Sometimes when I turn on the computer it does not properly come online. The monitor light goes green for a few seconds, but then goes back to amber (standby) colour. Turning the computer off and on at the power point, causes the following message to appear when the computer starts: ‘Award BIOS Setup Utility. Main Advanced Power Boot Exit’. Then all sorts of jargon appears on the screen. To get out of this menu I go to the ‘Exit’ tab and another message appears saying ‘Save configuration changes and exit now? Yes No’. Yes being highlighted, I click Enter and then, all starts as normal. What is wrong with the computer? Also, the computer tends to freeze for no apparent reason. Is there anything I can do about this other problem?

The screen which appears when the computer comes-up properly is the BIOS setup, which is the basic hardware configuration for the computer. It is very strange that this is appearing under its own accord, as you generally need to press a shortcut key on the keyboard (e.g. DEL) to get the BIOS setup to appear. In any case, the problem you describe could be caused by any number of factors, including a faulty power supply, faulty video card, or a faulty monitor. Unfortunately the root cause will be very difficult to diagnose by correspondence, given the need to try various combinations of boot routines to determine the cause of the problem. Therefore, your best avenue to get this problem resolved is to take your computer to a repair shop and ask them to determine the problem and fix the problem if possible.

The second problem you are experiencing with the computer freezing could be related to the previous problem, if there is a hardware fault in the computer, although the more likely cause is something wrong with Windows. Since you will be taking your computer to a computer shop to have the boot problem fixed, it may also be worthwhile having them try to fix the problem of the computer freezing. The most effective, but least convenient method, would be reinstalling Windows from scratch. Be aware, during this process you will lose all the data on your computer, so before taking the computer to the shop I strongly encourage you to backup any data you need to keep (e.g. documents, etc), and preferably make multiple backups, just in case a reinstallation of Windows is necessary and you lose the data on the computer.