My computer won't load into Windows it keeps giving me a blue screen with writing on it. What's wrong?

There can be many things that make Windows not load up.

You might have a problem with your hardware. You might have damaged drivers. You copy of Windows might have become corrupted. You hard drive might have problems.

Each of the possible problems has their own way to fix them.

The easiest way is to boot Windows into Safe Mode by Pressing the F8 key just before the first Windows load screen comes up, either blue or black depending on which version of Windows you are running.

If Windows loads up properly into Safe Mode the problem would be either corrupted Windows files or drivers, or a simple piece of hardware has failed. 

If it doesn't load into Safe Mode the problem is more serious.

Safe Mode loading

Drivers

Make sure all the drivers for the hardware are as up to date as they can be. Go on the internet if you can and download the latest drivers.

If you can't get on the internet, try reinstalling the drivers you got on the CD with the hardware. 

For more information on drivers read the article Drivers Question by clicking here . 

Windows file corruption

Follow the directions in the article Fixing Windows System Files Question by clicking here .

Simple hardware failure

If Safe Mode loads it might be a good idea to check all the system hardware. Usally the easiest way to check all the hardware is to restart the computer and get it to load up a dedicated programme to check the hardware.

Safe Mode not loading

This could be very serious and will require a lot of experience and patience. Each of these problems need to be tested by a professional. As such steps on how to fix the problem will be listed, not how to work out what the problem is.

Hard drive failure

Stop everything.

If your hard drive has failed do not use the computer any more. Call a professional to at least try and get your old data off the hard drive. You will have to get a ne hard drive and have Windows reinstalled on the computer. 

Other hardware failure 

It could be as simple as taking out the problem hardware after it has been identified, or replacing it. It usually does not require Windows to be reinstalled but it might.

Windows corruption

If Windows is so badly damaged it won't even load into safe mode you might have to reinstall Windows completely. There might be a way to get around that problem though.

This is not guaranteed to work but it can at least be tried.

Put the Windows install disk into the computer and boot using it.

Choose to repair the copy of Windows installed on the computer.

In the case of having to use the recovery console try these steps.

After you have chosen the copy of Windows to repair type:

ATTRIB -H C:\\boot.ini

ATTRIB -S C:\\boot.ini

ATRIB -R C:\\boot.ini

del boot.ini

BOOTCFG /Rebuild

CHKDSK /R

FIXBOOT

You might be able to skip some of the steps to try and speed up the process.

The first 4 must be done in that order if you are going to try and delete the boot.ini file. You must then use the 5 step to rebuild the boot.ini file.

Usually the last 3 will get the job done in around an hour and save having to lose all the data on the computer. 

If all else fails

You will lose all your data but the easiest way to solve this problem, if it is not hardware related is to reinstall Windows on the computer.