I can't help with the original problem, but when it happens you might try
this "in the blind" instead of pulling the power plug:

Press "Alt-F4"
Press the "Right-Arrow" key ONCE
Press the "Enter" key

This key sequence will tell XP to exit normally and power down. If you
press the "Right-Arrow" key TWICE you will tell the computer to Restart
automatically. This assumes, of course, that your keyboard is functional but
you just don't have a video card running.

"faceman80211" wrote:

> Just a question maybe someone else knows the answer to. During startup
> sometimes the computer loads up, but the screen remains blank during the
> whole process. I know the computer is loading because the processor working
> light is lit, and the windows xp tune plays but for all intent and purposes i
> get nothing on the screen. I have to manually shut off the computer and
> restart it. On one occasion though it fried xp and i had to reload it and
> lost everything i hadn't backed up. I haven't run into that problem again,
> but I thought maybe someone else has had this issue and knows the problem.
> Thanks for any help you can give me on this