Question : Dell Inspiron 1501 hangs right before desktop loads

I am working on a Laptop. A Dell Inspiron 1501 (amd sempron, 512mb mem) running XP home and originally it would hang at the "windows welcome screen" with the different users names.  Occasionally you could actually get into windows and see a desktop, but it would SEEM TO be running so slow that it was virtually useless.  The user claims that nothing had changed (that they remember) and it just started happening one day.  Sounds like it got progressively worse.  If you let it sit at this screen long enough the system will either give you an alert beep (like a computer speaker beep) or eventually shutdown/standby. I had a clean, fresh image that I pushed out over the network from symantec ghost console, hoping if it was software or a virus, it would fix the problem... NO, it is just as bad if not worse, because now I cant even get to the desktop,  it hangs at the blue-ish screen that says "Microsoft windows XP" with a windows icon and 2 darker strips of blue at the top and bottom of the screen (not a BSOD).  so after the failed imaging, I ran the dell diagnostic tests and it completed without anything to mention about why this system is acting this way ( but it did seem to lockup/freeze once through one of the test, every other time it went through without a problem).  Let me state that the heatsink fan runs (when it needs to) and I have performed a chkdsk /r and it did claim to have repaired some sectors or what-have-you.  I also performed a fixmbr and a fixboot.  I can boot into BART PE but I have a pretty basic copy so I cant do much with it after it loads.  I have swapped sticks of memory and no difference.  I have pulled the CD rom drive and the modem, the only two removable components I can get my hands on without tearing the whole thing apart.  also turned off the powernow! feature in bios in reference to an article I read, but to no avail.  Any advice would help! and if I need to do something again I will, I just wanted to let everyone know what I have tried first!  Thanks and Cheers!

Answer : Dell Inspiron 1501 hangs right before desktop loads

Try to run the system on a Knoppix or Ubuntu Live CD. This will give you an idea about the system's health, as you can go web browsing, try out word processing etc. No installation is required. If neither of these environments will run OK, you could very well have a hardware problem; if they DO run nicely, you should suspect your windows installation and a format + reinstall is what I'd recommend.

Updating the BIOS seems a bit scary on a flaky system and I advice against that. BIOSs don't go bad by themselves; if the system has worked and now doesn't, it's not the BIOS, it's the O/S, drivers, malware or hardware.
/RID