Windows hangs on boot and won't load all system tray items

[Guest]

I'm still having trouble with Windows locking up before it fully opens or
opening but not loading all the programs in the systems tray, or not loading
the MS Toolbar, etc. If I reboot 3, 4, 5, times, Windows will eventually load
all the items in the systems tray, and MS Toolbar. I've run the various
Norton System Works
tools (including defrag. and Win Doctor) but the problem has not been
corrected.

I've replaced the power supply with a new Antec 430watt, replace the hard
drive with a Seagate 180 gig/8mb and tested the ram with Memtest, replaced
the graphics card with a Radeon 9700 Pro, but so far I'm still having the
same problems. ( Anyone know of a freeware motherboard tester?)

The computer is about 3 years old). Any ideas will be welcome. Thank you.
Windows XP SP2, P4-2.4 gig, 1 gig RAM. ASUS P4S533 (SiS645DX) MB, 2 IDE
Seagate UltraATA100 160 Gig 7200rmp-8mb cache HDs. ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
(128mb) video card and Creativy Audigy sound card.

Thanks for the help. Mac

 

[Jerry]

Go here http://www.sisoftware.net/ and download the free version of SiSoft
SANDRA. Run it.

 

[Curt Christianson]

Hi Mackenrick,

Sounds like it could be spyware/malware if you simply cloned the new drive.
Try these options, courtesy of Robear Dyer (PABear) MS-MVP:
<quote>
Check your system for "hijackware":

Dealing with Hijackware
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/Darnit.htm
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm

CoolWebSearch Chronicles
http://www.merijn.org/cwschronicles.html

Important: You *must* seek updates for Ad-Aware, Spybot, etc., before each
and every use, even "right out of the box". But even they can't catch
everything, 24/7. When all else fails, HijackThis
(http://www.merijn.org/files/hijackthis.zip) is the preferred tool to use.
It will help you to both identify and remove any hijackware/spyware. **Post
your files to http://forums.spywareinfo.com/ or
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=30 for expert analysis, not here.**

[Alternate download pages for many of the above tools may be found at
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm.]

Also update your virus definitions and then run a full system scan. From
now on, do both daily.

So How Did I Get Infected Anyway?
http://boards.cexx.org/viewtopic.php?t=957

SpywareBlaster
http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareblaster.html

Troubleshooting Secure Sites
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=813444
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/answers2.htm#secure_sites
--
HTH - Please Reply to This Thread

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE), AH-VSOP

AumHa Forums
http://forum.aumha.org

Protect Your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect
<end quote>
--
Curt BD-MVBT

http://dundats.mvps.org/
http://dundats.proboards27.com/index.cgi
http://www.aumha.org/

 

[Guest]

Thanks Jerry and Curt,

Jerry, I got SANDRA and will give it a try. Curt, thanks for all the links,
I'm sure I will be using one or more of them. I'm not sure if it's a malware
problem. I run NAV, Norton Worm Protection, Spywareblaster, Spybot, Adaware,
router firewall, and Yahoo Online Protection. I keep them current and run
them often. They say I am clean (but who knows, maybe there is something
they can't detect). I've also run Norton Systemworks and can't find
anything. I'm leaning more towards either a hardware problem or maybe I just
need to do a fresh install of Windows (yuck... not looking forward to doing
that)

Thanks for the suggestions, Mac

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Mon, 3 Jul 2006 17:43:01 -0700, Mackenrick

I'm still having trouble with Windows locking up before it fully opens or
opening but not loading all the programs in the systems tray, or not loading
the MS Toolbar, etc. If I reboot 3, 4, 5, times, Windows will eventually load
all the items in the systems tray, and MS Toolbar.

Do you mean "shutdown" or "press the reset button"? If you do the
latter "3, 4, 5 times" then you can expect problems to get worse, as
the file system gets screwed up by the bad exits.

I've replaced the power supply with a new Antec 430watt, replace the hard
drive with a Seagate 180 gig/8mb and tested the ram with Memtest, replaced
the graphics card with a Radeon 9700 Pro, but so far I'm still having the
same problems. ( Anyone know of a freeware motherboard tester?)

OK, so you do seem to have excluded the hardware factor

The computer is about 3 years old). Any ideas will be welcome. Thank you.
Windows XP SP2, P4-2.4 gig, 1 gig RAM. ASUS P4S533 (SiS645DX) MB, 2 IDE
Seagate UltraATA100 160 Gig 7200rmp-8mb cache HDs. ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
(128mb) video card and Creativy Audigy sound card.

Good to see SP2 with > 137G HD.

You've done the hardware part of "the prelim", and no doubt AutoChk
will mange the file system into shape (to hell with the file
contents). That still leaves the difficult "exclude malware" item,
but leaving that aside for now, here's a geneic approach to any issues
with startup and shutdown...

Try all of these different approaches, going directly from startup
(wait until all HD activity ceases) to shutdown without running
anything or doing anything else:
- normal Windows boot (assumed to be bad, else no prob?)
- as above, but ensure no removable disks left in place
- as above, but disconnect all externals, e.g. printers, USB etc.
- as above, but disconnect ALL networks and WiFi
- Safe Mode Command Only
- Safe Mode
- normal Windows with vanilla VGA drivers
- normal Windows using a different user account
- normal Windows with all startup items suppressed in MSConfig
- normal Windows with all non-MS services suppressed in MSConfig
- normal Windows with "most" MS services suppressed in MSConfig

Post back which worked or did not work, and we'll know where to dig.

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