I recently tried to connect a Dell 540 photo printer to a Dell Inspiron 5000 computer running Windows XP Home. I got the laptop to recognize the printer but it would not print. I decded to disconnect the printer and uninstall the drivers. Soon my laptop began having problems at startup. It would start to boot up, pause, then restart the process. It would eventually get to the desktop, but then would sometimes freeze. I also had been frequently getting the error message "Windows has recovered from a serious error." I tried reinstalling Windows but that didn't help. I decided to shut the laptop down and unplug it for a few days to see if that would help. When I turned it up again, it beeped twice while starting up (It might have beeped more but I shut it off after the second beep). What do you think is wrong with it? Is it even safe for me to turn it on? Thanks to anyone who offers help.

Did you try booting to your XP CD and running the Repair option? Did you try calling Dell for tech support? What about standard maintenance (Defrag, Disk Cleanup, A/V scan, anit-spyware scan)?

Hi, jlachey,
As another suggested, I would try running the XP Repair Console. It might, but not 100% sure, return you computer to a good operating state.

Here is a link for step-by-step instructions to do that, if you are not familiar with it:

http://computing.net/windowsxp/wwwbo...um/140403.html

I do wish you the best of luck, and if that doesn't solve it, please post back.

If you have already tried to reinstall windows and you are now getting POST beeps it sounds like your machine has a much more serious hardware error.

From what you posted it sounds to me that the hard drive is on its last legs.

My advice would be to get in touch with Dell tech support, as they have a much better idea what the pattern of beeps means and can give better advice.