Windows Xp SP2 loading issue

So, a friend of mine urged me to come here and ask you guys if you could solve my problem. I guess he really trusts you guys with technical issues. Hope you can help.

I just acquired my laptop back from repairs (the left speaker was broken so I sent her in to get that fixed). I also asked the people at AW to format my HD and reinstall windows XP on her as I wanted a fresh start anyway.

I installed everything on her again. Everything worked fine.

I decided to play around with dreamweaver CS3 while listening to music only to have the laptop slow-up and freeze to the point of me using the power button to turn her off. Bad move, apparently.

I tried loading windows again but it took longer than usual. There’s a point in the loading process (from pressing the power button to having your desktop fully loaded) that allows you to press whatever your designated button to access the bios menu and the boot menu. This ‘BIos loading screen’ stays on for a good 5 minutes… which is really awkward as I would rarely have a chance of accessing the bios menu because the loading would be incredibly fast.

Once this occurs I get the standard windows black screen with a few options for booting windows.

Safe Mode
Safe Mode w/ net working
Safe mode w/ command prompt

Windows (last good configuration)

Windows Normally

I tried loading it with my last good configuration and it got to the windows loading screen. The three blue bars scroll around the loading bar and the screen disappears. I assumed windows would load now. It didn’t. Instead I got a black screen. I left it there for a good 30 minutes and nothing. Black screen.

I rinsed and repeated the process but instead chose ‘Start windows normally.’ Nothing.

Third time is the charm, right? Nope. I started with last good configuration again and gave it a 9 hour booting time (I went to sleep). The screen was still black.

At this point I start to worry. Maybe windows has a corrupted file of sorts.

I decided to boot from CD. Same results.

I’m left with no other choice but see if I can boot from safe mode. It worked!

What now? I can only access safe mode… and I really need my laptop up and going.

I’ve never formatted my own laptop before so, as embarrassing as it is, if it comes down to it, please detail how I should go about doing this ;_; Though, I doubt I’d need to. There’s always a way of fixing these sort of issues… I just am not aware of it.

Thanks in advance!

On a side note, I also performed an file system check and the process has been stuck on 1% and 1/5 steps for more than an hour now. I’ll take that as not being particularly normal.

Told them to “re-install windows XP” from what? A generic copy of XP or the disk set that came with the notebook?
1: Remove and re-seat your ram modules. See if that helps.

2: Check that your internal system fan is working and wasn’t disconnected i the repair

Re-seating the ram worked.

I love you, Astro.

oh, windows has loaded but the UI hasn’t. Desktop background shows but the icons and the start bar do not. The mouse pointer shows as well. hmmm…

Reload in safe mode first. Then re-load in normal mode. If you have a busted OS binary it will be easier for the system to repair in safe mode booting

Mods, I’m sorry if this is inexcusable zombification - if so, I’ll start a new thread.

I’m having the exact same problem as the OP, except with a vintage-2003 desktop running SP3. Sadly, however, I am obviously not as adept as Fiction, because I have no idea what ‘reseating the RAM’ means, beyond the ominous sense that this means opening up the mysterious guts of my computer

For what it’s worth, my computer booted up fine this morning, but I noticed that all sound was running only through one speaker. I have my computer wired into my stereo system, so I checked the speaker itself via turning on the radio, which worked fine on both speakers; then I tried tightening up all the connections on the back of my computer, figuring that probably something had gotten knocked. I hit play on my iTunes (which I’d opened earlier to test the sound on different programs rather than just my browser), and it played in stereo for a split second, then froze; about ten seconds later, the screen went black and the keyboard went dead, although the tower itself was humming away as though it was still on. Now, I’ve repeatedly rebooted, restored the system several times to versions from earlier this month, but it still only loads in Safe Mode, or Safe Mode with Networking. The only new program that I installed within the last week was the automatic update to Firefox that installed itself when I first loaded my browser this morning.

Should I be reseating my RAM? If so, what is this, and how do I do it? The fans at the back of my tower seem to be fanning away, so I’d guess that’s not my issue here.