[12 Volt Man]

I thought maybe you guys might have the answer to this. I tried to help my brother-in-law with this issue last weekend. I thought maybe you guys could help.
He has a cheapo compac with a Celeron 1.4, onboard sound, video etc.... I could find out more info if anyone needs it. Anyway, what happens is, it comes to the Black screen with the window's logo then switches screens to a blank screen like it is loading and then it stays blank. I was able to get it to come up in safe mode. I thought maybe running windows update would help, but it won't let you run it in safe mode. I found some other things online that involved changing some startup settings in msconfig.
We tried a couple different monitors too. I thought maybe it was a driver issue, but I don't know what drivers to look for for his type of system. Plus I don't know if it will let you change drivers in safe mode. I have always built them myself so I knew what whas there and how to fix it. This one is kicking my arse. Also we reinstalled windows once. That did not work either.
He just needs this thing for his kids so it would be great to get it running again.

[stool]

Is this the OS that came with the Compaq, or an upgrade?

Try hitting F8 when it will let you, and select Enable Boot Logging. It might not boot correctly, but the created file ntbtlog.txt might tell you why it isn't booting correctly. Reboot into Safe Mode with Command Prompt so you can see it or print it.

[12 Volt Man]

It had XP home originally. Then we tried upgrading to XP pro. I will try what you suggest.

[12 Volt Man]

It came up with a big list of
Did not load driver..............
It had a lot of drivers that it did not load.

[12 Volt Man]

Weird solution.
Tried a different monitor and it worked.