I had a similar problem several years ago when XP wouldn't boot because of a
dead external backup hard drive! Figured it out just by trial and error!

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...

In message , Mike S
writes:
[]
I had a friend whose computer acted like that, his DVD drive was dying and
somehow locked up the system badly, but not consistently.

My blind friend's system had an external (USB) HDD which caused erratic
behaviour (not just of the USB, which included the wifi, as you might
expect, but the whole OS - see the thread "sulk mode"). It took us
months to realise that was the cause. (The drive itself was fine, it was
the electronics in the housing that were causing problems. Not
surprising considering how cheap a replacement
housing-including-electronics [I couldn't find just the electronics]
was.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

.... "Peter and out." ... "Kevin and out." (Link episode)