My computer crashes, please help! (in Off-topic)

I turn on my computer and it boots the BIOS and then starts to boot Windows XP normally. However, it gets the to login screen or the screen before that and freezes completely, so I can't move my mouse or do anything at all!

I first thought my hard drive might be having problems since it is nearly full, so I've deleted some stuff.

I then continued to try and scan my computer using McAfee, when the scan finished it froze so I couldn't cure the other 3 problems that were detected. And since that, McAfee has displayed that it has problems that need fixing and I press the "fix now" button and it doesn't work.

What can I do?

I have only gotten in this time because I used safe mode with networking.

I haven't changed the hardware of the PC, nor have I done anything to the drivers.

I have however ignored the updates since I'm not patient enough to wait for the computer to reboot! Can someone help?

And yes I do download content of the illegal kind...

error codes from McAfee?

Have you tried a system restore from at least 2-3 days ago in safe mode?

Specs of the PC?

Basic rule for this kind of thing is reinstall windows.

You could try a repair install and see if that helps.
Insert a windows cd and start the setup.
Don't select the option for "recovery console", it's past that when it asks where you want to install windows. It should have an option where you press 'R' and it does a repair install. If it doesn't work, then during the install process, delete the partition and create a new partition so you get rid of everything.

I know it sucks to lose stuff but backup what you can. If you're comfortable with your knowledge, then have one partition with your operating system and one with documents and stuff you want to keep. Installation files and what not.. though it's still probably best to install most programs onto the windows partition since if you have to do a fresh install, you'll lose the registry data and the drivers that allow that program to work and it'll just leave a messy trail behind. But if you keep the actual setup files for that program, you'll be able to reinstall easy if you have to delete the windows partition.

Other than that, it's difficult to pinpoint problems on someone else's computer. There's a program that will output a handy text file with what services are running and other useful info for people that want to help you out.. but I'm at a loss for the name right now. If I run across it, I'll post the name.. I guess it's hard to run if windows won't boot, but yeah. If you can enable boot logging (Hit F8 right after the bios loads) and try to boot normally and then reboot once it freezes and post that, it'd help. Or if you notice what it is doing right before it freezes, it's often related to why it's freezing.

If a repair install doesn't work I'd suggest reinstalling Windows.

since you can get it to boot in safe mode, before reinstalling i would run msconfig and disable everything in the startup tab. try to restart and if windows will start then you can slowly add things until you find what might be causing the problems. if it still hangs up at restart with all startup items disable, then let us know.

You could always do a system restore to the day before it happened to you.