Well...the SUBJECT just about covers it.  Last night my computer was working with no problems, and then it froze up, so I RESTARTED it....and then after it was back on...when i clicked on any icon or the start menu...it immediately froze again.  And i repeated this unfortunate cycle about 15 times before i just gave up.  I tried again this morning, and it happened again.  This is really making my day sad.  If anyone has any insight...i would be BEYOND thankful to you.Does this PROBLEM still happen in Safe Mode?lily441, Perchance when your computer "froze" was there a "floppy " disc in the floppy drive? Is it still in there? If so remove it and restart the computer. truenorthThanks for the ideas.  I tried both of them.  My computer will not start in safe mode.  I am expecting the worst at this point.  I care less about the computer and more about the stuff I didn't get around to backing up.  Anyone have any other suggestions?Hmmmm....Strange.....

What Operating System is this?

What were you doing when the computer froze?

Any recent downloads/installs/hardware changes?i use windows xp.  and i was just doing my typical after work RELAXING stuff...like  clothing shopping and checking emails.  nothing out of the ordinary.  then it wouldn't open a new tab...and after i restarted it...i couldn't get the internet explorer to open...now sometimes it will not even let me log in.  it just freezes up.  i haven't downloaded any new programs or changed anything. it has just completely stopped working.   the only thing was that i was a week behind on an update i needed to complete.To retrieve any data you need you should hook it up jumpered as a slave drive on another machine preferably with the same flavor of Windows and then copy/burn what you need...

Afterwards you can do a Clean Install of XP...

Warning: Make sure you backup what you need because the clean install will wipe all your data in the first stage...