trouble starting up

[levi]

hey i have laptop with windows xp.

i recently did a windows update and the next day i went to start it up and it started the windows xp loading screen, then it will shut down and restart and keep doing that.

i will try to start it in safe mode and it lists a bunch of files and then restart.

i tryed to start at the last good configuration and it does the same thing.

i can always reinstall the os, but i want to backup my data cause i have school reports and other things.

can anyone tell me what may be going on

thanks for any help.

[Alan2273]

First try safe mode with command prompt

Be sure to log on to the computer with the account that has administration privileges.

Enter the following in to the command prompt:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

Press Enter on your keyboard.

Follow the onscreen instructions to restore your computer to an earlier state.

If that fails try a repair install, just follow this walkthrough that Chris did, it works because I have tried it.

http://forums.windowsforum.org/index.php?showtopic=10455

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

... but i want to backup my data cause i have school reports and other things.

Once you have recovered your system, please take a backup on a regular basis.

[Greggg]

I need to chime in here too. I have a Windows XP system. I just upgraded my motherboard so that I could try using 8X AGP cards. So, I have this Ti4800 SE card and, with windows XP it seems to be doing just fine.

Now, I want to sell a Microsoft joystick, a Sidewinder. And I want to make sure that it still works correctly. I used to use the Joystick while playing a game called Starlancer- with windows 98se. Windows XP doesnt support the sidewinder.

So, I had made an extra harddrive, a 10 gig one. This with my 4X AGP card. I loaded Starlancer onto it, and the drivers for the joystick. Then, whenever I got the urge, I could play the game by just sticking this extra hardrive in and pulling the big, windows XP drive out.

So, I tried this with this new board. The 8X board.

But windows 98 just keeps re-booting, to the 98 splash screen, then to a black screen, then, reposting like I had just turned the computer on. It does this over and over and......

I pulled the 8X video card and stuck in a PCI video card.--No change.

I pulled my audigy sound card---no change.

I unplugged my DVD burner.--no change.

So, I took out the windows 98 harddrive and replaced it with the windows XP drive.

Now, here I am, with a working system, typing to you guys.

I got an Athlon 2600+

1.256 gig memory.

400 watt PSU

Oh, I reinstalled windows 98 after doing 'secure-erase'-twice!

No change.

My mobo has the latest bios flash according to "Live Update".

And, mobo has the latest 4 in 1 driver setup that I can find.

So, Is windows 98 incompatible with an 8X AGP system?