I am having a problem with a new installation. On power up or windows restart the system freezes on the startup screen. The blue boxes fly across for a few seconds and then stop. However, if I then press the HW reset the system enters the safe mode options screen at which point I can choose the LKGC option and the system starts up OK ! The good news is that this is now 100% consistent. Other information which may be relevant : I had to take out the modem card otherwise is freezes every time. There are 2 CD’s but no other hardware. I did have a second sound present which caused the installation process to freeze however that went through once I removed the card. The modem card was present during the installation. The system seems to run OK once its up but I have not tried it for any length of time yet. I tried setting and restoring but that made no difference. I have also reinstalled. The system has been used with 98 and SE and works OK. I am sure this has a simple solution if I just new where to look. I can provide any other HW info if you think that might be relevant. Any ideas fixing or further diagnosis would be very gratefully received. Many thanks John

most start up problems with xp pro is the video card. boot into safe mode, dump the video drivers. i bet it'll boot then. could be memory tho

Dear friend Correct me if I am wrong you have a fresh installation of XP with service pack1 (SP1) not installed,If yes then first install the service pack because there were many such bugs in XP due to which XP would freeze at welcome screen etc If installation of SP1 does not solve your problem than other possible causes are BAD RAM modules and possible IRQ conflicts to avoid one possible case of IRQ conflict is to keep the first PCI slot vaccant.