XP home edition restarts
 

My girlfriends XP home desktop gets past to the XP is loading screen and just goes back to the inital start up process. The only way to get it to start is to go into the F8 menu and boot from last known good configuration. They don't want to have to do this everytime because it is kind of a hassle. Does anyone have any theories on why this happens.

jumpers on hard drive are set correctly. everything is stock. from dell.

Did you try going to MSConfig and disabling the startup items and services?

Go to Start, Run, type in "MSCONFIG"

Go to the Services tab, check "Hide All Microsoft Services," then uncheck anything that looks suspicious (or just uncheck everything).

Then go to the Startup tab, and uncheck EVERYTHING, hit Apply, then restart your PC. See if it will go through then.

As usual make sure to back up any extremely important files before doing any of this. Good luck!

See if you can get spyware removal tools installed in safe mode. It might not work but if it does, scan in safe mode. Spybot or adaware are the most common. Spybot will probably be of a simpler design and most likely to run in safe mode.

What about going back to a System Restore spot? Should be able to try that in Safe Mode.