Hi folks,
I've spent the past few days grabbing a few minutes here and there to put together enough bits of PC to make one good one. I managed it and have been happily playing at setting up a home network and other such stuff but.....
Miss O has been using the 'puter and said "it's not working anymore..." A little box popped up so she just clicked OK and then the screen froze. Resetting the machine starts it but as soon as the XP desktop screen opens, it freezes and neither the keyboard or the mouse works.
Any suggestions?
I hadn't got around to an AV so can I try and get some on there now or do I need to wie the HDD and start again?

ETA. Dunno if this is relevant but as the desktop freezes, I get the "Work offline..No connection to the internet is currently available...blah blah" message. Does this mean that some evil bug is trying to update or summats? I unplugged the network cable just in case...

[Edited on 1/11/11 by owelly]

press f8 as it boots and pick last known good config out of the list. that should roll it back to the last settings that worked without losing any data


edit.....

then go buy a mac

[Edited on 2/11/2011 by ashg]

OK, done that and it's just the same.....

If I could afford a MAC, I'd have one!!

And another thing I've noticed......when I press the reset button, as it closes down, it shows various messages of which programmes are closing as it would normally. It's as if the keyboard and mouse is disabled once the desktop opens!

press f8 again and try safe mode.

XP professional has a very effective repair option assumming you still have the original installation disc.

In safe mode I get the words 'safe' in each corner of the screen as it boots but it then goes back to the normal desktop then hangs up again! I've tried running repair from the install disc but when prompted for 'r' to repair, the keyboatd fails!

is at a USB keyboard ?

if so have you got an old PS2 one you can try instead ?

Its a ps2 keyboard and mouse I'm using. Been trying to find usb ones to try!

You could abandon windows altogether and try Ubuntu. its very forgiving of older spec PC's.
I have it on a memory stick and will boot from just about any PC in a couple of minutes.
You can also dual boot and keep windows on it.

Google would suggest a hardware fault or corrupt drivers. HTF do I fix it without using the keyboard?!

It's not that Dell is it mate?

I had this before when my video drivers became corupted somehow. I downloaded ubuntu onto a disc from my laptop then booted up the desktop with the ubuntu disc. Once i had saved all my documents and photos i had to reinstall xp again.

Yup, it's the Dell GX270! I've sort of got it working with a bit of faffing about and finding a USB port that still works so I can plug in a USB mouse. I don't have a USB keyboard though!
I've tried to do a system restore and although the date I want to roll back to is highlighted, it says that there is no restore point! Blummin 'eck.

There is a known issue with the capacitors blowing on the motherboard. There's a row of five or so behind the CPU. These going will cause the pc to freeze and lockup.

Check behind the CPU socket and on top of the capacitors there. If they're bulging or leaking it's bad news.

If they're fine then happy days! Worst scenario is a reinstall....

No sign of any board damage. There must be some bugs in there as when I try to run AVG, it fails to complete the scan but won't tell me why. I'll get a usb keyboard tomorrow and see what happens.