Welcome to the forum Carpwife. Have you tried starting in Safe Mode with networking? Most puters you hold down the F8 key on start up. Starting in safe mode will load the minimum drivers necessary to make it run. Maybe then you can get the highjack file and upload it. How old is the puter, make, model, operating system, etc. If it's more than a year old, have you opened it up and cleaned it? Give us a much info as possible.

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Intel 6320
4 gigs ddr2 ram
160 gig sata
evga 8800 gts video card
vista home premium sp1 - 64 bit