Manager (Start - Control Panel - System - Hardware Tab - Device Manager).
In this example of the Video Card Driver, expand Display Adapters, right click on your device and select Properties. Under the Driver tab select Rollback Driver.
This will replace the driver with the previous version. You will now need to reboot by following the prompts, and your system should now operate as before.
For other drivers, the procedure is the same.
If you can boot in safe mode, but can't resolve a the problem further, or if you still have stability problems, go to the next step.
If you have recently installed software, even if you have removed it again, it is worth performing a System Restore.
'System Restore' is a function introduced in Windows Millenium Edition, or ME (possibly the only good point!) In windows XP it is more automated, in that many updates and installs set a 'restore point' before installing.
The restore point is a snapshot of various system registers etc., which can be re-instated if a problem with the system occurs.
The restore point can be set manually by the user, for example before installing or updating software, go to the Help Center as described below.
To invoke System Restore go to Start - Help and Support - System Restore. (To set a restore point choose Create a restore point).
Select 'Restore my Computer to an Earlier Time'. Next you are shown a calendar with the dates of recent restore points highlighted. Selecting one of these, displays a note of what points are available.
Choose the latest time when you know your system was operating correctly, then click Next. Follow the instructions and the restore will proceed. After the system reboots, you system should be back to normal.
Tony is an experienced computer engineer. He is currently webmaster and contributor to http://www.what-why-wisdom.com . These articles may be seen at http://www.what-why-wisdom.com/computertroubleshooting-2.html . RSS feed also available - use http://www.what-why-wisdom.com/Educational.xml