my xp machine has developed a bad problem. it starts up then after a few min or so screen and mouse freeze. it starts and i get the regular desktop and seems ok but then after a few min just freezes. does not go dark or give message.help

If you boot to Safe Mode, does it do the same thing?

sorry to take so long getting back w info. yes..no go in safe either. finally it stopped right after desktop displays. so using little laptop now. i had Norton, Malawarebyte, and CCleaner on the xp..was it too much of a good thing(s)? or what is your best idea?

Sounds like some files got corrupted. There is a command you can give where the computer will compare windows files on your computer with those on the original windows disk and repair them but I cant remember what it is. Perhaps someone else here knows.

Do you have a Windows CD?

I think the command Geo is thinking of is

sfc /scannow

But you may need a Windows disc in order to run it.

More here
http://ask-leo.com/what_is_the_system_file_checker_and_how_do_i_run_it.html

Probably the best solution is to boot into safe mode and try last known good configuration or step-by-step boot, although this will take quite some time.

update---well a couple days after off/on trying to get the xp to run again without freezing later for some weird reason it started up and kept running. i had noticed several times earlier if kept mouse moving seemed like took longer to freeze...so this time after it started going and did not freeze up right away i kept mouse going and tried to uninstall any newer things or stuff not necessary. uninstalled my big fish and all games with it, and also because seeme like this all started with last updaate of CCleaner uninstalled it. well, for most part since that restart after that things seemed to be going well then i re-installed bigfish and a couple games...seemed ok. then re-installed ccleaner yesterday, and let it do a clean. last nite turned off pc. guess what...today cannot even get it to run to desktop. goes right to (f8 on my machine not f10 like most say) where you can select safe mode, etc...starting options. says sorry for inconvience and to select either start windows normally or in the last working configuration. tried both ..with each only get as far as the dark windows background and the loading bar which only get to barely the first end of the first 'load' and then kicks back to the selection of safe or previous working....then now goes dark then a blue screen message shows briefly(so fast cannot read)and screen goes black.. someone from a pc place is coming tomorrow to pick it up and see what the matter is. OH..and i could not get the Nero to run right either...wanted to copy off some things(when had it working)..managed to get some over to dvd, then for some weird reason it decided only option was cd to make copies of stuff....did not recognize dvd's any longer. Doggone it!!! anyone ever had a mess like this?

gamenut,can you restore your pc to a later date where it was working good? You might have to go into the safe mode to do it.
richard

If you can get into Safe Mode,
Check to make sure your hard drive isn't going bad.

http://www.pctechguide.com/tutorials/HDDMaint_Chkdsk.htm

Nope...as i said now it won't go into either mode.

Do you have a Windows disc you can boot off to run repairs?
http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=5097