Oh woe is me!

[John Lowe]

After switching on after being off overnight my PC shows initial boot
screens complete with the friendly "beep", then goes to a black blank screen
and stays there. I hit the "reset" button and it restarts and gives me the
"hit any key to start Windows normally, in safe mode, etc" screen. I hit
"start normally" and it does!! From then on it behaves normally.

Any ideas from you learned bunch??

Many thanks. John Lowe UK

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Does it do this when you simply restart the system? If not, then I would
suspect that your video card is beginning to fail. When "cold", it does not
initialize properly, by the time you reset it some power has been applied
and "warms" the card up and it works fine. This could be indicative of
cracks in the card (something you may or may not be able to see).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org