compaq shutting off, weird start screen

[martianyear]

i have a little problem. i'm a bit computer illiterate, so please bear with me.

i leave my computer, a compaq presario 6000, on all the time. during the past week, i have woke up to a screen that reads "compaq" with the f1 and f10 options. however, when i press those buttons, nothing happens.

when it happened this morning, my boyfriend just turned the computer and it fixed the problem.

does anyone know what is causing this? is this as bad as i think it is? is there anyway i can fix it?

please help! thanks.

[mar122999]

The F1 key probably allows you to boot into BIOS and the F10 probably allows you to start the computer a different way (safe mode, safe mode with command prompt, normal mode, ...etc.). This is probably normal.

"when it happened this morning, my boyfriend just turned the computer and it fixed the problem. "

Now what did you boyfriend do? Did he shut it off or turn it on or both?

Also, does the computer show you that screen whenever it is sitting still for a certain period of time or whenver you turn on the computer?

Let us know a little more and maybe we could help you a little better. Don't worry, the problem doesn't seem too bad.

[Brainchild]

Is it F1 to enter setup,and F10 to reasume or vice versa?If so that's prolly a bad battery in the mobo,and a new battery will fix that.

Do you know what happens when it shuts off?Any warnings,errors,blue screens anything?

Also what OS do you have?

[martianyear]

"Now what did you boyfriend do? Did he shut it off or turn it on or both?"
sorry, i had a little typo in that sentence when i wrote it. he simply pressed the power switch and it restarted the computer; it started just fine after that. i saw the compaq screen that i had described, but it went on to the welcome screen and through the whole regular start-up. no freezing.

"Also, does the computer show you that screen whenever it is sitting still for a certain period of time or whenver you turn on the computer?"
yeah, that screen comes up after sitting still for a while. which, from my research today, makes it sound like a hibernation problem.

"Do you know what happens when it shuts off?Any warnings,errors,blue screens anything?"
when i actually turn the computer off, it doesn't give me any warning.

"Also what OS do you have?"
i'm using windows XP on a compaq presario 6435cl desktop.

[mar122999]

True, it could be hibernation that is causing part of the problem. Whever a computer goes into hibernation, the PC will take everything active in memory and store it on the hard drive just before the system powers down. When the PC comes out of hibernation, Windows reloads all of the files and applications into RAM.

You could have a bad CMOS battery. Does your clock on your desktop go too slow or is too fast? Try pressing F1 or F12 key next time you experience that to let us know what screen pops up or what happens. Don't change anything though. If in doubt, just restart the PC.

To change hibernate mode on Win XP, right click on the desktop (in the open space) and choose the "screensaver" tab. Click on "power options" or "power..." next. Then click on the "hibernate" tab. Uncheck hibernation if it is checked. This will stop you computer from hibernating. Also, don't forget to click "Apply" after you uncheck the hibernation option.