PC Locks Up

[Lisa]

My PC has been locking up for some time. I have an 80g
hard drive and 512 SDRAM. When it locks up I cannot even
get the the Windows Task Manager up by pressing CTRL+ALT-
DEL. I cannot do a proper shut down and I am forced to
shut it down manually. A few days ago Windows would not
come up at all. The screen that appeared was the one that
allows you to choose starting in Safe Mode, Normally or
from the last known good point but no matter what I chose
it would just go back to that same screen. I could not
even start it in Safe Mode. I have an XP disc so I tried
doing a repair but it didn't work. Finally, as a last
resort, I reinstalled Windows XP. Of course I lost
everything and in addition, I still have the same
problem. The PC freezes, I am forced to manually shut it
down. In addition, it will reboot unless I unplug the PC.
I have AVG installed and no viruses are detected. I know
if I continue to power it down, I will lose everything
again. In fact, I just had to shut it down and I got that
same screen that I couldn't get by before but this time I
was able to get Windows started on the third attempt. I
know I'm operating on borrowed time. Does anyone have any
suggestions. Thanks in advance!

 

[Rocket J. Squirrel]

Lisa, it sounds like you might have a hardware problem. Your computer, I
mean. (That's a little tech humor. Not so funny? Sorry.) If you're familiar
with Device Manager then open it up and see if any of your hardware devices
have problems.

When your computer locks up, do you get any error messages? If so, post back
with their complete wording. If you're familiar with Event Viewer, you can
look at that to see if there are any errors recorded there.

Have you added or changed any of the hardware in your computer? If so, then
try this: Start undoing the changes, one by one, starting with the most
recent change, until you locate the offender. Or, have you updated a device
driver? Return to the previous driver, starting with the most recent update,
until you locate the driver with the problem.

You may also have a problem with your RAM. If you have more than one 'stick'
of RAM in your computer, you might try removing one at a time to see if that
solves the problem.

Rocky