With a computer within the household, there is a problem with it and I haven't looked through it properly. But, it wont load up any programs... Will boot up, but if you go to open a program, it just wont respond - Task manager wont even load so I can see what is using all the power of the CPU, if it could be that.

So, the problems are that is wont load up programs once it has booted up and when go to shut it down, it wont shut down... Have to take the plug out and when you boot it back up, it's the same as before.

The operating system the computer is using is Windows Vista.

If anyone could post what they think the problem could be so I can check it in the morning would be great.

No windows updates have installed. So can't be a bug in one of the updates - Don't know if installed new updates would work... Most probably can't load windows updates up though.

Whats the specification of the PC?

Quote from Bladerunner :

Whats the specification of the PC?

Don't know the exact specs... Off the top of my head it's an Intel Core 2 Duo, 3gb of ram with 250gb hdd iirc.

It's a Sony Vaio laptop.

...If Vista was installed when you baught it you can do a master reset at boot. If you have data you need off the laptop that you need before you wipe it download Ubuntu and run it from a CD and retrieve your data.

Booting ubuntu first will do both confirm if the problem lies in Vista or hopefuly not in your hardware.

Most OEM's cater for such problems and add recovery options at boot, Google the the key's specific to your laptop to see how to enter recovery mode - but be careful to get your data first.

Windows also offers recovery options at boot, just after the boot text keep pressing F8 to attempt this.

If you installed Vista on it and it was not the standard OS for the laptop I guess there's your problem right there.

...btw things don't just break there must have been something, maybe you knocked it or baught some new softwares maybe?

Quote from CSU1 :

...If Vista was installed when you baught it you can do a master reset at boot. If you have data you need off the laptop that you need before you wipe it download Ubuntu and run it from a CD and retrieve your data.

Booting ubuntu first will do both confirm if the problem lies in Vista or hopefuly not in your hardware.

Most OEM's cater for such problems and add recovery options at boot, Google the the key's specific to your laptop to see how to enter recovery mode - but be careful to get your data first.

Windows also offers recovery options at boot, just after the boot text keep pressing F8 to attempt this.

If you installed Vista on it and it was not the standard OS for the laptop I guess there's your problem right there.

...btw things don't just break there must have been something, maybe you knocked it or baught some new softwares maybe?

It's not my laptop so I don't know if some thing may have happened to it.

I was thinking of restoring it but, I don't fancy dragging about 2,000 songs off of it again lol.

Boot into safe mode and scan it with anti virus and anti malware tools.

Quote from sam93 :

It's not my laptop so I don't know if some thing may have happened to it.

I was thinking of restoring it but, I don't fancy dragging about 2,000 songs off of it again lol.

Its not hard, just drag the folders. U can sort them out later, delete unnessecary files and so on. When i did a format lately, i grabbed my 500gb of music with no problems lol.

Quote from hazaky :

Its not hard, just drag the folders. U can sort them out later, delete unnessecary files and so on. When i did a format lately, i grabbed my 500gb of music with no problems lol.

I know it isn't hard lol. I don't have an external hard drive to it though.

Last time I dragged the files over was from the old laptop to the current one using a crossover cable.