I was logged into Administrator at the time and it still didn't work/.

I guess I'll just wipe out my hard drive and reinstall windows XP

When most computers are set up the so called built in administrator account is not used.

It is generally left as a recovery account. If this is the case then you would have at least two administrator accounts. If this is the case then you could just check to see if the one account is corrupted.

That is what makes the Access Denied error suspicious.

Originally Posted by jephree

When most computers are set up the so called built in administrator account is not used.

It is generally left as a recovery account. If this is the case then you would have at least two administrator accounts. If this is the case then you could just check to see if the one account is corrupted.

That is what makes the Access Denied error suspicious.

Would deleting everything on my comp and installing windows fix everything?

If it is a software problem then Yes it should. Follow this Troubleshooter:

http://support.dell.com/support/topi...22572D2728AF39

If it is a hardware problem then no it won't. Although it will be the definitive sign that it is a hardware problem.

The only outstanding element in the equation would be the BIOS. There is a BIOS download here to if you want to try that:

http://support.dell.com/support/down...&os=WW1&osl=EN

thank you very much for your time and help. I'll reinstall windows this afternoon and let you know how it worked. i really appreciate all the help.