Computer Tips: What Causes Windows Not to Boot?

Did this ever happen to you? You turn on your computer and Windows stays at the splash screen and does not boot up. What could be the cause? There are quite a few issues that would not allow Windows to boot. In this article we will examine those issues and give you tips on how to determine what is wrong.

The first thing you need to consider is when was the last time your computer booted into windows normally? What were you doing? Did you download anything? These are all factors to determine when the problem occurred and why. Sometimes things just happen and hardware can malfunction from one minute to the next. Since we are dealing with electronic components they don't need an excuse to stop working.

The first step to take when determining what is wrong is to try and boot into safe mode. If your computer will boot into safe mode than most likely you have a hardware conflict or bad board. If you installed an add on board or changed any hardware recently this would be a good place to start.

Before you start removing boards you should go into device manager while in safe mode. Click start/control panel/system/hardware/device manager if your running XP. Check to see you have any conflicts or splats. If you do remove them and try to boot into normal mode. Many times this will fix the problem. If it boots normally than the problem is solved. If you see nothing abnormal in device manager than you can try reverting back to a restore point that you know your computer was working normally. Sometimes doing a restore will solve many problems that have occurred.

If you still cannot boot into normal mode than you will need to remove boards one at a time and booting after each time. If at any time you boot normally than you have found your culprit. Don't rule out mice and keyboards they can also cause computers not to boot properly. The best way to rule them out is to unplug them and than try to boot.

What if your computer will not boot in normal mode or safe mode but just stays at the splash screen. This is normally not a hardware problem but Windows system files somehow has been corrupted. You could have downloaded something that had a virus in it. Windows will not boot if its main files where damaged or corrupted. Under this type of conditions you will have to reload your computer. You try a repair before actually wiping out your drive. If you are able to do this with no errors and the system runs fine than you good to go. Many times however Windows needs a fresh install.

A friend recently had this happen to her when she downloaded something from a website. She picked up a Trojan which damaged her system files and her computer had to be reloaded the repair would not fix it. This can happen to anyone when they are not careful online. Its always best to backup important data in case this ever happens to you.

These tips should help you if you ever have a problem where your system will not boot into Windows normally.