There's three safe modes.

SAFE MODE
SAFE MODE WITH NETWORKING
SAFE MODE WITH COMAND PROMPT

SAFE MODE

OK, it brought me to the icon screen, only now it has another name. It has my desktop name, and one called "Administrator"

Mine or Admin?

Admin if you know the password

Goddamnit. I clicked on Admin but it's taking a shit long time to load. Can I do the restore on MY name? After all, that's where the problem is.

WHAT THE FUCK.

Admin brought me back to the icon screen, I clicked on mine, and all it did was

"Loading settings...."

"Saved settings..."

What the fuck is wrong.

If anyone can possibly help, I am on a strict time limit here.

If you have an Xp setup cd-rom. Do it in your drive. Restart computer. It will ask for Setup/Restore/Exit. Do Restore, and see where the ship ends.

When Restore doesn't come up, make sure you have Bios correctly edited. First boot must be Cd-Rom in stead of 0 (or something with an ZERO in it).

Hope it works

So put the CD in, then restart, and it will come up automatically?

I found a Compaq disk that says "Compaq System Recovery: Windows XP HOme Edition Disc 1"

Is this it?

I have less then 45 minutes left. :p

Where's your brother? Can HE log in okay?

DirectX and stuff like that should be installed by a global admin account. I'm surprised it let you install it.

And, how are you talking to us right now if you can't log in?

My brother's PC, in his room. I want to use MY PC. Can you help me pleeease, Geoff. :p I'll go outside to shovel, I'll be back in a little.

1) What happened when you tried booting into Safe Mode?

2) Where you able to try booting from the CD?

(Now I gotta wait an hour for you to shovel...? :p )

1: I clicked the "Admin" name and it just said "Loading" and after a while it went back to the page with the login names. Samething when I clicked on my name.

2: I couldn't find a Windows XP CD itself, just about 5 Compaq CDs, but theor System Recovery was mentioning backing up files and shit so I put them back. I'm off to go shovel again.

Comcrap should've given you an XP install disc. Keep looking... you may have to call them up.

OK, give me STEP BY STEP instructions on what to do, press, and click for when I do find it, I'm off to go outside again.

When I had my POS Compaq Presario, they did not give me the Operating System (Windows 98). The only thing it came with was the "Restore CD".

I'm gonna take his word for it, since I never had to restore from CD...

If your computer doesn't boot from CD, you'll have to go into the BIOS. Scary shit, so don't fuck it up! Print this out. It goes something like this:

IF YOUR COMPUTER DOESN'T BOOT FROM CD:

1) Put the XP CD in your cd-rom drive, and remove any floppy discs.

2) Reboot, and when it starts up again, hit the DELETE key until you get into the BIOS/CMOS setup screen.

3) Use the arrows to highlight the section that is entitled something like ADVANCED CMOS and hit Enter.

4) On this page, there should be the order in which your computer boots up from, i.e., Floppy, CD, then main Hard Drive (HDD-0). If it's set like that, it should've worked to begin with if there was no Floppy in the drive. If the HDD-0 is first, and then the CDROM, you'll have to switch them so the CDROM boots before the HDD.

5) Arrow down to the first boot device, and make sure it is Floppy or CDROM. If it's not, then hit Enter (I believe) to bring up your options. Arrow to CD or Floppy, then hit enter again. Do this until the order is one of the following:

FLOPPY
CDROM
HDD-0

CDROM
FLOPPY
HDD-0

6) After that change, hit ESC key to return to main menu.

7) DON'T BE TEMPTED TO CHANGE ANY OTHER SETTINGS!

8) Arrow over to SAVE AND EXIT, and confirm.

9) The computer should reboot, from CD.

10) If MM Floors is correct, there should eventially be a RESTORE option. I don't know what that does, but give it a shot.

Ewwww! Okay, ignore all that then if you don't have an XP disk!

Okay, now...

Here's an article with instructions:

Restoring when Windows XP cannot start normally

When you are unable to get to the Windows XP desktop, use one of the two following sections to restore Windows XP to a previous time:

1. Turn on the computer.

2. At the Compaq logo screen, repeatedly press the F8 key, until a Windows Advanced Options menu opens.

3. Press the DOWN ARROW key until Safe mode-Command Prompt Only is highlighted.

4. Press Enter and continue through any informational screens that pop-up.

5. When the command window opens, type:

c:

and then press Enter.

6. From the C:\> prompt type:

cd c:\windows\system32\restore

7. Press Enter, then type:

rstrui

8. Press Enter. Use System Restore as normal to return the system to a previous restore point.

--

There is other info on that page if you don't have any restore points, etc.

Tell us how far you get, how you got there, and what errors you've gotten.

If you must call HP/Compaq Support:

Compaq Presario PC products
800-OKCompaq
or
800-652-6672

(24 hours a day; 7 days a week)

HP and Compaq products
800-HP invent
or
800-474-6836

(24 hours a day, 7 days a week for most products)

After you're back to your desktop, you should run DXDIAG and go thru the tests:

1) Choose Run under the Start menu
2) Type dxdiag
3) Page through and take all the tests, and note any problems it tells you about. (You can ignore any of the "unsigned" errors, but make a note of them anyway - there could be updates).

You may then want to consider updating your audio/video drivers:

From MS DirectX FAQ :

Safe Mode Command Prompt brought me to the icon screen. It didn't bring me anywhere I can type.

That doesn't make much sense - try it again?

As for the Comcrap Restore CD, what is it asking you to do? That is the CD they'd tell you to run most likely...

My brother fixed it. :p

By any chance can anyone tell me why my PowerDVD 4.0 now refuses to play my movies? It says "error"

probably because its porn :p :p :p

probably because its porn :p :p :p [/b][/quote]I've been there my friend. It's a no go nowadays.

For goodness sake, login if you can! You've gotten this far!

Hopefully you have admin priviledges on your login, and then you should be able to perform a restore. They don't take long, and should fix up your PC. Also, you might want to rollback your video/directX drivers.

I'm concerned as to what you were doing upgrading DirectX, how you did it, etc. You might also need to update your graphics cards manufacturer drivers as well.

Keep us up to date, I'll be checking back on this thread.

Regards,
Double-J

Don't worry, I'm fixed. :p

I just need help fixing PowerDVD. I have the right drive selected, it just won't play a movie.

WTF was the solution?

And, YTF did you need PowerDVD updated to begin with?

:p

I'm two versions behind. It's all solved, Don't worry. I'm restored. :p

Yeah, but what is the solution? I know a lot about computers (so why you post only twice in this treat???: well, that's because of the fact I'm Dutch. When I have to translate all things I'm busy for a whole day)and I want to know how your brother fixed it.

When the same happens to me I can fix it with a whole lot of time spare.

So please....give the Solution!