Windows XP freezes at the welcome screen. I think it is very important to note that this started happening during the first restart after I installed an audio driver (WDM_R171.exe) to make my sound card work. I have a Dell Inspiron 531 slim, which came from the factory with Windows Vista installed. I managed to get a partition going for Windows XP so I could run some of my older games. After I installed XP I ran into some (apparently regular) boot menu troubles; XP would boot automatically. I managed to solve that with a very handy program. After I got Windows XP working I wanted my sound card to work as well (see: Games). I found the perfect XP driver set for my Dell model online and installed the sound driver. I know it worked because XP blared the shutdown sound when I restarted it. However, it was frozen after the reboot. I tried using the "chkdsk /r" command off of my XP start-up CD, but all it did was remove the boot menu again and leave me with a frozen XP. I just fixed the boot menu with a quick recovery, but I am stumped as to how I can get my XP up and running so I can begin my nostalgic gaming. If you need any further details I am happy to oblige and grateful for the response. Thanks, Michael

go to safe mode> login admin account>open system properties > device manager > check if there are any device conflict with yellow exlamaction mark. > if so then either roll back or delete the entr then restart the comp you may have to reinstall again driver. be absolute that is the right driver. good luck Have a Great Day ;-D

Start in safe mode and remove that sound driver.. then reboot into normal mode and see if works right.If you are dual booting Vista and XP, XP should be first then Vista, to make it run right.