Hi, I have a Compaq laptop, 833 MHz AMD, 256 SDRAM, XP Home. One day i restart my computer and it freezes at bootup. I am allowed to go into the startup menu. I tried all the options (i.e. Safe Mode, Last known..., etc), it freezes shortly after i select the option (sometimes i get a black screen, and it freezes, while for Safe Mode it lists the files it loads, and it freezes on certain files). For safe mode, it first froze on some file agp... .sys. I disabled it, then after it froze on some other file. And after i disable this one, it freezes on some other file. I did system restore twice, from different CDs too. And i have the same problem (the only difference is that in Safe mode it freezes on different files). Does anyone have any idea what else i can do? I have a lot of valuable data on my laptop, and i was stupid not to back it up. Can i do anything else besides formatting and reinstalling windows? Could it be a hardware problem too? And if it is how do i check for it? Thanks a lot. Ted

I don't understand. You cannot boot into windows but you " did system restore twice"?? Do you mean you did a repair instal of windows? Do you have a full instal disk for XP or a "Recovery" disk? Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life.

I have a recovery disk

Ok. I think a "Recovery" using your disk is a totally different process than using XP's "System Restore". Hence my confusion. I have no experience with Compaq recovery process. You may have a corrupted bootsector. Not sure how you go about repairing that with a recovery disk. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life.

Check your fans check your memory with Doc memory tester Download a diagnostic from your hard drive manufacturer's web site to check the HD.

Freezing could also be the harddrive stopping. Watch the harddrive indicator light. I have seen my Compaq desktop take a long time to boot, due to harddrive freezing. The indicator light would stay on instead of rapid blinks. And the display stops. I do not know about being able to do this on laptops, but you may be able to install your harddrive as a slave drive on another computer. Then recover your files.