Starting Computer normally doesnt show anything but zoomed in background.

[MarinoM]

Running Windows Xp Pro ,Dell Inspiron 700m , 1.70 ghz Intel Pentium R processor, .98 Gb of ram. Version 2002 , Service pack 2.

When I start my computer up normally , it boots and shows me nothing but a zoomed in picture of my background. I cannot access anything by pressing any buttons( windows start button , Ctrl+alt+delete) it work fine in safe mode(save the restrictions that safe mode has) , I have tried debugging mode which does diskcleanup , doesnt work , vga mode,start windows normally , last settings that worked. None has worked properly. Prior to this problem nothing was wrong that I noticed , Norton anti_virus is out of date so maybe it is a virus? Right now I am in safe mode and all programs run fine.

I entered safe mode myself by hitting F8 before The windows booting screen showed(the one where it has the little bar with the dots moving to the side animation.) I have waited a while for my computer to do something while it was in the frozen state but it showed no signs of progress. I would like to know any suggestions of what caused it and what to do to solve it , thanks.

[patio]

How did you fit 98G of RAM into that machine ? ?

How long did you wait for safemode to load ? ?
I've seen this take 4 or 5 minutes on some machines that were not maintained properly...

[MarinoM]

im sorry , not 98 Gigs of ram , .98. It took safe mode as fast as a normal computer start up would , around maybe a minute or less.

[patio]

If you are able to get into safemode you could try the following:
Go to Start/Run and type in sfc /scannow and hit Enter...let it run to completion and have your XP CD handy as it will ask for it.
Then remove the CD and re-boot and see if you get a normal startup...

[contrex]

How did you fit 98G of RAM into that machine ? ?

There is actually a decimal point, although MarinoM needs telling that it is customary to write a zero if the amount is less than 1.0,  e.g. "0.98".

.98 Gb of ram