[jessla]

Hi. I've searched the internet for answers to my question... and some of the answers I didn't really understand, and I tried a whole bunch of stuff to solve my problem, etc. So I finally decided to just post the question myself and see if I can get any answers.

I have a Dell Inspiron 700m laptop, with Windows XP, 256MB memory, and 1.80 GHz processor. I'm not sure if there's any other system information that you need.

Anyway, randomly, the other day, I had left my computer on a somewhat extended period, and I went to go take it out of its screen-saver mode, and it ended up freezing, so I forced it to shut-down. Since then, whenever I turn it on, a few seconds after I login, my computer will freeze. My mouse still works, but whenever I put it down at that bar thing at the bottom (where the start button is) it goes into the timer image. And anytime I select an icon, my computer completely slows. I try pressing CTRL+Alt+DEL but the system seems to be way too slow to do anything.

I am, however, still able to go into safe mode. And my computer still works perfectly in safe mode! So I disabled all the icons that startup in the right hand side from starting up, thinking that they were slowing down my computer, and that still didn't work.

Then I read that it could be a problem with my fan, so I had a friend walk me through taking apart my computer. And my fan had A LOT of lint, and that fixed a problem that I had had with the computer overheating, but I still have the same problem with the computer freezing every time I start it up. Only safe mode works!

I've tried cleaning out the registry, cleaning out old folders, disk defragmenting, uninstalling unneeded programs, etc. Nothing seems to work. I don't want to do a system restore, because last time I did that, it made my computer even worse. And I'm hoping this problem can be solved without doing that.

I'm sorry for writing such a huge essay! I just wanted to get everything that was wrong across! Thanks so much!

[Elvandil]

A registry cleaner may have done some damage (never use them), but it may also be physical.

Try testing memory for an easy start:

MemScope (Floppy and CD images.)
Microsoft Memory Test (floppy or CD ISO image)
Memtest86

If you have enough memory sticks, you can test them by removing one at a time and see if the problem disappears.

If you are running Vista and can boot up, go to Start > Search and type:

mdsched.exe

Choose to run a memory diagnostic on next boot. Or, you can boot from the DVD and run it from there.

[jessla]

What are memory sticks? I don't have vista, as I posted in the xp forum... but I did run a search, and I can't find that file... I also don't have access to the internet from my computer, as I'm stuck using safe mode. But I'll try to figure out a way that I can test my memory.

[Elvandil]

Check the links above. You can make either a bootable CD or floppy for memory testing.