fade to black....

[Mr.Backstabber]

I have a really strange problem. Sometimes when I reboot my pc all i see is a black screen when everything loads. The computer isn't frozen becuase I can move my mouse (the mouse pointer is visible, everything else is black). Other times the pc loads fine. I have no idea what the problem is....I should point out that everything loads fine in safe mode, always. My operating system is Windows XP home, some of my specs are
2.53GHz PC with 1gig of rdram and 120gig hard drive . Any help is appreciated.

[Omyn]

I believe I had a similar problem with one of my Windows installations quite a few years back.

It would bring me to the point of loading, I would see the mouse but nothing would come up, upon hitting ctrl+alt+delete windows would load after that keystroke.

But I dont think that will solve it for you...

Please give us as much information as you can about your system as well as any programs you have installed.

Also if you can I would recomment taking out all of the hardware components you do not need (PCI, CDROM drives, RAM modules) and have just enough to load your computer.
If your problem stops, I would then put back each device one at a time and see if it has any effect on your system.

Have you installed new hardware recently?

Checked for spyware and viruses?

What is your average CPU temperature?

System temperature?

Have you reinstalled Windows and have it happen again?

Is your power supply sufficent for your system, a power supply that is being taxed too much or not providing enough wattage can cause your system to hang at odd times like you are describing or stop completely, and usually no prominent cause for why it is doing it, try replacing the power supply with a more powerful one from a friends pc and see if that does the trick. Also check the weight of the power supply, if it is light it is a peice of crap a good quality power supply will weigh a few pounds.

I need to go to bed now, if you still have trouble you can feel free to PM me and we will troubleshoot it until its fixed :]

[CCSDUDE]

Does this happen when you unplug an move the system only?

[Mr.Backstabber]

I didn't install any new hardware, no viruses or spyware, the cpu and system tempertures are normal, and no I didn't reinstall windows yet. I suspect that maybe my video drivers are to blame, the problem does not occur on every restart it happens frequently, but not everytime. I've just uninstalled SP2 to see if it helps in any way. Also, the system loads fine in safe mode, this is why I suspect some driver is to blame. Thanks for the assistance.

Oh yeah...the software on my pc is nothing out of the ordinary (adobe, marcomedia, microsoft) products. Also I have no idea when the problem exactly started becuase I keep my computer on for days at a time, and the problem only occurs on reboot. I need to leave right now (work), but thanks for all the help.

[Miniver]

What kind of video card do you have? Have you installed the most recent drivers for it?

[mcovey]

Easiest solution--- you could be up and running tonight:

back up your important files onto a few CD-RWs (in safe mode), make a txt file of all your installed programs, and reinstall windows.

Once it's reinstalled get service pack 2 (network install, or download windows updates), put back all your documents and music/movies/pix, and whatever else, reboot and reinstall all your programs. I did it so many times it takes me about 4 hours now to go from backing up to done reinstalling everything.

Of course I dont have any boxed software so you may want to keep that handy if youve got it.