problem with windows xp on second hand computer

duleekboy

got hold of a second hand pc the other day wiith windows xp installed no cd supplied

worked ok for a few times and updates seemed to work

but now a new welcome screen appears with user and adminstrator log on it doesnt matter what i click it says loading personal settings then i get a windows page blank and then it returns to welcome page and logs me off

any ideas? tried booting in safe mode but eventually led me to same page

Anti

This is a really weird one. Never head of this sorry

duleekboy

http://www.winxptutor.com/wsaremove.htm

scroll down to log on log off loop part

this looks like the problem... next problem is no windows disc

if i use a different windows disc for my other computer will it work?

Anti

ive done it before, just do a repair install, As it will only replace the corrupt/damaged files

MADPhil

When you see a shop selling reconditioned computers, particularly laptops, they always seem to have XP installed, even when they're a good few years old. They must install XP to make the machine seem up to date, but it concerns me that the old computer might not have enough memory or processing power to run XP satisfactorily. Think I'd rather buy an old computer with an OS on it which matches its age.

Gadgetman496

When you F8 to go to the "Safe Mode" screen, do you get an option to use "Last known good configuration"?

If you do? use it.

aFlabbyPanda

MADPhil wrote:

When you see a shop selling reconditioned computers, particularly laptops, they always seem to have XP installed, even when they're a good few years old. They must install XP to make the machine seem up to date, but it concerns me that the old computer might not have enough memory or processing power to run XP satisfactorily. Think I'd rather buy an old computer with an OS on it which matches its age.

The place where I work usually does this for 2 reasons. 1 XP normally has all the drivers whereas win2k wouldnt & people (ie joe public) have it in their head that anything less then whats being spoken about on TV is out of date. All they want to know is if it has xp or whatever, not what cpu etc.

SouperComputer

MADPhil wrote:

When you see a shop selling reconditioned computers, particularly laptops, they always seem to have XP installed, even when they're a good few years old. They must install XP to make the machine seem up to date, but it concerns me that the old computer might not have enough memory or processing power to run XP satisfactorily. Think I'd rather buy an old computer with an OS on it which matches its age.

Granted, but XP is 5 years old!

Gadgetman496

SouperComputer wrote:

Granted, but XP is 5 years old!

It's hard to believe it's 5 since Wednesday last 25th October.

Extract from TechPowerUp

Happy birthday XP!
Today, 5 years ago, Microsoft released Windows XP as a replacement of the not so well-liked Windows ME. Starting with only two versions, Pro and Home, Microsoft quickly conquered quite some platforms with its "experience" operating system. Nowadays Windows XP can be found on desktops, tablet PCs, media centers, Itanium, x86-64 and even on servers in the form of Windows 2003 server.
With 17 million copies sold within the first two months and 100 million copies currently active legally Windows XP takes a huge marketshare. It is even said that there are five times as much copies active when including illegal installations.
Vista will have a hard time equaling XP, we'll see five years from now.