My computer won't work! *sob*

[HarryE]

My Dell OptiPlex GX 520 has frozen. It runs Windows XP.

Here in the UK, we have had a cold snap in what the papers are calling "The Coldest Day". Dunno if that's got anything to do with it.

Anyway, I came down in the morning and the screen was off as if it had gone into sleep mode, but shaking the mouse or tapping the keyboard did not work.

So, I tried turning it off and on again. The bootup screen came on, and the bar filled nearly up to the top, but then froze there. I left it for five minutes and nothing happened.

I tried turning it off and on again, but the same screen appeared, only this time the bar was already at the top.

Please help me. This has not happened before and I don't know what to do.

 

[HarryE]

Nevermind. It was my ipod. I unplugged it and it was fine again. Lock this, pls.

 

[Glitchfinder]

Threads like this don't get locked. Incidentally, I have an external hard drive that forces my computer to boot into a black screen with a single | character, that doesn't accept text input, and that I have to reboot to fix. When I reboot after unplugging the hard drive, it takes forever to fucking boot up.

 

[DeM0nFiRe]

Both of you can fix your problems so that you can boot up with the USB drive still plugged into your computer. In your BIOS setup, just change the boot order, and put USB below internal hard drive.

 

[Glitchfinder]

Both of you can fix your problems so that you can boot up with the USB drive still plugged into your computer. In your BIOS setup, just change the boot order, and put USB below internal hard drive.

In my case, it was simply one of the boot files. When the external was plugged in, it was trying to boot from that instead of the C: drive. It doesn't happen any more, any way. I fixed it a few months ago.