Ok, this problem is driving me nuts - I hope someone can help! My exact system is as follows: Amd 2000+ XP CPU with official heatsink/fan 512Mb PC133 RAM 40Gb Seagate ATA100 Hard Drive GeForce 4 MX440 graphics card ECS K7S5A motherboard Win XP Pro with all updates installed via Win Update, including DirectX 9 and the latest NVidia drivers I took the GeForce card from my old system a month ago when building this new one, but all other parts are new. The system has been working fine for a month or so until now. On Friday night, I was using my system when it suddenly locked up - I was only using IE at the time, and thought it was unusual. I rebooted, and everything was fine. On Saturday morning, I switched it on, and it did the same - only this time upon reloading Win XP it froze at the "Welcome" screen, when it was trying to load up the desktop. So far I've tried the following: 1) Booting in safe mode. It works, but not much use in safe mode. 2) Using System Restore in Safe Mode. This fails every time without giving me any reason - it just says it's unsuccesful. 3) Using the XP CD to get to the Recovery Console, which is no use as I've not idea which files - if any - I should be looking to change or delete. 4) Using System File Checker (SFC). This fails as it can't scan protected files in Safe Mode, and won't work at all in Recovery. 5) Repairing an XP Installation via the CD. This reinstalls, and then crashes at exactly the same point. 6) Reinstalling clean, and formatting the drive as NTFS. This goes to the Welcome screen and crashes, exactly the same - on a clean install. All of this has left me a mite confused - so much for System Restore, as it restores nothing but my trust in the fact Microsoft can mess anything up if they try hard enough. Even weirder, after doing this for about 6 hours on Saturday, it then refused to boot up into Safe Mode either! It loads all files up to "Mup.sys" or something similar, and then freezes completely. I've tried using the Seagate diagnostics tools, and they report the drive is fine - although the system froze again during the long test, which should have taken about an hour or so. And now comes the weirdest part. I booted up on Sunday, and in desperation I looked into the BIOS and noticed that "ACPI Compliant OS" was set to "no". I didn't think it would make a difference ... but I changed it to "Yes" and upon booting, it booted normally and it worked fine. I then reapplied all of the various patches, etc, from Windows update, and everything was working fine again. All well, you'd think .... until I switched my machine on this morning at 7am, and as I used WinAmp to play some MP3s, the system froze again - and it now freezes on the Welcome screen AGAIN. It boots to Safe Mode, and nothing else - and the ACPI Mode setting is still set to "On". I'm seriously unamused here, as I can't think of anything that could be causing this ... if the MB or CPU was faulty, surely it'd have been crashing more, and wouldn't have worked fine on Sunday? And if the HD was faulty, surely it wouldn't have worked either? I'm completely confused. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as quite frankly I'm out of them!! Many thanks, -Andy

I'd think about flashing the bios or looking into a new power supply.

1. Thing i would do is reinstall and dont use any service pack i have read alot of things saying they have many bugs. 2. It might could be one or 2 things that i can think of your ram or video card. Frist thing i would check is vcard you did say u took it out of your old system it could be on the edge of death. If u take out your vcard and everthing works fine well u have found your problem if not try buying a cheap stick of ram and changing it and see if that helps. 3. Last but not least you could need to get a different version of bios for your motherboard. Other then the above i realy have now clue. mobo = asus a7v266--cpu amd1700 1.47@1.6 vcore 1.88 11x 145/36 temp = 0% cpu 49c 100% cpu 54c (volcano9) mem = kingston 512 ddr2100 hd = ibm deskstar 7200rpm 40gb vga = geforce3 @ 245/560 dvd rom + cd rw--soundcard = soundblasterlive--speakers creative 5.1 OS = xp pro PCmark 8116 #1 rig

Thanks for the suggestions, guys ... Jeff, It's a brand new case with a 350W PSU - Ive used the same case on a number of systems I've built (I do this as a small business) with differing motherboards, though, and had no problems, even with the same CPU, Graphics card, etc. I'll definitely look into flashing the BIOS though - could just be a stability issue, and upon looking around online, one of the more recent BIOS updates mysteriously addresses "stability", although it doesn't specify. Jon - I've not installed Service Pack 1, if that's what you mean? I, too, heard about how unreliable it is, and opted to just use the manual Windows Updates. But again, I've stuck them into similar systems and had no issues at all. 2) I did take the video card out of my old system, but I'd only installed it 2 weeks before, so I don't think it's that ... I could try swapping it with another card to see, though. But again, it's working fine, and when it WAS up and running, I was playing Unreal Tournament 2003 without a hiccup. I'll also try removing one of the RAM modules - I'm using 2 133Mhz ones at the moment. 3) Thanks - I'll try flasjing the BIOS and see if that makes any difference. I've a feeling I might have the latest version already, though! This is what's annoying me - it doesn't make any sense. It does point to a hardware fault, I think, but I'm not sure which peice of hardware! If anyone has any more suggestions, let me know, please! -Andy :o)

Maybe something in this: Computer Seems to Stop Responding Before the Desktop Is Displayed http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320560

i think if youve tried everything else then i would install sp1.....what do you have to lose trying it? i also heard it has bugs but i have it installed and as of this moment (knocking on wood) i have no problems.

Andy, I'm not sure where you stand at this point since on one of your posts you indicated you could boot into safe mode and then later you indicated a problem even in safe mode. I think you are going to have to do some methodical trouble shooting. In thses situations it is difficult to determine the problem source. 1) make sure your BIOS is up to date 2) set BIOS for defaults or optimized whiever applies to your MOBO 3) try a different video card, there may be some hardware incompatibility with the MOBO 4) do a fresh install of winXP 5) see if you have problems in safe mode where there are a minimum number of background programs running and the windows VGA drivers are used 6) remove all but necessary hardware, this means sound card, modem, etc. to check for unexpected interactions 7) somewhere along the line this should identify what is causing the problem 8) do install SP1, it is generally recommended by the experts and in many cases people have had problems with it because they have not followed instructions. It is best to install from a complete download and not by letting winXP decide what is needed. I have installed it on a number of computers without any problems. Good luck