had you gone to windows updates and got the multitude of updates you would need after using recovery material to re install windows? If not that is probably what happened it started trying to download and install all those many updates and it locked it up. You may have even needed service pack 2 and 3 with a unit that old. plus of course all your antivirus programs etc would be trying to update also. It is always best when doing that kind of recovery where you will be very very far behind in windows updates to turn off automatic updates and go manually to windows update and first get your service packs in order and be absolutely sure to reboot the computer after each service pack, then get any remaining updates. I usually suggest getting them in small batches and creating a restore point before each service pack and before each batch of updates. Should something go wrong you have a good restore point to return to.

Hi Zep, Here's the information from the Whocrashed report. System Information (local) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- computer name: LYNNDELL windows version: Windows XP Service Pack 3, 5.1, build: 2600 windows dir: C:\WINDOWS Hardware: Inspiron 530, Dell Inc., 0FM586 CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz Intel586, level: 6 4 logical processors, active mask: 15 RAM: 2950799360 total VM: 2147352576, free: 2022486016 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crash Dump Analysis -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crash dump directory: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump Crash dumps are enabled on your computer. On Tue 6/10/2014 9:46:41 PM GMT your computer crashed crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini061014-01.dmp This was probably caused by the following module: win32k.sys (win32k+0x5FC9E) Bugcheck code: 0x1000008E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFFFFFBF85FC9E, 0xFFFFFFFFADB9BAE4, 0x0) Error: KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\win32k.sys product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System company: Microsoft Corporation description: Multi-User Win32 Driver Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch. This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system that cannot be identified at this time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One crash dump has been found and analyzed. No offending third party drivers have been found. Connsider using WhoCrashed Professional which offers more detailed analysis using symbol resolution. Also configuring your system to produce a full memory dump may help you. Read the topic general suggestions for troubleshooting system crashes for more information. Note that it's not always possible to state with certainty whether a reported driver is actually responsible for crashing your system or that the root cause is in another module. Nonetheless it's suggested you look for updates for the products that these drivers belong to and regularly visit Windows update or enable automatic updates for Windows. In case a piece of malfunctioning hardware is causing trouble, a search with Google on the bug check errors together with the model name and brand of your computer may help you investigate this further. ------------------------------------------------------------ I'll try reinstalling Firefox, but I'm doubtful because during the course of today - after my initial Firefox difficulties, I did update from Firefox 29 to Firefox 29.0.1. So I can re-install 29.0.1, but installing it this afternoon did not fix the problem. I'll check back later. And now I'll reinstall. Thank you. Lynn.

I re-installed the OS and sp3 and Internet Explorer 8. I've got it down to this error: Service registration is missing or corrupt http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971187 The automatic fixer doesn't fixit and I don't understand the manual instructions. It wants me to look at a registry key but doesn't specify EXACTLY which one. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\(sid)\Patches\(squid) replaced with ( and ). How do I find SID and SQUID? I did install Trend Micro antivirus and activated Office 2003. Automatic Update seems to be working. 131 updates are being installed. This post was edited by poohbear2767 on Mon, Oct 21, 13 at 17:50

I just turned my computer on for the first time today, Tuesday. The first time the hard drive light stayed on for a second and turned off. The second time the hard drive light flickered 3 times and then went off. The third time the hard drive light came on solid and then flickered 3 times and then the black screen came up saying "We apologize for the inconvenience but Windows did not start successfully....." But then Windows proceeded to load and my computer is now working. I do not hear any beeping sounds. I'd appreciate any more ideas you have with this information. I am taking a video of the lights blinking with my iPhone which makes it easy to remember what happened. Thanks, Ginny