Machine post's fine, then the little Windows 'bar' thingo pops up, which then disappears (as it should) but then the system hangs on a blank screen; the PC doesn't boot through to the Windows icon and then on to the log in screen… Have to do a hard reset (ie hold down the power button). It starts fine in 'Safe mode with networking'… Running Vista Home Premium 64bit if it makes any difference?

Not an IT person in any form, so please keep the advice 'layman' style 😆

Remove one of the memory sticks if you have more than one and then try. Swap over and try the other if it still fails.

currently 2 x 2GB sticks in there… will try with just the one. thanks 🙂

Any other tips STW?

Sounds like a software/driver problem to me. Have you recently installed any new software? If so, go into safe mode and remove it, see if that helps.

something that the computer is loading at startup is making it hang

– use Start > Run >msconfig while in safe mode and look at the Startup tab –
see if there is anything you can disable – but do it one at a time, test and then re-boot and see if resolves the issue

is there a log I can check to see what's causing it to crash?

on the menu which you select "safe mode", have you tried selecting "Last known-good settings" ?

Start > Computer >right-click > Manage and look in event viewer, but from what you are describing, I doubt whether its actually getting far enough through booting to write anything to the event viewer.

As mentioned above – look for any software/updates that were installed recently and uninstall them or try a system restore back to a known good point.

Find a Restore point and go back one. – if it doesn't work go back to an earlier one. I'm not at a computer so can't check but google vista restore points and you'll find some help.

You often get a series of beeps from the motherboard on startup. These are not random beeps, they are coded diagnostic signals. It might be an IDE drive failing, it might be a motherboard problem. The code (e.g. 1 long, three short) will help you identify.

Additionally, some windows updates can corrupt the O/S which isn't good news. Means you have to reload everything and you will lose all your data if you're not careful.

Did nt you read the post yesterday its because you have/havent got a imac or possibly linux

grrrr… still playing up, have done a system restore (back two points in fact, neither helped), tried booting with one stick of memory, no good (though fine through to safe mode)… guess I'll have to try a clean install to a new hard drive… have a copy of Windows 7 from an IT mate, so shall upgrade at the same time…