HELP! Windows XP gone bad..

[ChuEy826]

I need some help pretty badly. Any suggestions are welcome. Heres what happened: Basically my friend's laptop had been slowing down considerably lately, and I was thinking adware might have had something to do with it, so I had him install a detector. The program is called "Bazooka Scanner" and works great.. basically what it does is it just detects what kinds of adware you have, and gives you step by step directions to get rid of them completely. It does not get rid of them for you. Anyways, he tried to follow the steps, but got lazy and sorta cut corners. The directions usually tell you to restart the computer in safe mode, and mess with files with the regedit. Instead, he just went into regedit w/o going into safe mode, and started clearing house. Now windows won't go past the light blue "welcome" screen (oh how I hate that screen now:mad. No icons pop up where you would usually select a user, and enter a password.

Hes got windows XP home edition, and he bought the laptop from tigerdirect refurbished.. so it didn't come with any backup CDs.. not even a manual. If anyone has any ideas on how to just get past this damned "welcome" screen, please let me know. I've been at this for hours.. can't get anything to work. Thanks for your help.

 

[Dexter]

...
can you boot in safe mode?

was system restore enabled?

i also think you are SOL. ktxh.

 

[Matthew]

can you get into safe mode? if you cant get anywhere, you can try to use the disc to "repair" the installation, but that s*** has never worked for me. at best, looks like you have to reinstall.

edit: i see no discs. sucks.

 

[CatD399]

i think f8 or some other key allows you to choose the startup mode (f4 maybe??)... you'll probably have to use a restore on that one....

as for adware: spybot in conjuction with ad-aware seems much better (everything is semi-automatic)

Good luck

 

[ChuEy826]

nope.. safe mode brings the same results. I told him to wait for me to do it.. but he got bored and started messing around with it himself. Damn.. so does that mean reformat time?

 

[BeNegative]

nope.. safe mode brings the same results. I told him to wait for me to do it.. but he got bored and started messing around with it himself. Damn.. so does that mean reformat time?

(hand)

 

[Dexter]

You can try installing windows over itself. get in, back up your data, and then wipe the drive and install.

 

[Mr. 4500 RPM]

well you have two options, if you have windows xp cd's, and that is you can reinstall windows without deleting anything. or reformat. why not try and contact tigerdirect see if theyl set you up with restore cd's. companies usually do this. my friend had problems with his toshiba laptop and only thing i say possible was a reformat since it was so messed up. he lost them so he called toshiba and 3-4 business days he had the cd's for free except for shipping. well best of luck, i have a laptop and ive reformated many a time kinda blows but i have s*** luck sometimes.

 

[Dexter]

if you bought the computer with the OS on it you also legally paid for the software and should have been provided a key. just download a copy of XP and use your legal key.

 

[AndrewF150]

This is why you don't **** with your registry(now called a Hive in XP) unless you know what your doing, plus you ALWAYS back it up! Takes but a few seconds!

I would suggest having him use the Emergencie Repair Disk he should have made, which includes the boot files...which that is what sounds like got ****** up. Um...basically the NTLDR file and its late so I can't remember the other 2 off the top of my head. But I doubt he made one....so

The best/only thing to do is get a copy of XP Home toss it in and boot from the CD. Than do an in place installation/repair. However make sure you do not use the ASR(Automated System Recovery) option that the CD will give you....it doesn't work. Just go ahead and select the partition and tell the CD to install itself on it. It will than do a repair on its own that actually works.

Good luck!

 

[joepro]

can you get into safe mode? if you cant get anywhere, you can try to use the disc to "repair" the installation, but that s*** has never worked for me. at best, looks like you have to reinstall.

edit: i see no discs. sucks.

Actually, repairing works. You need to boot with your Windows XP CD. You can then choose between repairing and installing. Choose installing. When it detects your current windows installation, you'll have the option to repair it instead of doing a fresh install. Works like a charm. All your programs and settings will be kept.

 

[ChuEy826]

OK guys, heres the thing. Hes got Windows XP home, and a legal CD key, but we don't have a windows XP home CD. We do have a Windows XP Pro CD. Will it still work?

Also.. whats the fastest / easiest way to back up the registry? I'm usually pretty good with computers n stuff, but I haven't ever looked into the deeper functions of Windows. I just build computers and make em' look pretty. Don't know much about how programs work too well lol.

 

[Mr. 4500 RPM]

home and prof xp are similar small changes if any at all there were relativly small changes if i remember so it should....just repair who knows ive never had one then tried with another....so sorry

 

[pluto316]

home and prof xp are similar small changes if any at all there were relativly small changes if i remember so it should....just repair who knows ive never had one then tried with another....so sorry

You can't enterchange the two. Pro has multi-processor support, higher RAM support, and isn't completely retarded on a network.

 

[ChuEy826]

You can't enterchange the two. Pro has multi-processor support, higher RAM support, and isn't completely retarded on a network.

I dunno.. I'd say windows as a whole is retarded on a network.

So I guess this means that my friend's CD-Key isn't going to work on XP Pro since its for XP home?

 

[Mr. 4500 RPM]

i have an xp pro cd key if you need... not sure if you do but its the generic one many people have from burnt copies of xp BUT it wors well so no worries pm me if you need ill need to go home and get the cd i beleive but if you need hit me up

 

[fLyPiNoY7]

there is a way...but i shall not say anything here...

 

[yourfather_luke]

just install a different version (i.e. pro in this case) to a unique directory on your HD- basically call it c:\xppro or something. install 'fresh' there. you'll have a working copy of the OS which you can boot to then traverse your HD for all data needed. Back that s*** up. After you have what you need, I'd suggest reformatting your drive(s) then re-installing another fresh copy.

 

[katsmp3]

either repair or

start press F8
choose Last Known Good Confirguration

 

[Moeed]

Get a copy of a knoppix live cd and put it on a network. Use the smbmounter and move the files over to anohter puter.