I'm running Windows XP 2nd edition. I have 512 meg Ram on a Athlon 1700+ system. My problem is as soon as I get to the Windows XP screen at start up, my system freezes up on me. After turning the computer off/on for number of times, it will finally let me sign on completely. If after I get logged into the system I do a restart, then I can then turn the computer off/on at will without anymore freeze-ups. At first I thought I was having a IRQ problem, but I checked the IRQ and found no problem. I did not see any hardware trying to use the same interrupt. Please help, what can it be? Again, I don't really know if I'm having a hardware problem, software problem or an operating system problem. I really don't want to have to reformat my hard drive, but will if all else fails.