This is now solved. I reformatted my HDD and installed windows 7 onto it too so it wasn't a total loss. Thanks for your help Kialtia.
[b]The Problem[/b]
Three or four days ago my computer began lagging furiously. After starting the computer up, it would be fully functional. I could do whatever, then in maybe 10-20 minutes, it would begin lagging horrendously. It would freeze the entire computer (not the cursor though) for about half a minute and then work successfully for 5 seconds then freeze for a half a minute and so on. Then, two days ago, it worked fine. No lagg. Used it for quite a long time (maybe 2-3 hours; im unhealthy) without any problems.
The next day I wake up and try to boot the computer. The Dell screen would pop-up and load really fast, then it would go to the Windows XP loading screen. The loading took a lot longer than it usually did. After the loading screen disappeared, it should load the 'login' interface, where you select the user to log into with a password etc. There are no other users, just mine and I had to toggle this on for something irrelevant. Instead of the login interface appearing, the screen stays black and the cursor pops up. I can move the cursor around but the screen stays black.
Also, whenever I try to start up in Safe Mode it restarts the computer.
This is the problem.
TL;DR After starting-up the computer should go to the login screen but instead stays black and allows me to move the cursor around.
When this occurred, I waited a few minutes and still nothing happened.
[b]Computer specs:[/b]
[sub]I'm taking these directly from the Setup Menu[/sub]
Dell - Dimension 8300 Series
Operating System: Windows XP
Intel Pentium 4 Processor: 2.80 GHz
Memory Information
Installed System Memory: 1024 MB DDR SDRAM
System Memory Speed: 400 MHz
System Memory Channel Mode: Single
AGP Aperture: 256 MB
CPU Information
Hyper-Threading: Disabled
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Processor 0 ID: F29
Clock Speed: 2.80 GHz
Cache Size: 512 KB
Video Card: HD ATI Radeon 4650
If I'm missing vital information tell me.
So if anyone could help me find out what the problem is, or have tips, I'd really appreciate it.
So it turns out that about an hour after keeping it on the black screen it makes it to the login screen.
Sadly, my keyboard seemed to have failed with the computer- as did another one so I couldn't type my password disallowing me to move my important files to the other drive.
I will now have to wait another hour to move a few files.
By the sound of it i'd say a failing HDD, try doing an HDD test with Hirens Boot CD and while your at it run Memtest86+ from the same CD to be sure.
[QUOTE=Kialtia;32212454]By the sound of it i'd say a failing HDD, try doing an HDD test with Hirens Boot CD and while your at it run Memtest86+ from the same CD to be sure.[/QUOTE]
I was thinking a failing hdd too, since im not so technical with computers, would I have to reformat or buy anoter hdd?
[QUOTE=t h e;32218711]I was thinking a failing hdd too, since im not so technical with computers, would I have to reformat or buy anoter hdd?[/QUOTE]
If the HDD is broken you will have to replace it, a reformat will only help with filesystem errors, and filesystem errors can be fixed with checkdisk.
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