Laptop failing to start up
 

Hope someone can help with this. My laptop is failing to launch on startup and comes up with the following error.
'windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. Windows files have been damaged or incorrectly configured. Startup repair can help diagnose and fix the problem. If power was disrupted during start up select normal startup option'
1. Launch startup repair
2. Startup normally

I have selected each and the screen goes black with both options with the mouse pointer onscreen but nothing else. Have left the computer for half hour on this screen and still nothing.

What's wrong with it and how do I fix it?

have you tried booting up in safe mode?

Restart laptop and hold shift key down indefinitely 'well within reason ;)'

if safe mode as above doesn't work it's cactus (=

Nope holding down shift key isn't getting me into safe mode.

Try pressing 'F8' instead of shift.

had you been fiddling with settings or using it and it shutdown???

or you just went to turn it on and got this message???

How about reboot and keep pressing F8. Does that give you an option for safe mode?

Dammit back to the same error msg and then nothing :(

Doesnt this take you to BIOS?

You need to choose somewhere for it to boot off, either your hard drive, which may be corrupt or Optical Drive.

Grab the OS disk and choose DVDROM drive.

Start-->run
Msconfig


Selective startup and disable all services and start up items

Reboot into normal mode. If it works turn a service on one by one till it fucks up.