I have to press control alt del to bring up the taskmon and reboot or
shut down from there; why and how can i fix this without doing a repair
reinstall ?

See if any of the tips here help you with your lock up issues

WINDOWS XP SHUTDOWN & RESTART TROUBLESHOOTING
http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

--
Gary Tsang
Microsoft MVP - Windows XP Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp


"*ProteanThread*" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have to press control alt del to bring up the taskmon and reboot or
> shut down from there; why and how can i fix this without doing a repair
> reinstall ?
>