can your computer freeze up if you have not uninstalled a virus tection software and try to install a new one?
Yes, especially Norton has this quiet often.

Eventualy she has to turn the comp back on sometime or she will never be able to use it again :wink:
The exact error message will tell a lot about the problem.
It is almost imposible to give help if we don’t know the problem.

Tried “previous working configuration”?

Some posible other solutions (without us knowing the exact error)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;315341
http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

Format/clean install will likely also solve it (as long as it is not a hardware faillure) but I prefer to solve the problem before doing so.