Help needed with a PC

[John Upham]

Ernie,

It might be worth eliminating the monitor, keyboard and mouse as sources of problems first.

Do you have alternates that you can swap out with?

Are they USB peripherals?

Once they are eliminated we can work on the base unit.

[Sean Hewitt]

I'm no IT expert but when I have had similar problems I have found that a reinstall of windows usually does the trick. This will remove everything on your machine and restore it to the state it was in when it was purchased.

You will need to back up all your data (if you don't do this routinely already) as it will be deleted. You will also need to make sure that you have all the discs etc for your various programs as these will need to be reinstalled.

[Warren Kingston]

Always up date your hardware and software. Also use Windows Updates.

[Carl Hibbard]

I could with a little help from anyone who knows about computers.

What version of Windows is it Ernie and on the "white" screen is there any additional text anywhere on that screen?

[Carl Hibbard]

I'm no IT expert but when I have had similar problems I have found that a reinstall of windows usually does the trick.

Err, yuk - perhaps excessive

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

If it's a desktop then it might be worth rebooting with the side off to see if you can spot anything obviously wrong (e.g. fan not starting when you turn the computer on). I fixed a similar problem (failed to boot half the time) a few months ago which turned out to be simply a loose IDE cable into the hard disk.

And yes, reinstalling Windows would be a last resort.

I would back up any documents and other irreplaceable files as a matter of urgency - next time you switch it on it may die for good!

[John Upham]

One other common cause could be graphics card that is not seating correctly.

It is worth jiggling the monitor cable around as it plugs into the PC. You could take the cover off and check that the card is seated correctly.

[Alex Holowczak]

And yes, reinstalling Windows would be a last resort.

Or better still, uninstall Windows and install Ubuntu.