I've run into a serous problem on my sons' PC that needs immediate attention as his school work is on there and he has an important exam next week.

He has a Dell desktop computer, not sure of the model at present...it doesn't have a reboot button and after it froze on me I used the on/off switch on the power bar it's plugged into to shut it down. Now after that when we turn it on we get a black screen suggesting 3 different safe modes to go into but when we try them we get a blue screen...so we have no access to his documents. My son had this same problem once before and a friend managed to get it working again without having to re-program it and he didn't lose any files. The friend who helped before is up to his neck with work and other stuff so are there any techies around here with some basic tricks up their sleeve or suggestions what I should try...in simple to understand terms that a not-so-computer-saavy person might try? If I can't recover his documents I am going to feel sooo bad as this exam counts for 50% of his mark in that subject and he did so well the rest of the year with other related work.

Many thanks for your attention.

Hey Pat, I would need to know what operating system is running on your son's PC.

If it is Windows based, do you have a boot disk (either on a floppy or CD)? If so, you can put it in the PC and reboot the system, which should allow windows to load.

Here is more info on a boot disk; http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=305595

I am going out for a while, but will be back later this evening. Feel free to PM me.

Hi Lori, it uses Windows XP...not sure if we have a boot disk as the PC came already loaded...I'll have a look around...if I could just get into safe mode even I can copy his files but when we turn it on we get a black screen suggesting 3 different safe modes to go into but when we try them we get a blue screen everytime.

Same question what is the operating system XP? Vista? an what happens when you turn it on

Press and hold the F-8 key while booting up . this should bring you to safe mode I build an repair computors .. also I can send a boot disk

If you have a Dell you should have a restore disk as well, options may get it started. I have a Dell disk also I will check it

Thank you all very much for trying to come to my rescue...will keep you posted on how it all goes.

A boot disk would not have come with the PC, but you can create one (instructions provided in the above link). You should have restore disks that came with the PC, but utilizing them would wipe out your personal files.

Steve's suggestion for getting into safe mode is also a good idea.

I did not know you could create a boot disc so I sure appreciate that link, Lori, and I'll keep that for the future...just can't get into safe mode and at this point afraid to do any more damage, so a friend we know with some diagnostic tools is going to look at the CPU over the next day or so...he seems to think he can save the files but everything else 'may' need replacing...so I guess the truth is out about me...I'll sit down at your computer and with the flip of a switch I'll crash it on you inside of 2-3 minutes...or so it seems.

You can always remove the hardrive an put it in another computer as a slave , an save or transfer what you need, Ive done that many times, if your friend knows anything, it is very easy

Yes, perhaps he'll do that, Steve...he has a job in internet security so I think he has a good idea what to do and I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that all this will have a happy ending...a bit concerned though because when I googled the error message and all the numbers associated with it it took me to a site that said maybe the registry was corrupt...anyways, I'll let 'yall know how it all turns out when I get the PC back in a couple of days.

Good news! Our friend worked some magic and managed to fix everything w/o any loss of files or re-programming...many thanks again to all for your suggestions and offers to help...I've learned alot from this.