[recurve]

I am currently on my wife's computer as mine no longer works. I have a Dell XPS P4 3.2EE, 4 gig main ram, 80g HD, and a nvidea video card (unsure of model on this). was working fine last nite. I constantly run norton security, spybot S & D, Spysweeper, AVG antivirus, and others, and machine has been running good with no problems. I was sitting in front of the machine in a game when the screen went black. Then it came back on again, fluctuated black to regular several times before it stayed black. Now when I start the machine it gets to various stages of booting up, and then all activity ceases and screen goes black.
Sometimes I get a bios message, sometimes I dont. Sometimes it gets as far as the loading windows screen. I even got it up in safe mode once but it locked up when I was checking settings. I really don't believe this is a malware problem because of all the protection I have on my machine. Oh forgot to mention windows defender and my router firewall as well. Any Ideas would be appreciated.

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You could look at re-installing the video adapter software

Items in blue which are underlined are clickable to give more information about the process

Start the System Restore Utility at a command prompt

1. Restart your computer, and keep tapping F8 during the initial start-up until you get options, select Safe Mode with a Command Prompt then press enter.

2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account that has administrator credentials.

3. Type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to an earlier state.

Look for the most recent system checkpoint created before the errors to restore from

For additional information about the Safe mode with a command prompt, click the following article number to see a description of the Safe Mode Boot Options in Windows XPthe article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 315222


If no change

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, right click any file then click delete, confirm delete

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter, you need the XP CD and Windows File Protection will show a blue onscreen progress bar, when the bar goes, reboot

Download and install Tune Up 2006 Trial

Run Tune Up Disc Clean Up

Run Tune Up Registry Clean Up

Click Optimize and Improve to run Reg Defrag, which will take a few minutes and need a reboot. You should disable the antivirus programme to run this and check it is running after the reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor

[Retired Tech]

You could look at re-installing the video adapter software

Items in blue which are underlined are clickable to give more information about the process

Start the System Restore Utility at a command prompt

1. Restart your computer, and keep tapping F8 during the initial start-up until you get options, select Safe Mode with a Command Prompt then press enter.

2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account that has administrator credentials.

3. Type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to an earlier state.

Look for the most recent system checkpoint created before the errors to restore from

For additional information about the Safe mode with a command prompt, click the following article number to see a description of the Safe Mode Boot Options in Windows XPthe article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 315222


If no change

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, right click any file then click delete, confirm delete

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter, you need the XP CD and Windows File Protection will show a blue onscreen progress bar, when the bar goes, reboot

Download and install Tune Up 2006 Trial

Run Tune Up Disc Clean Up

Run Tune Up Registry Clean Up

Click Optimize and Improve to run Reg Defrag, which will take a few minutes and need a reboot. You should disable the antivirus programme to run this and check it is running after the reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor

[recurve]

Finally got it up in safe mode command prompt, and it says system restore wasn't on and cant be turned on in safe mode. Now what?

[Retired Tech]

Go from, if no change in safe mode and turn system restore on when you can

[recurve]

did the clean disc and tried to do defrag. dfrag says that disk does not need defragmented and locks up if I try to run it anyway. after trying to run it a few times, I can now no longer even get to safe mode, computer locks up or goes black on bios screen or when I try to select safe mode.

[Retired Tech]

You can use this guide to repair XP

Possibly, you will need to press the start button and keep tapping the delete key until the PC enters set up. Change the boot order to CD ROM Drive then hard drive, press F10 then press enter, load the XP CD then type Y then press enter, as it reboots, look for press any key to load from CD, press enter

You will need the XP product key to complete this

If you have audio / video files which are subject to DRM you should check with the provider for known issues with performing an XP repair install

XP Repair Install

Windows XP repair feature won't delete your data, installed programs, personal information, or settings. It just repairs the operating system

After running XP Repair you will need to install all Windows Updates

Microsoft Update

[recurve]

changed the boot order and have xp disc in drive. computer just quits in the middle of reading the xp files, farthest it has gotten on any attempt was "loading files USB keyboard". Most attempts it has ceased activity well before that file. I am still repeating the process hoping to get through it.

[Retired Tech]

Have you ever had RAM memory problems

[recurve]

never had any trouble with this machine. It was however purchased as a refurb. Dunno what was supposedly wrong with it to start with. If you suspect memory module problems, I do have 4 1 gig modules, would switching or removing some be an option?

[Retired Tech]

Try it with one in the first slot, they are all easily big enough to repair install XP

[recurve]

Finally got xp to load all the way from the cd, chose repair option. said windows xp does not detect a hard drive on your system, only choice it gave me was F3 quit. I will switch the first and last memory module and see what happens.

[Retired Tech]

Boot the PC and keep tapping the delete key (possibly F2) until it enters set up, look for BIOS defaults, load those, press F10 to save, type Y to confirm, press enter with the XP CD in

[recurve]

got into bios, have scrolled through all the choices, even selecting all of them to see what you can do in each category. Have found no choice to revert or reset bios to defaults.

[recurve]

I switched the first and last memory modules, and bios is reporting the correct amount of memory. OUCH! the heat sinc on the processor is hot enough to fry an egg on.

[Retired Tech]

Wait until everything has cooled down then run it