Hello, Booted PC to find that the desktop doesn't load properly and everything freezes. Tried restarting with the hope of having a look in safe mode, but pressing F8 during the reboot doesn't bring up the menu as expected. Am I doing something wrong? Cheers, Iain

Iain, Follow the instructions for Windows XP at the link below. How to Start Windows in Safe Mode Tufenuf

Hey, thanks for your reply. As I said, I've tried pressing F8 as that link says, but nothing happens.

Have you tried tapping F8 key immediately after the BIOS screen & before Windows caterpillar screen appear? i_XpUser

Have you tried the second method as shown below? To use the System Configuration Utility method Close all open programs. Click Start, Run and type MSCONFIG in the box and click OK The System Configuration Utility appears, On the BOOT.INI tab, Check the "/SAFEBOOT" option, and then click OK and Restart your computer when prompted. The computer restarts in Safe mode. Perform the troubleshooting steps for which you are using Safe Mode. When you are finished with troubleshooting in Safe mode, open MSCONFIG again, on the BOOT.INI tab, uncheck "/SAFEBOOT" and click OK to restart your computer Tufenuf

I have one of those keyboards with the F-lock, which is why it probably doeasn't work.

Keep tapping the F8 key about once every second or two as it's booting. Holding down the ctrl key also works sometimes. Do yourself a favor BACKUP! Sorry, I do not check for private messages