Anyone ever have this problem? My sister has a computer that was entering an endless loop at startup and would freeze or shut itself down every time. So I formatted the entire hardrive and reinstalled Windows XP Home. I flashed the BIOS with the latest update. Everything worked fine and I had no PROBLEMS when rebooting the computer the first day.

However, after leaving the computer turned off for the night, I booted it to continue with updates etc. and the computer froze right at the CMOS screen. I then attempted to restart it and the same thing happened accept it went a little further in the boot process. Finally after the eighth or ninth try, it booted up and worked fine and rebooted with no problems. But after leaving it shut off the next night, the problem occured all over again. If I leave it turned off for any large LENGTH of time like TWENTY four hours, the computer struggles to bootup. The time is correct so I am wondering if this could still be the battery or not. Any ideas?

THXMaybe the hard drive is dying.Free diagnostics can be downloaded at the appropriate drive maker's site. sometimes a hard drive can have trouble starting from cold due to mechanical problems such as lubricant drying out or sticking heads; if it boots it will OFTEN run all day, but shut it down overnight and it won't start again.
Thx. That might explain the clicking noises I hear whien it tries to boot. I'll get another hardrive and see how things go.Definite hard drive problem. You are right to replace it.

Alan <>< If it's dried lubricant, sometimes changing orientation, for example putting the drive on its side for about 30 minutes can allow sufficient to flow to the bearings to allow startup. Then one can recover data before trashing it.
A new hard drive did the trick. Thank you everyone.

Also, thanks for the handy tip contrex.

Uriel,

Nice of you to stop by and let US know what worked...stop by again.