Black Screen On Dell Latitude After Xp Logo While Booting

[mojito]

Hey everyone. I just inherited a Dell Latitude running XP Pro SP2, with a P4 1.60GHz and 1GB of RAM.

I recently wiped it, re-installed windows XP, got the latest BIOS for it (A13), and have it running pretty smoothly for a fairly old laptop.

However, there is one very annoying thing about it. If its been running awhile... a few hours maybe... and then restart it, it will get past the XP logo 'load up' screen and then just go black.

I've tried scouring the internet for the reason for this, but i have a hunch its either a) i installed something that it can't handle, or b) its an old laptop, and once it gets a bit hot, it can't handle loading XP.

...however, it can get into safe mode very easily, even when it can't get into XP.


What are your suggestions?

Thanks!

[mojito]

admittedly now it sometimes starts up.. and sometimes doesn't. i've tried msconfig to remove things from the startup & boot in order to diagnose what the problem is, but i can't seem to find a pattern.. its totally random when the thing won't boot up.

any suggestions anyone? i mean its booting up every 2 out of 3 times... but there just doesn't seem to be any reason why it doesnt' boot up the 3rd time. very frustrating.