Gaming XP Desktop Won't boot past Welcome screen

[Rock Raiyu]

The desktop downstairs (which is running XP) won't boot up past the Welcome screen when you turn it on. I sort of know what the problem is, but at the same time, I don't want to reinstall the XP OS because then we have to setup our internet connection all over again which is a pain the ass to setup the wifi because it won't work till hour after hour of labor trying to get it to work. So I'm wondering in there is any other way to fix this. Any help will be appreciated.

 

[FAST6191]

If your wifi is that much of a pain junk it and start again as that is ridiculous.

Back on topic what does safe mode (hold F8 after the BIOS screen ends) do:
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm

Also if you make it into safe mode try disabling startup items one by one (or you can try a few at once if you know what you are doing) with something like a squared hijack free:
http://www.hijackfree.com/en/

 

[Devante]

What exactly happens at the Welcome screen? Does it give an error? Does it just sit there?

Here's what I'd do.

1) Use a boot CD (such as a Windows XP or Bart PE disk) and load up a command prompt/recovery console and then run "chkdsk /r c:"

2) Boot into Safe Mode.

3) Run the following virus cleaners
a. Malwarebyte's Antimalware
b. a-squared Free
c. Spybot
d. HiJack This (look for unusual looking entries)

4) If you recently installed Service Pack 3, uninstall it. Likewise, if you recently installed a piece of hardware, uninstall it.

5) Report your progress here!

 

[Rock Raiyu]

Well it boots up past the Welcome screen but it takes a while for it to get past it. On top of that, the Start toolbar doesn't show up at all. CTRL + ALT + DEL won't show the toolbar.

 

[Maz7006]

Boot into safe mode, done by pressing F8 on startup, after that do a system restore, hopefully things will work. P.S Report back if probs. persist

 

[Rock Raiyu]

System Restore doesn't even boot up.

 

[UltraMagnus]

did you by any chance just install SP3? because I have seen identical behaviour in 4 PCs owned by different people that all had exactly the same problem after installing SP3. I really do wonder if this was a tactic by M$ to get more people to "upgrade" to vista... but, I guess I shouldn't attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity. in any case, the only solution I found was to reinstall windows.

 

[Rock Raiyu]

Nope, it has SP2. But now that I think about it, this all happened after I flashed my 360..

 

[Devante]

Did you try the things I mentioned above?

Also, did you have to install drivers on your PC for the VIA SATA card that is used to flash your XBOX 360?

Try uninstalling them, or, if it's a PCI card, remove it and see what happens.

 

[Rock Raiyu]

Took out the card, I can't uninstall the drivers for the VIA in Safe Mode. Computer still boots up past the Welcome screen with only the background, can't click anything, Start Menu isn't there and there isn't any icons.