ok, it doesn't let me get into windows, what it does is it gets to the screen for winxp to start and it shuts down. When it first hit, I was playing solitaire (no snickering) and listening to music. The monitor suddenly went black and the words "shut down mode in 5 secs" came up. the music was interupted but then played, and interupted and played... till I finally turned off the pc. Tryed to turn it back on, it ran thru the startup but never let me get back into windows. sigh. I won't be home for another 10 1/2 hrs so any more tips, keep em coming, I have another pc at home that I will (I hope) be able to communicate with. :/