While troubleshooting problems with Flashplayer installation the Tech suggested I start my PC in Safe Mode and try to install from there. As instructed, I pressed F8 and selected Safe Mode. The black (DOS like) screen that appeared next listed various drivers (same list appeared to be frozen on the screen) and the disk drive was busy clattering away for about 15 minutes. Could not shut PC down during this process. Once the drive stopped I was only able to shut the PC down by pulling the Plug. Tried again a couple of times. Same result. Fortunately PC still boots OK and works normally if left to it's "Auto Boot" routine.Searched and found noted issues with users being "locked out" of Icon selection for Safe Mode, but nothing similar to my issue. Any further info would be appreciated.Thanks, stillgolfing 1 person needs an answerI do too

Hi ThereConsidering your situation you better try to repair your OS using XP disc.And you cannot carry out any installations in Safe Mode as Windows installer will not be available in Safe mode. If you wanna do that you need to change some registry settings and carry on.ThanksDineshPlease vote if my answer is helpful. Thanks

When you boot in Safe Mode and see the drivers going by, what is the last thing you see on the screen?As part of your troubleshooting and before using Safe Mode, was there a chkdsk (check disk) scheduled for the next reboot or do one manually as in:chkdsk /rIf you did schedule a chkdsk and you then boot in Safe Mode, you will see the system appear to hang - perhaps for a long time with the last thing on the screen being mup.sys.While you think it may be hung, if the disk is chattering away this suggests that the system is really doing the chkdsk you told it to do and it will stay that way displaying mup.sys as the last line until the chkdsk completes. That could take a long time. If the system was hung, the HDD would probably not be being accessed - it is doing something.You could choose to boot into the XP Recovery Console (from a CD you can make or a genuine bootable XP installation CD) and run the chkdsk from there and then you could see what was going on or undertake additional troubleshooting once you get some maneuvering room.Of course, you should try to stop the plug pulling or your next thread may be something like: Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM I need YOUR votes for helpful replies and Answers. I am saving up for a pony!

Everything works fine now. Initially, the problem was as described, but as I watched the sequence more often (12 times) I realized that there was a about a .5 second delay after selecting Safe Mode and the drivers list being frozen on the screen. I could see that I was being bounced back to the previous screen and "Start XP Media Centre Edition" was still being selected automatically, but it was happening so fast that I could not prevent this. Obviously some weird kind of conflict here.Since I have some experience with Internet Providers and the drivers associated with those problems, I thought that a few of the drivers that werefrozen on the screen looked familiar. Turns out that's what the PC was trying to load even though I selected Safe Mode without them. Tried the 13th time with Safe Mode -Internet drivers enabled, and all went OK. Got the other program installed (guess it wasn't related to those drivers - whew!). Tested F8>Safe Mode again without Internet drivers enabled and safe mode showed up normally as expected. (whew-again!). From 22 years of end user experience (no real knowledge - just experience) - TYPICAL MICROSOFT WINDOWS _ I GUESS!:(P.S. Didn't fall for the previous posters "recommendation" as I was all too familiar with this old Microsoft Tech Rep solution. When your time is up, no matter what your problem, "repair using your XP disk. or reformat and reinstall" 'cause we can't afford to spend any more time talking to you!I can't believe people are still falling for that. Sure if he had provided a quick synopsis of what might be occurring and why it can't be resolved any other way, then, maybe, I would have fallen for it again; but thrown it in cold like that, no way. There are just too many Tech Site trollers posting that non-solution so the uninitiated will spend hundreds of hours sorting out the mess that results.:) Been through that with a couple of senior neighbours after they followed MS Support Instructions, their PC was back to Day 1 and now they had to spend weeks bringing it back up to date, that's if they were lucky enough to be able to connect to the Internet to do that in the first place.Yes my next computer will definitely be a Mac, even though I may not be able to run the programs I know and love. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 22 times over 22 years, shame on me!Cheers, stillgolfing