XP unable to perform after restart.

[Guest]

Upon restart or shutdown, XP is unable to work. Monitor is on sleep mode
(orange light instead of yellow on the power LED), Wireless adapter show
yellow lights for a minute after start up then die (eg. Cap locks light can
be activated only for a minute or so.) CPU running, Optical drive workable.
Windows can only [erform as per normal after more than an hour of last
shutdown or restart, upon which it says Windows prompt for start up in safe
or last good configuration. Is this a hardware problem or software problem?

 

[Malke]

Upon restart or shutdown, XP is unable to work. Monitor is on sleep mode
(orange light instead of yellow on the power LED), Wireless adapter show
yellow lights for a minute after start up then die (eg. Cap locks light can
be activated only for a minute or so.) CPU running, Optical drive workable.
Windows can only [erform as per normal after more than an hour of last
shutdown or restart, upon which it says Windows prompt for start up in safe
or last good configuration. Is this a hardware problem or software problem?

It sounds like hardware. Possibly your machine is overheating and needs
the time to cool off. Of course, there's no way to tell for sure without
seeing the computer but here are some general hardware troubleshooting
steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

Standard caveat: Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out
suspected parts with known-good parts. If you can't do the testing
yourself and/or are uncomfortable opening your computer, take the
machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local
equivalent of BigStoreUSA). Have all your data backed up before you take
the machine into a shop.


Malke