Over the past two days i've been having problems starting my PC. I would turn on the power, watch the stats of my PC roll up like normal, and then be taken to the WinXp loading screen (The one with the little blue bar passing under the logo), and this is where my troubles start. Instead of loading and going to my user login screen, my PC will take extra long on the WinXp loading screen and eventually flash the color blue (the color of the background on the user login screen) and then either turn off or restart. Yesterday I wasn't able to get onto my PC at all, and today, after leaving it off over night, it turns on fine and I was able to log in the first time, even though, it did still take longer loading on the WinXp screen. I have no idea what's causing it to do this as it's been for ages now, but at the moment i'm just running all my virus scanners. I darent turn off my PC at the minute because of this in fear of not being able to return. Anyone have any possible reason / help on this? Thanks in advance.
I would have said a BIOS problem but by that point control has been turned over to the Operating System. Meaning it may be a problem to do with that. Which could be just about anything. It could be a virus. This is probably the most likely answer. Try running several different virus scanners because certain ones pick up things that others don't. It could be a corrupted system file. This is unlikely however as you'd probably get a message telling you to put in your Windows XP disk to repair the files. Now, you said after you left it off all night it worked. So, there's a possibility your computer may be overheating. Most systems have safety features that will simply shut off power if components get too hot. This may be the case, if it's very hot and one or more of your fans are faulty. There may be other possibilities. If you tell me the following I should be able to help a little more:- Your processor and speed The amount of RAM you have Your Operating System build If you've ever upgraded from another Operating System Your remaining hard disk space Any new software you've installed Anything else which may be useful
Intel P4. 3.2 960MBRam Not sure what you mean by OS build. Nope, XP was the first OS i put on. 140G free space. Yahoo messenger was put on two days ago, that's all. That's about it. I've ran a few virus programmes and got rid of a Trojan & a few other bits n' pieces, but i'm still not sure if it's made a difference, like i said, i don't want to restart in case it don't turn on again.
Well the OS build is the OS version. Doesn't matter. It's probably XP 5.1 SP2 Build 2600. I was hoping that would reveal what was wrong. Obviously not... You should run a disk check. But here's the problem, you'll need to reboot. Go to My Computer, right click the C drive and click properties. Click the Tools tab and choose error checking. You'll be propmted to restart the computer. I would do this, as there's a good chance it may solve your problem. After all, you can't leave that computer on forever.
I'm on version 10 and don't have this problem. Windows Media 10 has served me well from the minute I got it. Takes some getting used to though, especially if you're attatched to version 9.
Any devices hooked up to the computer? Maybe it's a hardware problem, give your pc box a nice cleanup of dust and junk.
I'm on version 10 and don't have this problem. Windows Media 10 has served me well from the minute I got it. Takes some getting used to though, especially if you're attatched to version 9. [/b][/quote] Yeah, it was a clash of some sort over my video/sound card or something. I didn't really listen to the guy explain it to me.
Something similar happened to me. Try to update your video drivers. Also, start in things like safe mode and see if that makes a difference.
Well, I cleaned around my PC, Started in safe mode but it just turned its self off when I tried to do so. Anyway, I turned off my PC last night, then tried to come back on, and the problem persists. I left it overnight again, and it started up with a little delay. Could it be a software problem? Like Yahoo Messenger or something, because if it can happen to Mark over Media Player, then maybe it can happen to me. Anyway, tonight, i'm going to do what Feenix said and check for errors on my C drive. Hopefully that will help, but i'm starting to give up hope at the minute.
If you have a secound computer, take out the hard drive from the computer you're having problems with and put it in the other computer as a slave drive. Run a virus scan, check the drive for errors, etc from there.