Hello,

On Sunday morning, I began having problems booting up my XP Home
(SP2)machine. After the "Windows XP" monogram comes up and before the login
screen comes up, the computer freezes on a black screen; no error messages or
anything.

I called Dell technical support, and the rep suggested that I disconnect all
of my USB devices and reboot. I did so and the computer did boot up
correctly. However, as I began to connect some of my UBS devices while in
WIndows, the computer pretty much froze up again.

Now, I did install a new (additional) internal hard drive about two weeks
ago and copied everything over to it and am using it as my primary boot
drive, with the old drive as a backup. It worked just fine for over a week
with no problems or performance changes at all. I did do some backups onto
my other hard drive with the XP backup utility, including a backup of my
system files. I don't know if maybe this has caused the problem?

Anyway, the Dell rep suggested that I copy all of my pertinent data over to
my backup hard drive and then format my new one and do a complete re-install
of Windows XP. Does this seem to you guys to be the best solution? The
problem is that the Windows CD I have is the original release -- I would have
to download SP1 and SP2 and everything else. Would an original-release
version of XP recognize USB 2.0 devices? The reason I ask is that my cable
modem connects with USB and I would need it to download the service packs and
such. And help and suggestions that you guys could give would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks!
Rob

the USB device is on your MB and is independent of MS Windows!!

"Macfisto" wrote:

> Hello,
>
> On Sunday morning, I began having problems booting up my XP Home
> (SP2)machine. After the "Windows XP" monogram comes up and before the login
> screen comes up, the computer freezes on a black screen; no error messages or
> anything.
>
> I called Dell technical support, and the rep suggested that I disconnect all
> of my USB devices and reboot. I did so and the computer did boot up
> correctly. However, as I began to connect some of my UBS devices while in
> WIndows, the computer pretty much froze up again.
>
> Now, I did install a new (additional) internal hard drive about two weeks
> ago and copied everything over to it and am using it as my primary boot
> drive, with the old drive as a backup. It worked just fine for over a week
> with no problems or performance changes at all. I did do some backups onto
> my other hard drive with the XP backup utility, including a backup of my
> system files. I don't know if maybe this has caused the problem?
>
> Anyway, the Dell rep suggested that I copy all of my pertinent data over to
> my backup hard drive and then format my new one and do a complete re-install
> of Windows XP. Does this seem to you guys to be the best solution? The
> problem is that the Windows CD I have is the original release -- I would have
> to download SP1 and SP2 and everything else. Would an original-release
> version of XP recognize USB 2.0 devices? The reason I ask is that my cable
> modem connects with USB and I would need it to download the service packs and
> such. And help and suggestions that you guys could give would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks!
> Rob
>