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Unable To Access Safe Mode

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by tiervis

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Hi
Right from the very begining my pc, using windows xp home, didn't want to access safe mode. Every time I tried to access safe mode the pc will start up windows and then just reboot. I thought I'll be clever and use msconfig to do a safe mode start by checking safeboot under boot.ini

Now my pc does not even want to start in normal boot. It just keeps on rebooting while starting up. A windows Repair did not help.
Is there any way to uncheck or fix the safeboot in msconfig from the recovery console?

8 replies

by older mycroft

...as you say "Right from the very beginning".??? What was the reason you needed Safe Mode?

When it boots now, how far does it get before resetting?

You mentioned "from the beginning" but how long ago was that?

by tiervis

Thanks for the reply!
Well, I'ts been doing it for as long as I can remember, so I can't say which programme, driver or hardware could be responsible. I've installed many programmes prior and after the first time I've noticed that I'm unable to access safe mode.

The reason I wanted to use safe mode in the first place, was because I had difficulty installing a pacth for a pc game. Knowing that nothing is wrong with the patch, I wanted to try and install it in safe mode. Untill I checked the safemode box under boot.ini, the pc started perfectly in normal mode

The pc boots up to the first Microsoft Windows XP loading page, then reboots.
When using F8 when starting, I also tried the option not to restart on failure. This time it loads to the exact same place, before crashing into a blue screen saying IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Not sure how long ago was "the beginning". Maybe 3 months.

by older mycroft

Do you have a stable black screen & white text page from which to choose an option?

If you do, choose to "Boot Last Known Good Configuration" - or have you already failed with this option?

by john ebear

As the title implies, I am far from expert (definition of an expert is ?X? being an unknown quantity and ?spert? being a drip under pressure, sorry about that), but the error code IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL has always been a sign of a bad device driver / hard drive failure, at least in my limited experience. Good luck, John

by tiervis

The F8 Text screen is working just fine. I've also tried all the available options, but they all fail.
I read somewhere that it is possible to make a bootable floppy using your own customized boot.ini file. Do you think I might be able to access windows if I try this?

by older mycroft

But not much is comin' through.

Sounds like drive failure to me. Sorry, but I'm not the one to advise about custom boot.ini's.

Somebody far more proficient than me will probably be along in a minute or two.

Best of luck.
EOL

by tiervis

I've managed to access my pc in normal mode by making a bootable floppy with the ntdetect.com, ntldr and boot.ini files on it. I've unchecked the safeboot option under msconfig. Now, I'm at least able to use my pc as normal again, except that I still can't use safe mode. Do you have any recommendations?

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