helen7

Hi,

I'm new to this board so hello everyone!

I have a Dell computer with vista business, intel core 2 CPU, 66oo@240ghz, 2046mb, 32-bit operating system. I have had it for 3 months and it has been working just fine until the last few days.

It now freezes 9 times out of 10 on start up almost immediately as the bar goes across the 'microsoft corporation' - I then have to do a forced shutdown by switching it off using the power button and start it in safe mode which it does - then try to shut down and start again.

I have not recently downloaded any new software and have run an avast virus check along with spybot search and destroy and ad-aware checks.

The only thing that I have done is leave a USB drive in the USB port over night by accident which means that I shut my computer down with it still in and then started it up also.

Is there a connection? I have googled this issue and there is some information but it is just too technical for me to understand.

the other problem that I have is that when my computer is left for periods of time it seems to go into a deep sleep - sometimes I can 'wake' it by pressing the keyboard button with the sun on it and sometimes it is just dead and I have to do a forced shutdown again.

Can anyone explain in simple language what might be going on? I would be very grateful.

kind regards
aitch