Problems with Win2K - SP2 on an Intel P4. Win2K used to work fine. Problem: I Can make it by initial Win2K Pro startup screen. 95% of time, when it gets to the 'Please Wait...' and login screen, all ASCII characters are display garbled. If you click on the login button, almost always, the computer freezes. Before clicking the button, if you hold but don't let up on the mouse, over the garbled buttons, the text displays properly. It never freezes unless you click the button. If you leave the system and don't press anything, you retain functionality over the mouse and buttons. The odd time, the characters won't be garbled and you can click to proceed. It sometimes then freezes. The very odd time, it will go in and load the desktop with proper icons, task tray items, etc. Then it will freeze. What I've Done so Far: Computer will start fine in Safe Mode. Have run McAfee in Safe and deleted the common backdoors, minor trojans, etc. Have run AdAware and removed all unjust registry keys, etc. Have checked the registry and the only thing that seems out of the ordinary is a couple of insignificant keys that have odd characters, but this doesn't seem to be associated. Have uninstalled that wretched program Kazaa. The system, while a year old, has only had the following aps ever installed: -Office2k -IE 5.5 w/ SP? -WMP, QT, WA, RT -Kazaa Because it loads fine in Safe and there are no problems until after the initial Startup screen, I'm under the impression that this might have something to do with either: A) Corrupt Registry, or; B) Damaged DLL files or other files loaded in during a normal startup. If anyone has any knowledge or experience with a problem like this, I would love to hear from you. I'm completely baffled and want to get this system up without having to reformat the HD and reinstall everything as there are several personal Word Docs, etc. that I don't want to lose (and I'm too lazy to install my CD burner to back the files up...not to mention, just wanting to know what the hell is wrong with it!) Thanks!

hi jeremy, go in safe mode then reinstall your all drivers or update them i.e. mouse , VGA or any other related ones lets see if this thing works out :)

Hi Ronleno, Thanks for the advice... I should have thought about it - though it didn't solve the problem. After reinstalling fresh (including a new fmat, which it needed anyways - someone didn't partition a 60GB drive...idiots). Anyway, after weeks and weeks of grief and finally sitting down, realizing that the reinstalls weren't helping, I opened it up. Dust. A pool of dust on the video card... If you can believe that. Now we all now. Thanks...