stratnumberone

Hello all, My PC - which runs Windows XP Home Edition - is experiencing problems when I start it up which means it won't actually come on at all. It freezes. It gets as far as the first 'Dell' screen - there's normally a white loading type bar at the bottom - and simply does not progress from there. I have turned it off (yup, the old o-n-o-f-f reset that us technophobe types use so often) and tried again and it takes up to four or five attempts for it to actually come on and work. Once on it seems fine. However, this can't be good for the computer. Since I don't know what else to do I have tried de-fragging and also disc-cleanup. However, on completion of the disc cleanup facility the PC was unable to restart itself as it said it would... Sorry about the child-speak explanation - I only hope it's enough for someone to know what is going on with it!! Many thanks in advance. KH.