Computer not coming on first time

[UnquietDad]

Computer is doing odd things.

It's a Compaq PC and I'm using Windows XP.

Two days running now it has done the same. Switch on at mains, push the button, I get the usual "RGB" message on the screen and then the usual intro screen with "Compaq" on it. And the n, where I'd expect the login screen - nothing. Blankness.

So I switch off at mains and on again, and it comes up with the message telling me Windows was interrupted, and do I want to start Windows normally? So I hit the key to make it do that, and it comes on fine.

Any suggestions?

how old is it ? We had issues when our windows xp was corrupted.

It's about 5 years old and has not been devoid of problems, exactly but I had a computer engineer give it the once-over and clean bill of health just a couple of months ago.

hmm , ours was similar age - I'm sure these things are set to self destruct after a while. Eventually it got to a point where we had blue screen warnings and Windows wouldn't start at all. I ended up repairing then reinstalling XP, then a month later the hard drive went .... Make sure you back up asap.

Thanks - have most important stuff backed up...

My sister's PC was playing up - sometimes didn't get through the XP start up, but if it got as far as loading her settings, it seemed to carry on OK.

I wondered if the HD was playing up (PC sitting there, waiting for data off HD) but she brought it over here last week and I took her HD out (virus checked it because of her lad) and put another 40 GB HD in.

Similar thing happened (re freeze), except I had left it to get some food, came back and switched on the screen, and it must have crashed and rebooted as it was showing the BIOS 'Energy Star compliant' screen before Windows XP gets mentioned, and froze there. So it was definitely not her HD.

However at this age, it could be loose RAM chips and I'm going to open it up again soon (but have been using it for most of the day so I know it is still working OK - using it to type this post!)