Ari's first world problem

My Windows box is acting up. *

The keyboard and mouse are almost always freezing up before I can sign in to Windows.
When I boot up and the computer goes through the initial BIOS startup, I can tell that the keyboard is working (the capslock and numlock buttons respond, and I can toggle the "boot to safe mode" option) but by the time it gets to the sign-in screen, things have frozen. Every dozen reboots or so (so, twice now), things manage to work, and I can boot to Windows. Once I've booted in, I keep getting system error messages from WIndows, telling me that my firewall program (Sygate Personal Firewall) has committed an error and needs to be shut down, but doesn't actually shut down the firewall unless I do so manually.

Things I've done so far:
1. Tried booting into safe mode- this has the same frozen mouse/keyboard issue as regular mode, so no dice.

2. The last time I was able to boot in to Windows, I used System Restore. SInce I haven't been able to get Windows to load again, I don't think this has worked.

Foo.

*For those of you who are about to say "Get a Mac" or "install Linux," I offer the following retort: I'm writing this blog post on my Mac, thankyouverymuch. I use the Windows box for occasional gaming. If it gets turned on once a week, that's a lot.

Ari's first world problem

My Windows box is acting up. *

The keyboard and mouse are almost always freezing up before I can sign in to Windows.
When I boot up and the computer goes through the initial BIOS startup, I can tell that the keyboard is working (the capslock and numlock buttons respond, and I can toggle the "boot to safe mode" option) but by the time it gets to the sign-in screen, things have frozen. Every dozen reboots or so (so, twice now), things manage to work, and I can boot to Windows. Once I've booted in, I keep getting system error messages from WIndows, telling me that my firewall program (Sygate Personal Firewall) has committed an error and needs to be shut down, but doesn't actually shut down the firewall unless I do so manually.

Things I've done so far:
1. Tried booting into safe mode- this has the same frozen mouse/keyboard issue as regular mode, so no dice.

2. The last time I was able to boot in to Windows, I used System Restore. SInce I haven't been able to get Windows to load again, I don't think this has worked.

Foo.

*For those of you who are about to say "Get a Mac" or "install Linux," I offer the following retort: I'm writing this blog post on my Mac, thankyouverymuch. I use the Windows box for occasional gaming. If it gets turned on once a week, that's a lot.