Windows XP crashing on startup

bunglemark2

Evening all
Had a problem with the brother's laptop, a couple of years old running Windows XP. Thing is, it blue screens at startup.
I can't even insert the backup CD with XP on it that came with the laptop as it doesn't do anything. No option to boot from the CD or anything.
I'm getting fatal error messages c000028 Registry File Failure right after the Windows screen, then it blue screens and dies.
Any suggestions ?

Capt'n Midnight

depending on the brand of laptop pressing F12 may give you a boot menu

or pressing Esc / F1 / F2 / Del my give you an option to go to setup / bios to change a setting that lets you boot from the CD


the CD will only help you with a reinstall, you would need to install drivers too
if the disk is a factory image then it won't help you with the install.


if the computer has diagnostics then use them to check the hard drive is OK

one way of possibly repairing it is to use a linux boot disk to copy a set of backup registry files from c:\system volume information to the appropiate folder. If you don't understand what that means then don't try it as corrupting the registry is Game Over.

woolymammoth

It's probably not asking to boot off the CD because the BIOS settings are letting the hard disk go first. If you can, get into the BIOS and change the boot priorities to allow the disc drive go first.

You can also try booting into safe mode, (tap F8 immediately after the BIOS screen) but if it's the system registry that's corrupt you'll probably be out of luck! You can try a Live CD like UBCD 4 Win, it's windows based and has a lot of tools, some for attempting registry repair. Even if a registry repair fails, you can still use it to get your data off the computer before you try reinstalling windows, or repairing windows..

old_aussie

give us a few clues so we can help you.

make and model of laptop please