PCA Forums

I'm trying to boot up Win XP in safe mode. When I press F8 nothing happens. The computer just goes into windows. I tried the help screen and got this message:

To start the computer in safe mode
You should print these instructions before continuing. They will not be available after you shut your computer down in step 2.
Click Start, click Shut Down, and then, in the drop-down list, click Shut down.
In the Shut Down Windows dialog box, click Restart, and then click OK.
When you see the message Please select the operating system to start, press F8.
Use the arrow keys to highlight the appropriate safe mode option, and then press ENTER.
If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access using the arrow keys, and then press ENTER.

Is there another way?

You should get the black screen during bootup, right after the BIOS screen, that says "hit F8 to boot into safe mode" or comparable. Just hit F8 when you see that, it'll open a new menu which allows several option, safe mode, safe mode with networking and others.

Don't you see that message during bootup? It should come up right after the BIOS screen and before the WinXP GUI bootup sequence starts.

At least that's how Win2000 does it and I doubt XP changed that ...

make sure that your bios show the boot screen and not something else - on the hp's at work i had to disable the hp startup screen and get back to the regular boot screen in order to hit the right keys...

assuming you're not running a Dell or Compaq or something, if you hold shift while rebooting (the entire time) that should bump you into safe mode also...

Shortly after you restart or turn on the computer you will hear a beep. At that time hit the F8 key. Holding it down will do nothing as it is only recorded once each time it is pressed. It just has to be hit at the right time.

another way to get into safe mode in the past windows versions was to hold shift+control during the startup