My computer has just recently started acting up in a BIG way. first off, turing it on is a pain. sometimes the monitor doesnt come on and the computer doesnt sound like it boots all the way at all. then when i do get it on the BIOS comes up saying i have inproper CPU settings. I have reverted all the settings back to default and this problem wont stop.
today i turned my computer on to find that exploer (or something more than that) Has developed a big fault. first off, it freezes on boot up when it starts to load programs. as in, task bar freezes and wont let me do anything. i have to mess around in task manager to get it running.
Now i tried to load up Trillian just now and nothing happened, so i tried one or two more programs...seems like anything that puts icons in systray wont load.
I also cant get into control panel, just freezes up explorer. also, no matter what now, the windows key doesnt work, at all. It has also started making the noise that it makes when it shuts down, kinda a coughing noise that i assume is comming from the HDD
looking over the CPU usage bit on Task manager, it isnt even using the CPU at all fronm the look of things, less than 10% at all times.
any help would be apperciated. This computer has run, without problems for months now.
EDIT: just found out i cant get into any of my files either...crashes exploerer he same as control panel.
DOUBLE EDIT: Found system specs
Operating System
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 (build 2600)
Processor a
1.67 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. A7A266-E REV 1.xx
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software, Inc. ASUS A7A266-E ACPI BIOS Revision 1011 03/01/2002
Drives
DVDRW IDE1108 [CD-ROM drive]
GT3714U IXI840E SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]
GT3714U IXI840E SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]
GT3714U IXI840E SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]
LITE-ON DVD SOHD-16P9SV [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]
MAXTOR 6L080J4 [Hard drive] (80.05 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 664204851390, rev A93.0500, SMART Status: Healthy
Maxtor 6Y160P0 [Hard drive] (163.93 GB) -- drive 1, s/n Y44E5T0E, rev YAR41BW0, SMART Status: Healthy
768 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot 'DDR 1' has 256 MB
Slot 'DDR 2' has 512 MB
Edit, again: Sorry to keep adding things
Just reset the thing, my custom boot up screen failed, then when it got all booted up...no crash, no forzen toolbar or anything. exept the rest of the symptoms are still teher, cant load trillian or alot of other programs. when i was shutting down, everything worked for a moment, which leads me to think its a file doing it...but when it was shutting down trillian loaded and so did a few other things before closing down.
Edit, once more
: And now it all works perfectly, nothing wrong, all programs running happy...please help?