Why can't I boot into safe mode? What could be the cause? My computer is new. No problems that I know of. I just wanted to check some things in safe mode but no go. Why???????????

What OS do you have? Since you said it's new, I'll assume it's XP.

There are two ways to do this:

The most common is to reboot your computer and then repeatedly hit F8 while it's booting up.

The other way to to go to Start, Run, type in msconfig, and click OK. When the System Configuration Utility window comes up, click the BOOT.INI tab, select SAFEBOOT, and then OK. You will get asked to reboot and when you do, it will come up in Safe Mode.

When you're done in Safe Mode, go back to msconfig and remove the checkmark from SAFEMODE.

wow dlh, got it in one there, lol im curous though, what did u try when attempting to go in to safe mode ingetborg? and if it wasnt working with F8 then dlh, what could b the cause 4 tht?

Danniboy.

If you're trying F8 and it's not working, it's most likely a matter of timing. I prefer the msconfig route myself, I've never even tried the F8 (but that is the most common way).

I hit f8 and get into the screen with safe mode and all the other modes you can use but when I go into safe mode it reboots and then comes back to the screen of f8 and not into safe mode.

Try msconfig and see if it will work that way.

Oh yeah, I tried the msconfig way and now it just keeps going in circles. I can't get the dang thing to boot back up because the dang box is checked. Now what do I do?????????????????????????????????????????????????????
I should have known better than to have checked that box.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'going in circles,' does it keep rebooting itself? You can't get into msconfig to uncheck SAFEMODE?

Can you boot to your XP CD? (Still assuming you have XP)

It would go to the choice screen and I would try safe mode and it would boot then come back and start all over. I did a reinstall ahhhhh and then reinstalled all software. I found out it was a software issue. Nero (InCD4) was the culprit. I had to spend a lot of time finding it but that is what caused it. I don't know why but it did. I uninstalled it and safe mode worked. I reinstalled and safe mode quit. I uninstalled and now safe mode works again. HMMMM> :mad: I don't have Nero any longer.

That's interesting... I wonder if Nero or Microsoft are aware of this problem...

Glad you got it figured out and thanks for letting us know what it was in case it comes up again

By the way, there's nothing wrong with using msconfig to boot into Safe Mode (usually), that's what the option is there for.