My DELL 4100 with a PowerLeap processor only will boot to the "welcome" screen with our profile icon. When I click on the Admin or our profile icon I get a "processing settings" message then a shot on the monitor of my screen's wallpaper without icons, then the computer reverts to the "welcome" screen again with "saving settings" as a message.

At one point I got the error CMOS is low.

Tried CMOS reset and a new coin cell battery. No diff.

Tried booting from the XP Pro CD and I keep getting the Welcome screen problem.

I believe this might be related to a Registry cleaner I use because a second computer I own must be started twice now for it to boot properly. Yes, I RAN the same registry cleaner on the second computer as well.

I do have a backup of the System on a portable hard drive.

I just don't believe it's a MOTHERBOARD or software reinstall issue.

Ideas? Thanks.Will it boot in Safe Mode?

Did you take a backup of the registry before using the registry cleaner?No and yes.

Won't boot to safe mode.

And the back-up is on a external hard drive.

Can't fig. how to get it to boot via my busted computer.More DETAILS...
What cleaner ?
What happened prior to this ?RegCure.

Installed a fan for the case that powers off the 4 pin power cable. It's been running for 3 days.

Removed Rhapsody software using the windows ADD/Remove.
Ran the RegCure.RegCure although not for the weak and timid does make a backup automatically...have you tried restoring any of these ? ?
It's a powerful tool not to be taken lightly.I wish I could restore.

Can't get the machine to load settings succesfully for me to ACCESS the programs.

I boot the computer and the profile icons show on the blue Welcome screen. I click on the profile for Admin. or my own and the dialogue is: loading settings, then a shot of only my wallpaper/background and in 3 seconds the Welcome screen displays again with: saving settings. I'm left with the Welcome screen only. This same thing happens when I boot in safe mode.

PSU issue?You could try booting from your XP cd and going to the recovery console.

From there you may be able to use reg.exe to restore your registry to the backup copy that you have.

http://www.petri.co.il/reg_command_in_windows_xp.htm
See here for an explanation of reg.exeTried booting from the XP Pro CD and I keep getting the Welcome screen problem. Yes, I set the Bio for boot from CD Drive.

Getting my RegCure registration key # so I can email their support.

Does it seem like it could be a PSU unit problem or Motherboard problem?
I remember getting the CMOS low battery warning in the middle of work.Sounds like a CLEAN install is in order. If you can, pull the drive, slave it to another system & get your data. Reinstall to original system and do a clean install.

Alan <>< Strange that you get the Welcome screen when booting from CD. Try going into the BIOS, then setting first boot device to cd, and all other boot devices to disabled.

If that fails, I would try a reinstall on a different hard disk (if you have one spare) like Alan says. You can then recover all your data by connecting your old disk as a second drive.

This will also rule out (or in) hardware faults.Big thanks to you all! Got home and worked at getting the machine to boot from the CD. Had to change settings in the BIOS IDE settings to get a boot from the XP Pro CD. Did a Repair and update of SP2.
We are at peace now.Good Job !
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