Stuck in Safe Mode

Ugh. I have a pc running xp pro, sp2 that's been acting up (very sluggish, lots of freezes) Ran all the usual scans for probs and came up clean. Nary a virus, trojan, malware, etc. to be found. Decided to try to boot into safe mode to see if the same problems would be evident. Upon restart, the monitor went black, and I couldn't hear any disk activity after the win spash screen. Did a force shut down, and the same thing occurred upon rebooting. The 3rd time I pressed F10 to return to normal startup, and the computer won't let me exit safe mode. Even when I select "normal", the boot sequence is in safe mode. Decided to try to repair the os, and all went well, until the repair rebooted itself and gave me the error message "Windows XP Setup cannot run under Safe mode. Setup will restart now."
I click "ok" and so the cycle continues: the computer reboots, and the same error message appears. Again I hit f10 and tried to choose "normal" startup, but to no avail. I also ran diagnostics on my hardware and its all coming up clean. Any ideas? :confused: Thanks for any help!

Hi,

Can you still get into Safe Mode?
If so RUN
msconfig
Select the BOOT.INI tab and make sure /SAFEBOOT is not checked, then reboot

Elaine :)

Hi, Dunedin!
No, I can not boot into anything! Its so frustrating. When I restart, setup begins automatically and halts with the error message about safe mode, which is displaying as a black screen with safe mode text in the 4 corners. I can't seem to abort the setup (repair) or exit safe mode (by choosing normal startup after pressing f12). Any ideas how to break out of either the setup or the safe mode?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by saslab

Decided to try to repair the os, and all went well, until the repair rebooted itself and gave me the error message "Windows XP Setup cannot run under Safe mode. Setup will restart now."

---

In what way did you try to "repair" XP?

Are you able to boot from your Windows XP CD or is that bypassed?

Doc

I booted from the OS cd, went to install, pressed f8 to accept the terms, and pressed "r" to repair a current installation. It started the process normally, and upon the required reboot to complete installation (no, I didn't click to boot from cd or click "ok" to reboot; I let the pc do its own thing), it started up in safe mode. So when the error appeared, I clicked "ok", the computer rebooted itself, I pressed f12 and selected "normal" startup, and wouldn't you know, I'm locked in safe mode... and setup mode, too!

YAY! I think I've found a way out of this mess! I rebooted from the CD and into the recovery console. I thought I'd see what I could do with the bootcfg command, and voila! I used the command bootcfg /list to see what was in my bootcfg, and copied the information down. Then I entered the command bootcfg /rebuild and reentered the needed info. If you've never done this, and I had not, first you select the windows installation to use and enter the corresponding number (default is "1"); then it asks you to enter the load identified. I typed in "Microsoft Windows XP Professional", without the quotes. Lastly, it prompted for the OS load options. Here I typed in "fastdetect /noexecute=optin", again without quotes. I exited the console, windows restarted, and setup continued normally! Thanks for providing this forum... hope this helps anyone else who gets caught in the same mess! :)

That was very clever of you. Well done! :)

Now, just let me get this straight in my noddle.
As I understand this, the problem all stemmed from being stuck in Safe Mode. You had the bright idea of using the RC to fix the boot.ini (as I suggested checking from within XP earlier)
Please correct if this is wrong.

Elaine

Correct. Since I couldn't boot into safe mode, or normal mode, for that matter, and couldn't abort xp setup, my last ditch attempt was to use the rc... and say a few prayers since I no way qualify as a person who knows what I'm doing... :D

Thanks.

I wonder how it got stuck in Safe Mode in the first place :confused:

Moral of the story
Don`t try a Repair if you are stuck in Safe Mode.

Elaine :)

saslab

You are the man! Among other problems I've created for myself, my last ditch effort was to reinstall XP home on a PC w/ Media XP and then re-install Media XP from it's i386 file I was able to save. I'm not even sure it'll work but I couldnt continue the install until I could get it out of safe mode!

Thank's a bunch.. I'm sure I have more issues ahead..

You're more than welcome! Nice to know I could help. Let us know how it goes.

Okay, this sounds exactly the fix I need. Same situation, everything. But how do I get into recovery console, because whenever I boot from the XP disk, it just says "restarting setup..." and then takes me to the safemode error message?

Hello hxzero and welcome to VirtualDr :)

You have to put the XP installation CD in the drive and then reboot. If you are doing that, at what stage are you getting the error? Is it immediately or after the Windows Licence Agreement? The Recovery Console is the first "R" you come to straight after the files have been copied at the beginning of the process. Have a look at this

Figure 03
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_pro_i..._-_graphic.htm

Disconnect all peripherals and remove all cards except video card
Try cleaning the CD as well.

Elaine

I don't even get any of those screens anymore. If I hit F8 at boot and choose the drive that the XP installation CD is in, it takes me to the light blue screen which says "Windows XP" at the top and this screen reads "Setup is restarting...........". It then gives me the same problem again. Would taking out the disk and trying again help anything?

EDIT: Okay, I can get into recovery console. Taking out the CD and putting it back in helped. Didn't think of that before.

Okay, I'm now doing the fix.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by saslab

YAY! I think I've found a way out of this mess! I rebooted from the CD and into the recovery console. I thought I'd see what I could do with the bootcfg command, and voila! I used the command bootcfg /list to see what was in my bootcfg, and copied the information down. Then I entered the command bootcfg /rebuild and reentered the needed info. If you've never done this, and I had not, first you select the windows installation to use and enter the corresponding number (default is "1"); then it asks you to enter the load identified. I typed in "Microsoft Windows XP Professional", without the quotes. Lastly, it prompted for the OS load options. Here I typed in "fastdetect /noexecute=optin", again without quotes. I exited the console, windows restarted, and setup continued normally! Thanks for providing this forum... hope this helps anyone else who gets caught in the same mess! :)

---

I've got the same problem and have been trying to go in the recovery console and when select 1 and hit enter it asks me to enter Adminitrator's password. I dont even know which password it is asking for?