I have been having trouble upon bootup of my XP running desktop. Lately (past month), if there is any removable storage device plugged in (ie memory card plugged into the port on the printer, cd in the disc tray, etc) the OS will not load. It just sits there will a black screen and a blinking cursor. Now if I remove the CD or the memory card it boots up fine, but it has NEVER done this before this past month. Is this an issue with the bios, a virus, or a hardware issue?

Hello,

Perhaps try reordering your boot order via BIOS.

Put the hard drive with the OS at the top.

If you ever need to boot from another device put that at the top of the list. i suspect that your PC is trying to boot from devices that are higher up in the boot list.

- let me know if it solves your problem.

Well I have the DVD drive at the top in case I ever need to use my Ubuntu live CD, but it has been that way for at least a year, and I could have CDs in the drive without a problem. I was just wondering why all of a sudden in the last month it started to give me trouble.

Sometimes weird things happen, or sometimes malware - or even a dodgy or poorly coded application - can mess with things. Agree with Xlphos - check to ensure your boot order is correct. Should be fine to keep DVD drive as option 1, but make sure the USB Boot is either et BELOW HDD, or even disable if causing probs.

If all else fails, it might require a flashing of the BIOS to restore to original setting, but do not attempt this without assistance unless you have experience in doing this, or could seriously brick your system.