Need Assistance

My ex-wife had her computer on and running normally. She went out for a couple of hours, leaving it running and when she came back it was locked up. It can't be re-started in any mode. It brings up the "Windows XP" page for about 1 second, then the light blue "screen of death" appears for about 0.5 of a second, then the following message appears. We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this. Your computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly, or was automatically shut down to protect your files & folders. Choose last known D configuration to revert to the most recent settings that worked. A previous startup attempt was interrupted due to a power failure or because power or reset button was pressed, or if you aren’t sure what caused the problem, choose “start Windows normally” The computer simply keeps re-booting and going to the same message. I tried re-inserting the XP disc to in an attempt to re-load the operating system but the computer will not respond to the disc. Cannot get into safe mode or any other mode.

hmm… could be one of several things. I would, however, check the power supply first. Make sure the fan is spinning. Next, unplug the machine, pull the cover off and make sure that your physical drives, video addaptor, RAM.. any other pnp cards or devices are seated properly and/or the plugs are in good and snug. Next, check the heatsinks on top of the CPU (will be a fan on top of them) and make sure there not clogged up with dust. With the cover still off, plug the machine back in and boot up… then post back and let us know.

Hey Crow; I opened it up and checked everything. It all seems tight. Cleaned the dust out. There was very little. Both fans blow strongly. The computer is a P4 and is only a little over 2 years old. It lives in a pretty clean environment. No difference in what happens when I try to boot up. The XP opening page looks good too, but it still crashes right away, like it is just getting going and hits a wall. It's strange. nadog

Hey Crow; Could you please close the post. I took the machine in to a place and they had to reload Windows. They figured it was a virus. It's fixed. Thanks for your effort. nadog