Hello,

I hope I can find some help with this problem.  About a week ago at times XP Home would not load.  The screen would stay gray and I would reboot and it would come up fine.  I had a dual boot setup with W2000 and XP.  Well, I got rid of the dual boot setup as I didn't need it any longer and did a fresh install of XP on newly formatted partition and it still has the same problem.  At times the OS simply won't load and the screen stays gray.  I reboot and it might do that again or the OS will load.  Any ideas?

Thanks,
Beth Nagle nagle.....  When this occurs, does Xp start to load ...or just nothing ? When this happens ,is the light on the monitor green or amber ?

dl65  Thanks for your reply.  When I turn on the computer XP doesn't even start to load. It all stops within moments of pushing the power button.  As for the monitor, the light is green when the computer stops short of loading the OS and remains green while the screen is blank.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
NagleWhat about some details about the system, how long this has been going on, what happened prior to this, etc.My apologies for not giving more details.

AMD Athlon 2200+
1.8ghz
1G Ram
Radeon 9200
dual monitor setup
160G Seagate Hard Drive
XP home

Is that all you need?

I can't think of anything happening prior to this or having done anything differently that caused this.  I thought formatting and reinstalling XP would cure this but it didn't.  However, I did not format the entire disk as one partition had my Data (misc. files I keep on its own partition).  This started happening about 1.5 to 2 weeks ago and I just did the reinstall day before yesterday.

I did scan the partition the OS is on and it did not find any errors.  ?

Thanks,
Beth NagleWas the computer moved, monitor reattached, any activity inside the case, etc.?No, the computer hasn't been moved.  

Interestingly, yesterday I was tweaking a game because it was running slowly and at some point while tweaking the graphics my LCD monitor went gray though my CRT monitor didn't. I have a dual monitor setup that has been working fine.  I note that I COULD not move the cursor anywhere so the keyboard was out.  The whole computer became inoperative and I had to reboot.  I am going to check all my connections and clean my computer and I am also going to put in my previous graphics card to see if this problem occurs.  This is my mode of troubleshooting right now.    Any thoughts?

That sounds like a reasonable starting plan. I would certainly keep it as simple as possible until resolved, manipulating only one variable at a TIME. You will find your culprit!  Yes, one thing at a time.  Here is what I have done so far:

I swapped the graphics card.  Did not help.
I tried different monitors.  Did not help.
I have tested both memory sticks and ran both individually in different slots and problem continues. So I don't think it is a memory issue.
Next, I am going to swap a different drive.  I don't WANT to redo my setup unless I have to!

Interestingly, if the computer has been on awhile, the problem doesn't seem as acute but always, so far upon a cold boot, the problem ARISES and after two to three reboots it finally loads the OS.  Fun eh?

Any thoughts?  Any areas I am overlooking to test?

Thanks,
BethWhen it fails does it show a POST screen?I will have to test that...I am not sure. It seems I remember seeing it but I will have to test it again.  I thought I remember seeing  I  Bios splash screen.  I will have to get into cold boot mode and be sure I record exactly what I see.   It would help to know exactly whn it stops.
You may have a failing PSU.Ok, I finally got a good cold boot and it stops immediately after accessing the floppy drive.  There is no Bios splash screen and not POST screen.  Your mentioning the PSU got me thinking in another vein. I caused me to remember that I plugged this computer into a different OUTLET before all this started.  I will plug it into the previous outlet and see what happens.  

Any thoughts on this new information?  Of course it's possible to be an elecricty supply (outlet) problem but highly unlikely.
It does cast some serious doubt on your PSU though.I see.  Well, I don't know if I let it sit long enough as it booted up but it hung on the Welcome screen longer than usual.  It has been doing that periodically.

I will read up on PSU's and such.  I am also going to try a different HD as that certainly won't hurt.

Thanks.