I need help FAST. My computer won't turn on and it's thanks to Windows XP SP2

Yeah. I installed Service Pack 2 about fifteen minutes ago. Everything seemed alright, and I restarted. The loading screen comes on, changed. It says Windows XP, but no longer says "Home Edition" and the loading icon fills with blue instead of green. The copyright dates at the bottom were removed and were replaced with "Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation". After that, the screen goes black. It's supposed to bring me to the welcome screen, but instead it restarts. And it continued doing this about 5 times. So I shut it off for about a minute, try it again. And now, I can't even get that far. The Sony icon appears, I get the hardware page, and "Error loading OS." Now the only thing I did was install the Service Pack and I have no idea what the hell happened. I can't restart it in safe mode or anything. How in holy hell can I get this thing restored? Someone please know what to do... and this is NOT a pirate version of XP so rule that out, it's the OEM version that came preinstalled on our computer.

I'm not good at this, but have you changed any BIOS settings? it screwed me once

best advice i can give:

phone a pro 😬

hey! dave! that hurts! I'm already here 🙁

Originally posted by yerssot
I'm not good at this

I faked it so that I could get a bigger pay if I solve it 😛

well...you said something about restarting in safe mode. that's the thing.
when the OS begins loading press f8 quicky and pick safe mode.
that doesn't work?
then you need reinstalling 🙂

yeah reinstall xp

Looks like your Master Boot record is messed up. Try some of the links here: http://www.google.com/search?&q=xp%20master%20boot%20record

If you have the original XP disc you should be fine. If you don't, then find one ASAP.

The original XP disc is an OEM and only will format the HD, which I don't want to do. Reinstalling XP wipes the HD. Is there any way I can fix the boot record without wiping and losing my data?

I've got no idea what happened...I'd suggest calling Microsoft 😐

They'll end up charging me money for tech support... 😬

seriously? that's a rip-off...

but can't you ask a question online?

Don't think so.. credit card was required last time I checked 😬

*cancels SP2 download*

Originally posted by JKozzy
The original XP disc is an OEM and only will format the HD, which I don't want to do. Reinstalling XP wipes the HD. Is there any way I can fix the boot record without wiping and losing my data?

Boot the OEM disc, then select your current WinXP directory when installing. You should get an option saying whether you want to repair the installation.

I read a news article about this Service Pack this weekend and Microsoft has admitted that installing this update will indeed screw up a few things for some people. Which is precisely why I am not installing it. Screw them and their service packs.

what does this service pak do??

Poor JKozzy!
This is much worse than my recent browser porn highjack! ✅

Boot using the XP CD... There's an option to repair the OS.