Hello,

I am TRYING to help my friend fix their computer. It's a Dell Latitude D620 with Windows XP Professional.


The first time I started it, everything loaded and the DESKTOP displayed...then the computer froze.

I shut it down and tried to start it in SAFE mode. The computer got hung
up at windows\system32\config\system. So, I held the power button down
and restarted the computer.


I tried to start the computer again normally. After a few seconds the
splash screen froze. After a few minutes, I hit F8. The Advanced Options
Menu came up. I selected to load the last known good configuration. The
computer restarted again and the Advanced Options Menu displayed again.
This time I chose Start Windows Normally.

Once again, it is frozen on the splash screen.

I thought I'd better ask for help before I dig myself into a deeper hole. I would also like to know if it's okay to hold the power button down to shut the computer off until I figure out what to do or will that just make things worse? Thanks! If you still have your WinXP SETUP disc, you could try to do an Automated Startup Recovery.