Hello. New member here at this site, seeking advice/assistance. I've read the postings below. I have a similar problem except my memory cards were actually working fine until I decided to take this old laptop with me to work. It worked fine at work, but when I finally took it home, it would either boot all the way past the Windows XP banner to actually see the folders then locking up OR it would just lock up at or just before the initial Windows XP banner. Sometimes it would not even boot though it woud power up with lights and all on all the scenarios above. Sometimes it would allow to be go all the way to the sign in page, log in, view the folders, but when I try to do anything like 'cancel' a process via task manager or just trying to copy a file it woul lock up. From time to tiime, as well, it would create 'grid like' (white) image on the screen usually over the Windows XP banner just milliseconds before it locks up but not every time. One time during all this I encountered the notorious 'blue screen' of death but only that one time. And twice, it went through that 'hard drive' diagnostic screen (at which I tried both allowing it to run the diagnostics and cancel it--but didn't help). Anyway, I, too, reseated the memory cards and even switched them around and no luck. Any advice other than tossing this laptop away? I just want to at least to get it working long enough to allow me to back up some files. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Is is a hard drive or memory problem or what? Motherboard? Thanks!