Boot in Safe Mode or Last good settings

S

sagus

n00b
Joined
Oct 11, 2004
Messages
37
I hate to ask this, but I'm stuck.

Short Version: I'm stuck in an endless reboot loop - as soon as it gets to the desktop, within 4-5 seconds, the system restarts. I need to get into Safe Mode, or "last known good settings". Every time I hit F8 during boot, it takes me to a "Device Boot Priority" screen...which does me no good.

Can anyone tell me how to get into the last good settings, or at a minimum safe mode? I know I can just reinstall windows. Everything is backed up except for the last week's worth of pictures/video - which unfortunately includes all the christmas stuff :(

Details and long version:
Win XP pro sp2
Asus P5W-DH Deluxe MB

This started because of my wife. She just HAD to have an Ipod. I hate all apple software I've ever used....won't even put quicktime on my computer. Well, I finally caved and bought her a Nano. It came in today, so I had to download/install ITunes. It installed fine, but as soon as I started the program, the rebooting loop started. I checked to see if this was a known issue with the latest version of Itunes, and if they knew where/what program the conflict was with....they said they haven't heard of it before, but they're sure it's because I built my own system :rolleyes: . I hate them and hope Jobs is indicted. (man, i'm hateful)

Anyway, thanks for looking and for the help all!
 
Man, that sucks. Usually it's F8 when you first start to boot up that gets you to where you can start up in safe mode. I don't know another way to boot up into safe mode myself. My dad's computer also has a problem with F8 and getting into safe mode I found out recently. Did they do away with this or possibly change it from F8 to something different?

Anyway, here's an idea if you can't figure out how to get into safe mode. If you have another computer, take the hard drive out of the one that keeps rebooting and temporarily install it in the other computer. That way you could at the very least get those photos and videos you don't have backed up copied to something. Maybe you could even uninstall the itunes software and get your pc to stop rebooting then. It's a thought anyway. I've done this kind of thing before in order to get some files that I didn't have backed up so that I could reload the system.

Hope you figure it out though.
 
For anyone who has a similar problem, I figured I'd post the fix.

Apparently certain BIOS' used by Asus use the F8 key to go to the Device Boot Priority menu. If you escape out of it, and hit F8 several times quickly, the Safe Mode menu will pop up.

As far as iTunes goes - apparently it's doing something to the system registry. If I boot to safe mode, then use a registry restoring program - then prevent the computer from auto-starting the itunes deal in the startup list, it fixes the problem.....but if I try to restart iTunes again, I get the endless restart loop.

Oh well - guess I'll wait for a new version of iTunes, or some other type of fix. Apple sucks :mad:
 
You don't have to use iTunes... Anapod Explorer is a great alternitave, and there is also Ephpod, or you could use the Winamp plugin for iTunes.

There are alternitaves if you can't live with iTunes.
But personally, I have been using iTunes for several years and I really like it. It takes some getting used to, but once you do, it is actually really nice software, Apple or not, it does what it does, and does it well.
 
Thanks DE, I'll try those out and see if I can keep the system stable for a while. I appreciate it!
 
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