Girlfriends computer gets stuck on the _ screen

so its stuck at the xp loading screen?

the screen before the xp logo and everything

I think i know what your talking about. My dad had a problem similar to this if it's what im thinking

I think he means the black screen with the blinking underscore in the top left corner. I don't know how to fix that. I would guess a problem with the hard drive, as it's not loading windows.

reset CMOS
if that dosent work then its time for a reinstall of windows

maybe it's a problem with your harddrive. This might help but try to check and make sure the plugs are plugged into it really good. It might not be loading up properly and or there isn't enough power going to it. Just make sure the power plug and cable to the mobo are in perfectly.

Hope that helps

Clean Reinstall of Windows, Reset CMOS first though, in the BIOS set the HD to be read first. If nothing works, if you can't install it may be a dead HD.

If it is a SATA drive just tell her to look for the silver thing with the rectangular Red Wire going to it, and the black one with 4 coloured wires. Tell her to remove the Black one, and then plug it back in firmly. Then repeat for the SATA cable.

I HAD THIS EXACT PROBLEM! it is your harddrive dont bother trying to put windows on it again it will just keep doing it. buy a new harddrive thats what i had to do. it wouldnt start at all. all i would see was the beginning bios stuff

it's not hard lol... Just tell her to gently remove the battery on the big brown thing inside the comp, the wires are basically the same. Otherwise, if you don't want to deal, then just get a new HD.

[Teh Root] is right. it worked for me only a couple times then after that, i couldnt do anything it just simply crapped out.

probably a dead hard drive then, shes "troubleshooting" with her brother about it, the thing that sucks is she JUST ordered a gpu for it today (it had on-board and we couldn't find the drivers, her brother built it awhile ago and didnt do the drivers for some reason) =/ may be agp 6200 but it was only $27.99 free shipping.

Edit: pretty much confirmed the HDD is dead so yea =/ +rep given to everyone

you'll be able to find a pretty good HDD for cheap. I got my 1TB for $85

I have a 60 GB IDE WD WMA7E1497872 im going to give her along with my old 512 mb stick of ram from my old computer

good deal!

Try pressing F8 a bunch of times right before XP boots. Hopefully you get the advanced startup menu and select normal startup.