Black startup screen is briefly displayed and your computer restarts repeatedly when you try to start Windows XP

•	A fatal system error (STOP error) causes the computer to stop.
•	The Automatically restart option is selected under System failure in the Startup and Recovery dialog box in System Properties.
•	The Windows XP paging file is smaller than the amount of physical memory that is installed on the computer, or there is insufficient free space on the hard disk to write the error dump file (Memory.dmp).

Method 1

1.

Try to replace the registry hives from the repair directory by using the Recovery Console, and then restore the system to a current state with System Restore. For additional information about how to restore the registry, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 307545 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/EN-US/) How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry that Prevents Windows XP from Starting

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Method 2

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/) How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

1.	Install Windows XP to a different folder.
2.	Click Start, and then click Run.
3.	In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
4.	Browse to the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
5.	On the File menu, click Load Hive.
6.	Navigate to the System file in the original Windows XP installation location. By default, the System file is stored in the following location: %SystemRoot%\System32\Config\System
7.	Type an arbitrary name when you are prompted for a key name in the Load Hive dialog box. The original HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive is loaded as a subkey of the current key.
8.	In the arbitrary name key (where arbitrary name is the name that you assigned the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry key from the original Windows installation), browse to the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CrashControl
9.	In the right pane of the Registry Editor window, double-click AutoReboot.
10.	In the Value data box, type 0 (zero), and then click OK.
11.	Click the minus sign to collapse the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry subkey.
12.	On the File menu, click Unload Hive.
13.	On the File menu, click Exit.

This disables the Automatically restart option in the original Windows XP installation. After you follow these steps, you may be able to gather information from the STOP error message and resolve the problem that prevents the computer from starting.

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Method 3

Another workaround may be necessary if the minimum size of the paging file is set to a value less than the amount of physical memory. Windows XP requires a paging file on the system drive large enough to hold all physical memory plus 1 megabyte (MB), in order to write debugging information. You can modify the PagingFiles value of the original installation so that the dump file can be created by the STOP error message. Enough free disk space must be available on the system drive for the paging file.

To change the PagingFiles value in the System file in the original Windows XP installation location, follow these steps:

1.	Click Start, and then click Run.
2.	In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3.	Browse to the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
4.	On the File menu, click Load Hive.
5.	Navigate to the System file in the original Windows XP installation location. By default, this is stored in the following location: %SystemRoot%\System32\Config\System
6.	Type an arbitrary name when you are prompted for a key name in the Load Hive dialog box. This loads the original HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive as a subkey of the current key.
7.	In the arbitrary name key (where arbitrary name is the name that you assigned the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry key from the original Windows installation), browse to the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
8.	In the right pane of the Registry Editor window, double-click PagingFiles.
9.	In the Value data box, edit the first numeric value after c:\pagefile.sys (where c: is the drive on which the pagefile is stored) to increase it to a number that is at least 1 MB greater than the amount of physical memory in the computer. NOTE: Do not type a number that is greater than the amount of free hard disk space on the computer. For example, the following value displays a minimum paging file size of 130 MB and a maximum paging file size of 256 MB. c:\pagefile.sys 130 256
10.	Click OK.
11.	Browse to the following location in the registry hive that you loaded from the original Windows installation: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CrashControl
12.	In the right pane of the Registry Editor window, double-click CrashDumpEnabled.
13.	Type 1 (one) in the Value data box if it is not already present, and then click OK.
14.	Click the minus sign to collapse the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry subkey.
15.	On the File menu, click Unload Hive.
16.	On the File menu, click Exit.
17.	Attempt to start the original Windows XP installation. When the STOP error occurs, the memory dump information will be stored in the paging file.
18.	Restart the computer and select the parallel installation of Windows XP. This allows the dump file to be created and you may be able to use the information to resolve the problem that causes the STOP error message in the original installation. NOTE: The dump file is saved in the %SystemRoot%\Memory.dmp file, where %SystemRoot% is the parallel installation system folder.
19.	Click Start, right click My Computer, and then click Properties.
20.	Click the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
21.	Click to clear the Automatically restart check box, click OK, and then click OK again.
22.	Restart the computer. When you attempt to shut down the computer, the exact message should be displayed.

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Method 4

Upon restart, use the new boot option Disable automatic restart on system failure. If this option is selected, you can get the STOP error codes and then continue accordingly.