On start up my computer stays on the screen “press F10 for recovery” and won’t move on. Any ideas how it fix?

Published December 13, 2010

Question by Mathew_D: On start up my computer stays on the screen “press F10 for recovery” and won’t move on. Any ideas how it fix?
My computer (windows xp media centre edition) starts up fine until it gets to the press F10 for recovery screen, where it just stays and the “press F10 for recovery just keeps appearing down the screen.
Any ideas what to do would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Best answer:

Answer by Petals B
Try hitting F8 instead of F10.

F8 is “Safe Mode” and should at least take you to your desktop.

It may ask you if you want “Safe Mode with Networking” *or* “Safe Mode without Networking” —- if so, choose WITHOUT networking.

If hitting F8 doesn’t do anything at the F10 prompt, reboot your computer and just keep hitting F8 about every 2 to 3 seconds… because it has to be *hit* at just the right time.

Once you get to your desktop in Safe Mode, then go to RUN > type in MSCONFIG and click OKAY.

Then click the GENERAL tab and select NORMAL STARTUP and then reboot.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!