windows xp wont load

[crazyoldman]

Windows XP refuses to load. I turn the computer on, and it works completely fine until just after the welcome screen when the desktop should be loading up. Instead, I get a black screen with nothing but the cursor in the center. I can move it around just fine, but the desktop doesn't load. After about 10-15 seconds of idling it restarts itself and repeats what I just described above. So I tried hitting F8 at startup to load from the last known good configuration, and I get the same result. So I tried to go in under safe mode, still nothing. I have no idea what to do to fix the computer. Ideas and suggestions would be VERY much appreciated.

Thanks.

EDIT (after reading the "when posting a problem" thread): I am running Service Pack 1 under XP Home Edition, pre-installed on my HP pre-assembled computer. I do not have a Windows XP cd-rom, nor a startup floppy disk.

[Zachery]

Are you still under warrenty from HP?

[PantherAHA]

HP what???? If the system is older it may not be XP compatable. Or the system may not be ACPI compatible.

[caperjack]

HP what???? If the system is older it may not be XP compatable. Or the system may not be ACPI compatible.

Read the post more carfully ,it allready has xp on it it just stoped booting !!

[dvr]

check and make sure your vid card is seated and your ram.
I had a similer problem and it was the ram.

[PantherAHA]

Windows XP startupdisks can be downloaded from Microsoft, But they won't do that much for you without a windows CD. This does not sound like a hardware issue at all, XP has notorious issues with non compatible drivers. One of the features of XP called "automatically restart" in control panel start up and recovery options is what causes it to restart. Something is not loading unfortunately in order to disable this feature you need to get into windows. And if you disable it you will get a BOSD "blue screen of death" So my question to you is this...what was the last thing you did before this happened?