Can anyone help me with a Compaq Armada 7800 that is frozen on the welcome screen? I turn it on and it shows the XP Professional Logo, etc then freezes on the welcome screen and keys or mouse don't work. Also, I have booted it into where it lets you pick safe mode, etc. I pick safe mode, previously working configuration, and start windows normally. Normally and previously working config. just takes me to the welcome screen, but safe mode goes thru a scrolling screen of text and then freezes. Can't get into setup to check that....any advise?

Need some info first...

1. what sort of a computer user to you qualify yourself as...
2. how afraid of the registry are you...
3. do you have access to another computer for downloading...
4. do you have an a: drive, for floppies...
5. do you have the original install disk for the OS...OEM or MS...
6. do you have access to the above from someone else...exact same version of the OS...
7. how old is the laptop...
8. why have you not used their recovery disks...
9. why have you not contacted HP tech dept for help...
10. do you like coffee

I'm pretty knowledgeable...took 65 hour course in repairing and upgrading. Friends and family give me their computers to look at before bringing them in for repair to stores. I learn more that way and I like the challenge. But I know nothing about laptop innerds. This is an old compter...only has floppy. I'm not afraid of the reg. Owner of Compaq doesn't have original disks. I like the forums better and have gotten valuable info from them in the past, and its usually faster. (I can't get into the reg, btw. Only the 'safe mode,etc' screen)
Who doesn't?

O.k. to start, I'd say the hard drive was fried! Bummer!! Or the registry was so screwed up that it ain't going anywhere until you get that mess sorted out.

But, try this... If you can access MS via another computer, download and set up their emergency booster files [my terminology]...from... How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks ...you will need 6 floppies. It is a simple setup. You will get all the instructions at this URL.

BTW, if you buy another laptop, my suggestion is to never be WITHOUT a floppy port, or an a:\ drive, for just this purpose. Often you will find mfr's not providing one, and hoping that you will use a pre-burned CD to save your skin, but that is for their convenience not yours. Most nutter-computer users, want access to DOS, and the only way to safely do that is via the a:\ and a floppy disk, as far as I am concerned.

Anyway, getting back to this download stuff...if you run the re-setup via these disks and it is successful, then you will know that the unit still has some life in it. And then you can get on with correcting the next problem.

If it is as old as you intimate, how is it that you are running XP on it...and no CD drive? ...or am I mis-understanding something...you say it "only has floppy..."