Safe mode not showing up?

[BlackHawk1]

Hi. A friend has of mine a Dell Optiplex desktop and when he hits F8 to get to safe mode he said the only thing that comes up to pick from is the operating system which is Windows XP. This is the first time I've heard of that. In my experience when you hit F8 you get safe mode, safe mode with networking, etc. As I said these options do not appear, it's just the OS that apprears. I wonder what the deal is with that? Is there another way to access safe mode with networking that we are not aware of? Thank you!!!

[95Viper]

Did your friend have the boot manager installed at sometime?
Tell him/her to hit F8 to get to the screen, pick Windows xp option and start tapping the F8 key again.
He/she may have to do it quickly.

Also, you can use "msconfig.exe" to start in safe mode.

[Jetster]

Its there. Its all in the technique. Most people wait to long to start tapping.

[BlackHawk1]

Thanks for the replies! They are greatly appreciated! I think rather than too slow it's MAYBE a case of hitting F8 too quickly. I tried it and got the same results as he did. Another person told me they think I am hitting F8 too quickly. As soon as it starts up I start hitting F8. I've done that in the past without problems on other machines. I am aware safe mode can be made to happen via msconfig, but the problem is a "ransomware" infection that won't allow us to get to msconfig. I did however slave his hard drive to my computer to get rid of that issue. He also had a rootkit/bootkit issue. I will try F8 again when I see him and report back. Thank you all!

[Jetster]

Another method that may work is let it start to boot. As it shows the windows loading screen cut the power. Then try to start it again and the diagnosis screen should load telling you there is a problem and asking you what you want to do. Load safe mode