Hi Michael, Okay, I assume you're running windows and I assume because you say "old PC" that you're running win95 or 98 or ME so......
Switch on the PC and start pressing F8 just after you see the bios information appear on the screen. After a moment a screen should appear giving you options on how to start windows. Select safe mode from this menu (just enter the number for this). Windows should then boot into safe mode. If it boots into safe mode remove any programs that are loaded on startup (e.g. virus checkers etc.) by moving everything out of C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp and using add/remove programs to remove virus checkers or similar. If you're confident you can also check for stuff being loaded at startup via the registry by running regedit and checking the following key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run but don't modify this unless you know what you're doing. Then shutdown as normal switch the machine off and on again...does it now boot normally???? If it didn't boot in to safe mode you have two choices either: 1) go through the F8 step again but select step-by-step confirmation..this starts windows by loading all your drivers one by one so you can see which one it is having trouble loading. You then need to look up the driver on microsoft's knowledge base (on their website) to see if it has any known issues and what fixes are recommended. 2)Install a fresh copy of windows. This is not ideal as windows should really only be installed clean (i.e. newly partitioned and formatted drive) but this way you can at least get the machine working and keep all your files. Here's an extra note on booting into safe mode http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm Safe mode is simply windows with a minimum set of drivers loaded (e.g. no network, low res vga graphics etc) so the machine is much more likely to be able to boot. Well, any more questions let me know and I'll try and help. Feel free to contact me offlist about it.You've got my e-mail anyway. cheers, Sol. ----- Original Message ----- From: michael leigh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 5:11 PM Subject: FLUXLIST: frozen screen syndrom > hi this is aplea for help from all you tech-heads out > there. just defragged our old pc but now the desktop > wont appear just the microsoft doo dad. i keep > re-booting but nothing happens. just gets to this > bloody microsoft thingy and freezes. can anyone help? > cheers > Michael > > > > > > ____________________________________________________________ > Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" > your friends today! Download Messenger Now > http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html >
