When you switch on the computer it loads up as usual and then some black screen appears saying something along the lines of:

"We are sorry blah blah, but Windows could not successfully start. A recent software or hardware may have changed that. If your pc was automatically restarted etc then you can choose 'Last Known (working)' something. If you are unaware of the cause, or it was switched off because of a power failure, or the rest button was pressed, please select 'Start Windows Normally"

So I select that, the windows logo screen comes up with that load bar underneath it, and then the computer screen says "no siignal", reset itself, starts again and comes back to that page over and over again.

What's going on ._.

I'm just happy I backed everything up on the other computers, laptop and usb XD

Your Windows Installation is shit or, if using SATA RAID hard drives, the drivers are corrupted. Since I am one of the few to actually own STAT RAID hard drives here I doubt that is the case. Usually that is a bad windows install, or your memory failed. I get that error like that for several different reasons sometimes. It is a blue scree o' death right?

I did experienced this issue once, maybe the cause of your computer's problem is different though... but anyway, if you changed anything in your Display Driver then reinstall the Display Driver (NVIDIA (http://www.filehippo.com/download_nvidia_forceware/) or ATI (http://www.filehippo.com/download_ati_catalyst/))...it worked for me lol.
If not then either try booting to Safe Mode and use System Restore or try checking your disk via recovery console.

How to get into Recovery Console(if you don't know how) :
1. Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted.
2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the Recovery Console.
4. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
5. then type "chkdsk c: /r" or "chkdsk c: /f"

If this still doesn't fix your issue then either wait for more responses or search for solutions on google :P

Maybe your memory card is destroyed, mine broke and it won't even start up.

Click the 'last known working' selection. It should bring your computer back to normal. It works will all windows computers. Even the old ones. But not with one's as old as DOS pc's obviously.

I have this problem all the time. If you just want to use it long enough so that you can move your files onto a disc, USB drive, external hard drive. This is a long process so be patient. Turn on the PC when it gets to the Windows logo and has the bar at the bottom with the green dots, unplug or hold the button on your computer down but have it turn off before it gets to the next screen. Turn it back on. It should ask you which you want to do, Start Windows Normally, Safe Mode, blah. Pick Safe Mode and do what you did before (turning it off before the blue screen shows up). Turn it back on and go to setup by pressing F2. Change the date, set it from __/__/2007 to __/__/200(something before 2007 [I use 2001]). Then save the changes and wait for the welcome screen to come up and do what you gotta do. It might not work because your case is a little rare. Mine is too, but not like yours, I have a signal (it seems), other than that take it to a PC shop.

yeah, selecting last known working section should help...same with pressing one of the F-something buttons to get into a menu..for this laptop i'm on i think its F5 to get to boot menu that lets me select a system recovery option...i usually go to that option if something totally screwed up happens lol...uhhh but yeah should reformat if you do have everything backed up already...good lucks!

Any chance you restarted your machine or turned it on in the middle of a Windows Update? If this just "suddenly happened" then I feel that a Live Update must have been interrupted. Trust me, there's a reason that they say "DO NOT TURN OFF THE COMPUTER UNTIL UPDATES ARE COMPLETE" in giant caps like that. S'important.

If that is indeed the case and lava's advice doesn't work, you're going to need to do a System Restore or a reload. Either way, you said you have it all backed up so it shouldn't matter that much, right?

When the computer starts, repediatvely hit F8 until a menu comes up and select "Last Known Good Configuration". That usually works for me.

Like DarkAztec said it is backed up, I would say that you should just take out the parts that you can use, if I were you I would grab the RAM and sell it on ebay or save it for another computer. I would put in the second slot. I think you could maybe use the hard drive, but the best thing to do is just save the pieces you can and then use them or sell them. Lucky for you everything is backed up.

When you switch on the computer it loads up as usual and then some black screen appears saying something along the lines of:

"We are sorry blah blah, but Windows could not successfully start. A recent software or hardware may have changed that. If your pc was automatically restarted etc then you can choose 'Last Known (working)' something. If you are unaware of the cause, or it was switched off because of a power failure, or the rest button was pressed, please select 'Start Windows Normally"

So I select that, the windows logo screen comes up with that load bar underneath it, and then the computer screen says "no siignal", reset itself, starts again and comes back to that page over and over again.

What's going on ._.

I'm just happy I backed everything up on the other computers, laptop and usb XD


LOL, that happened to me, i accidentally tried to change the computer settings and it didn't work at all, so i had to format it and get some new part. Tell me, were you lazy and used the rest button or the reset button on the back of the comp(thats how it happened to me)?? 'Cause if you did i think you should get it repair cause something may have got messed up

^ I had a power failure >.>;

Thank you guys, everything is okay now.

Let me know the way you fixed it through a PM. If it wasn't anything big then nevermind.