black screen on Dell Latitude after XP logo while booting

Hey everyone. I just inherited a Dell Latitude running XP SP2, with a P4 1.60GHz and 1GB of RAM.

I recently wiped it, re-installed windows XP, got the latest BIOS for it (A13), and have it running pretty smoothly for a fairly old laptop.

However, there is one very annoying thing about it. If its been running awhile... a few hours maybe... and then restart it, it will get past the XP logo 'load up' screen and then just go black.

I've tried scouring the internet for the reason for this, but i have a hunch its either a) i installed something that it can't handle, or b) its an old laptop, and once it gets a bit hot, it can't handle loading XP.

...however, it can get into safe mode very easily, even when it can't get into XP.


What are your suggestions?

Thanks!

 

You're probably right about the machine being hot. Have you cleaned out the vents? I'd try that as a start; may be all it needs since you've said it otherwise runs well for a few hours. You could open it up and clean it more thoroughly, add AS5, etc, but try the easy way first - blow out the vents. Good luck.

 

admittedly now it sometimes starts up.. and sometimes doesn't. i've tried msconfig to remove things from the startup & boot in order to diagnose what the problem is, but i can't seem to find a pattern.. its totally random when the thing won't boot up.

any suggestions anyone? i mean its booting up every 2 out of 3 times... but there just doesn't seem to be any reason why it doesnt' boot up the 3rd time. very frustrating.

 

It happened to me this morning when I started it up. XP loads, then black screen. Shut it off, restarted and it worked. It wasn't hot because well, it's been off all night.

It's a Vostro 1500, reinstalled XP on it. It's new, I'have had it for three weeks.