I have an old Dell inspiron8200 laptop with WinXp sp3. I don't have startup disks etc. because I got its hard drive and original unit used and set up by my computer tech. (edit: Actually, I just found a Reinstallation CD of M\Windows xp Pro SP3) that an acquaintance gave me last year!) I actually replaced the original unit with a second 8200 from ebay and put the old drive in it. The newer unit's drive was locked, and I didn't know how to unlock it but it did run until it reached the unlock password prompt. I have been using this newer unit for ~ a year.

~ ten days ago, I got a Failure to load windows message. It said perhaps due to bad shutdown or power failure etc. It gives the dos command options to try Safe mode, Windows normally etc. I tried various permutations and finally after perhaps 10-15 tries, I got windows to load. I suspected that success had to do with removing and resetting a cd/dvd drive. I didn't have problems until today when I got a repeat problem. The problem is always the same. I get a Windows startup display and four passes of the square dots showing booting activity, and then the warning screen. When I originally finally got it to load, I observed that the next pending loading action would have been with the wide blue bar running across the lower portion of the screen.

Does anyone have an idea of what I might do to fix this myself? Obviously, I can take it to the tech if I can't handle it on my own. I mentioned the other locked drive because I thought it might be useful somehow. (well: with the reinstallation cd, I guess things will be easier. But I don't actually know how to use it so your advise is still needed. The acquaintance gave me two reinstallation disks: an xp and an unneeded Vista. They are in a jacket from microsoft that might be for one of these that has a code of some sort. The jacket also mentions the os Certificate of Authenticity and that remends me that I have two 8200s. Will it matter which COA I use? Actually, I suspect my tech may have used some industrial 10 pac or something to load the original 8200 if that is an issue).

This post was edited by chas045 on Tue, Aug 20, 13 at 16:53