I know this should probably go in the Tech Forum, but nobody checks there anyways.

My computer is as follows...
Windows XP Home
AMD Athlon XP 2500
512 megs of ram
Nvidia GeforceFX 5600 256megs ram
Nforce motherboard
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Audigy 2 soundcard
and it is not, and has never been connected to the internet

thats about all I know about it...

Anyways, the problem is this, when I started the thing up today, it went through the standard boot up stuff, but then it stopped. Apparently an improper shutdown had been detected* and I have 30 seconds to make one of 5 choices...

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with networking
Safe Mode with Command Promt
Boot with last workable confuration settings
Boot normally

Now, it says that if the shutdown was a result of a power faluire or pushing the reset button, or if I wasn't really sure why, I should just start normally. So naturally, I do. This leads to XP coninuing the boot sequence, only to stop and have a blue screen with mass amounts of gibberish to flash on the screen and then restart(this happens when I click on last workable configuration settings as well). This whole process is repeated again, and again, the same thing happening each time.
I have tried booting in each of the various safe modes, only to have a bunch of gibberish command lines scroll down my screen, have the computer pause, and restart. So I'm not really sure what to do here.

*Yesterday, when powering the computer down, I did accidentally turn of the power strip a little early while the computer was still powering down. I think this may be the cause of the problem. I'm not sure how it could effect XP this much though, even windows ME doesn't give me that much trouble.


Well, if you have any solution to this, it would be greatly appreciated, mainly because it is the only computer in the house that can run KotOR, and I am eager to continue my quest...

I would disagree.


Anyway, boot into safe mode, goto control panel, system, advanced, startup and recovery, uncheck automatically reboot. Now boot into normal mode and see if you can get the type of the error and maybe an associated file.

Thats just the problem, I can't even boot into safe mode...

Hrm, it's been awhile, but there's not a "Step-by-step Confirmation" option?

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Try not, do; or do not.

nope, only the 5 options i posted above...=/

Load up your XP disk boot from it and do a repair. I don't recall the exact steps in this but load up the disk and it should guide you to it... I do recall it involves hitting 'R' at some point tho

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"So there I was completely naked and covered in tartar sauce..."

Charlie is going along the same lines I was thinking. Try booting from a disk.

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Have Lightsaber Will Travel JK Editing tips, troubleshooting information, resources and more.
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Reformat.

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http://www.napalmdeathsquad.com

Thanks guys, I got it working. I booted from disk like you said, then went into recovery mode(by pressing R ). From there I was given a DOS Prompt and no further instructions, except to type help for a list of command lines. So I did, and I tried a couple of them that sounded like they had something to do with booting up. One of them couldn't perform their operation and it suggested running chkdsk for errors and other such things. So I did, and now it runs fine and I can get back to playing KotOR.

Thanks again...

Why it probably happened:

Windows, by default, caches file operations. This can improve performance, but if you happen to experience a power loss at a bad time you can run into problems like this.

Generally, keep your foot away from the powerbar. If you feel that you need to completely deactivate your computer, instead flick the switch on the back of your power supply.