xp home freeze when starting up

[john]

My p4 2.8 pc using xp home freezes at the user window
when starting. After a minute or so it goes to some
screensaver type pictures. Sometimes activating the
keyboard or mouse will get it going again, sometimes not.
I'm using a zone alarm basic firewall, norton av and xp
firewall, so it shouldn't be a nasty. The problem first
showed up when my son was playing neverwinter nights
(from the hard disk rather than the cd) and froze the
game. It had to be turned off without exiting windows. I
don't think it is showing as hard disk damage, though.
Can someone suggest how to tackle this?

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Does Event Viewer offer any clues as to the cause?

Make a note of the precise text of any error message. You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID: and Source Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&Product=winxp

Post details of the Error Report and we can see if we are able to help.

Another approach!

How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353&Product=winxp

HOW TO: Perform Advanced Clean-Boot Troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434&Product=winxp


~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA
(e-mail address removed)
Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~