XP no longer boots - gives error "Windows Not Shut Down Correctly"

Greetings to all!

It's been a while since I've posted for help. Be thankful.
(my threads tend to run just a tad long)

Okay.....so here is the story:

Apparently, I will be going over to a friend of a friend's place this evening and looking at some kind of Compaq (yikes!) with XP Pro in it.

Fellow says to me that he goes to use the PC after it had been shut down. He starts it up and it won't boot up at all. Says it keeps giving him choices like normal, safe mode, etc. Says that no matter what he chooses, it ends up restarting itself and giving him a "Windows Not Shut Down Correctly" or whatever it's called, message every time he begins the process. It did this from the time he first tried to fire it up.

He has a 5 year old girl who he thinks might have had a part in it. I guess she has a nasty habits of things when it comes to the machine she plays on. Too young or whatever.

Anyways.....he says his Norton AV is always right up to date (first thing I asked).

Should I be going to the Recovery Console and addressing the MBR or something??? That darn Compaq disk scares the daylights out of me. They have a nasty habit of telling you they are fixing things when, in fact, they are formatting.

Please??????

I know that what I'm asking is a lot. We're all blind on this one right now but how about some starting points for me that just might get the machine up and running again??????

Sincerely, Respectfully, & Thankfully
Randy

 

Thanx, PeteC!

Apparently, he tried to use Safe Mode and no dice. PC just won't boot up. He says before it gets a chance, it ends up restarting itself. This just keeps on happening, no matter what boot method he selects.

If I could just get it into Windows, I'll be sailing.

Randy

 

f8

boot to cmd prompt C:\ & type chkdsk {enter}

 

Rancher,

Thank you so very much! So I would presume that I will be preforming a "ScanDisk" operation on the unit????

I sure do hope that gets me into Windows.

Thanx again.

All possible ideas more than welcome!

Randy

 

yep

scandisk ended with win98se, we now chkdsk. Use the f or r swithch like this c:\chkdsk /f [enter] this will till xp to fix and r will tell xp to repair......................

 

Hi!

Just came back from the PC. No Compaq disk with it at all. Set up for him by a friend of a friend.

Tried everything on Earth to boot. Won't accept even the first of the six diskettes. It throws it right up. No comand prompt available. Went through all the BIOS, etc.

Long story short, it's hooped, big time. Couldn't even format the thing if one wanted to. All components are recognized in BIOS but flags go up at the blue screens like "missing BIOS inf file" and you name it. Different error codes every time you try something.

Folks, we shall just lay this one to rest and let the people who concocted this thing attempt to fix it for him. Personally, I have the feeling that a virus may well have sabotaged the whole thing.

I don't know and am no longer involved with this machine.

Thanx to everyone who posted to me and to those who pondered deeply. As always, it is appreciated more than you know.

Randy

Have a great day!

 

Why not just boot from the XP CD, and choose to repair?

NOT RECOVERY.

Boot to cd.
Wait for this:
To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER. (do so)


You'll see:

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R. (Do NOT choose this one)

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

Press Enter to start the Windows Setup. (Do so)

Then follow along.

Better explained in link above.



*edit*
Oops....looks like we were typing at the same time. Please disreguard.