Booting into Safe Mode can help discover what is wrong with your system in Normal Mode. You can also apply fixes, or scan for viruses while they are not running, by booting into Safe Mode in Windows. In Safe Mode with Networking Support you can even go online to research a problem.

It's kind of like having another operating system to work from while Normal Mode is not working well for some reason. In this operating system, many of your hardware devices will not work, because Safe Mode does not load their drivers to help cut down on the possible sources of the problem normal Mode is experiencing. Safe Mode also loads a generic video driver, so you will be stuck with lower resolution graphics while in Safe Mode.

You can apply fixes, scan for viruses, and run System Commands like System Restore in Administrative Mode while in Safe Mode. You can disable start up programs while in Safe Mode to see if they are causing the problem in Normal Mode. You can start diagnostic programs like driver verifier for use on the next boot into Normal Mode from Safe Mode.

Booting into Safe Mode can be rather easy if you take a couple of steps to set it up that way first. You could always just keep hitting F8 right after the video card information shows on your screen during boot up to get the boot menu, but there is an easier way.

There is a file in the root folder of your C drive called boot.ini. This file establishes your boot menu, and has a setting for how long this menu should be displayed at boot up. Open this file with Notepad.

To open this file you will need to select "All Files" as a file type in the Open Files dialog of Notepad as shown in the picture.

Once you have selected "All Files" from the drop down, scroll over until you see boot.ini, and select it to open in Notepad.

Near the top of the file you need to add "timeout=30" or some other value that displays the boot menu long enough for you to catch it, and make your selection.

You should have a file that looks very similar to the one in the code box below.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Safe Mode" /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog /noguiboot
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Safe Mode Networking" /safeboot:network /sos /bootlog /noguiboot
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Safe Mode CMD Prompt" /safeboot:minimal(alternateshell) /sos /bootlog /noguiboot

The "timeout=30" line tells Windows to show the boot menu for 30 seconds on boot up each time you boot your computer. If it is not there add it, and save the file, then exit Notepad. You can change this value to 15 seconds, or any other value you like in seconds.

Now the next time your computer gets caught in a reboot cycle, you will be able to select Safe Mode from the boot up menu, and get to figuring out what went wrong with Normal Mode.