My computer will not boot up, I am new to this and have no clue what to do? Please any advice would help. The computer is a little over a year old, 3200+AMD Athlon Windows XP, 160GB and 512MB, about 3 weeks ago I was not even on my computer, and I just happened to notice it had shut down and restarted, it came up on the screen that ask if I wanted to start in safe mode,but it would not start in safe mode, the screen came back up again, so I picked prompt mode then it started up and worked fine for 3 days and did the same thing, it worked when i started it the same way, then the next day it just froze up, and I was not on it, so I had to press power button to shut it down, so now the screen comes up that ask to start in safe mode or last known and other options but none of these work, every one I try it just goes back to this same screen, I have tried F12 and other keys but nothing, Please any advise help,

first off, let's hear some specs on the machine in question. is it an oem build (mass produced by dell for example)?

Thanks for the reply, it is a HP pavilion620n that my wife uses,

i suspected as much. hp pavillions have truly horrible airflow designs. the way air is blown and directed inside the case, plus the cramped insides, and the cables all cause major dust and dirt buildup. unless you can take it in on the warranty, your best bet is to open it up and clean it out using a can of compressed air or something. i've encountered lots of pavilions with your problem, and most of the time cleaning the dust out fixed it.

is there a reasonable possibility there was malicious software on the somputer (no protective software + internet conn. = trouble)?

Thanks for the reply, I do not think it was any software issues? I use F-Secure as virus protection, I will open up the case and clean it using a can of compressed air, Thank you so much for the info.

well, you can fidn the answer to one basic question: does it run all right in the bios. try opening the bios and see if you're able to navigate the menus. when the bios no longer works properly, it's a good indication that hardware is at fault. have you acertained the warranty status?

Did you recently make any changes in hardware of software?

Did you install any programs? Also, I have the same computer as you. Have you tried the system restore? Try restoring to a couple days before that crash happened. See if that works.

Start
All Programs
Accessories
System Tools
System Restore

Thanks for the info,my wife said she had not installed any programs before this happened,it is her computer, I was hoping that I could get it to boot up to do the restore, but all it does is when I turn it on that it goes to the screen that reads, start in safe mode and the other modes to start it in, but when I go to any of those choices and then enter, it just comes right back to the same screen, and I have tried pressing the F12 with no luck, it was working great before all this started, tomorrow I do not work so I will try to clean the inside with a can of compressed air, I do not know much about this but to keep my wife happy I will try anything. Thanks for the info

You get into BIOS before the Safe Mode even appears, so be quick about it. I have the problem that my monitor sometimes isn't even up when I can access BIOS so I usually keep pressing the key as soon as it beeps.

And if F-Secure is as "good" as F-Prot...well, then it doesn't make a difference if you have it or not. :rolleyes:

I tried the cleaning out the dust inside, it was dusty, with no luck, I will try getting into the bios again, I tried it the day the computer would not boot up with no luck, maybe I can try that again, and as for the F-Secure antivirs, I used it on my wife's computer and using it now on my Gateway. what do you think of it? I do not know alot about it, I mean if it is as good as the others, I wanted to try a different one, it's just that with my internet cable company I am hooked to if you pay for the high speed net offer they have, you get the virus protection free and so that is what i went with, I was reading that they were partners with F-Secure, if it is not that great, I would like to change now, thanks for all the info from everyone at TechSpot, I do know you are the best, Thanks

if you can't get into the bios, you have a hardware problem. given your computer, i'd expect a hardware problem to be tricky on account of the oem build.