Boot-up peculiarity

[William B. Lurie]

My XP system has developed a new quirk during boot-up.
Everything acts normally up to the point where all the
icons appear as underdeveloped and then fill in with
their identities. The next step, always, and I'm used
to it, is that Norton Protection Center goes through its
checking and announced all is well in the toolbar.

Now the screen goes blank, black, for maybe 5 or 6 seconds,
and comes right back, and boot-up is complete. This is new
and I don't like it.

No, I haven't installed anything new lately (except maybe a
few routine Windows Update non-critical updates), and, yes,
I've done complete virus checks and SpyBot and AdAware and
Defrag and ChkDsk/R and everything comes up clean.

Maybe it ain't broke and I don't have to fix it.......but
has anybody a clue as to why this is, and how do I get rid
it?

Thanks................

Bill Lurie

 

[JS]

Do you have a large number of icons on your desktop and if so have you
noticed they are slow to display or refresh?

JS

 

[William B. Lurie]

Not what I consider a lot, JS....about 35 icons, and
they refresh quickly. I've had more icons, haven't changed
them at all, and this phenomenon is new and consistent.
WBL

 

[Poprivet]

My XP system has developed a new quirk during boot-up.
Everything acts normally up to the point where all the
icons appear as underdeveloped and then fill in with
their identities. The next step, always, and I'm used
to it, is that Norton Protection Center goes through its
checking and announced all is well in the toolbar.

Now the screen goes blank, black, for maybe 5 or 6 seconds,
and comes right back, and boot-up is complete. This is new
and I don't like it.

No, I haven't installed anything new lately (except maybe a
few routine Windows Update non-critical updates), and, yes,
I've done complete virus checks and SpyBot and AdAware and
Defrag and ChkDsk/R and everything comes up clean.

Maybe it ain't broke and I don't have to fix it.......but
has anybody a clue as to why this is, and how do I get rid
it?

Thanks................

Bill Lurie

I've had that happen a couple of times and I think it has to do with the
sequence that things load in the registry and how/when the icons are called
for.
The way I fix it is to use Norton SystemWorks Repair Icons feature, but I
don't know how to do it otherwise. There is a program called ntregopt that
helps quite a bit, but I don't know if it'll help with that.
Personally I wouldn't worry about it as I don't think it indicates any
real problems; perhaps try two or three Restarts in a row to see if it'll
optimize the registry at all.

Pop`

 

[JS]

Try this and see if the problem still occurs:
Boot to the point to were you reach the logon screen, do not enter your
password but wait until all disk activity has stopped and you only see a
single small blip for hard disk activity about once every 5 to 10 seconds.
Now enter your password and watch to see if things load with out the problem
occurring. Let me know what your results are.

JS

 

[William B. Lurie]

I can't do that with any ease, JS, because I'm a one-
user system, and it goes automatically thru a sky-blue
"Loading whatever...." screen and then the wallpaper
appears, followed by the icons. Want to clue me as to
how to set it up so that I actually log on?
Bill L.

 

[JS]

Download and install Tweak UI from Microsoft
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Then expand the Logon option and select Autologon and Un-check the Autologon
box for the user account/name you select in the pulldown box.

JS

 

[William B. Lurie]

Hi, JS. I downloaded and installed Tweak UI. I tried it.....
I see Logon....I expand it to see Autologon.......
The only option I see is to check, or not to check,
'Logon automatically'. The 5 second heart-stopping black screen
effect is the same either way.

And I don't even see any choice of user account/name to select
and I don't see a pulldown box. Remember, I'm a one user
system and the only time I've ever see a choice of user account/
name is with Safe Mode startup. I'm just logged on automatically
and never even asked to logon.

 

[JS]

You are correct, my mistake about the pull-down box (it just shows the
current user, no option to select another account).
However, you should have at least two account with Admin privileges, the
built in Windows 'Administrator' account and the one you created when
installing Windows.

My theory was that there is a race condition between the drivers Windows
loads when first booting (hardware drivers, Etc.) and the applications that
load when a user logs on. You can see what loads during boot and logon using
a tool called Autoruns.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx
This will show all apps/etc. that load/run when you first boot and logon
(they are grouped by category), you can selectively stop any that you don't
want.

Note: To get additional details on an item in the list you may need to
highlight the item (right click) and use the 'Search Online' option to get
the details, especially useful for the more obscure items in the list.

JS

 

[William B. Lurie]

Thanks, JS, I'll look at the Autoruns tool.
I know that there's a way to force the boot procedure to make me
choose between the account with me as the (one and only) user,
and the account with me as the administrative mode.
I don't know where to accomplish that, maybe via Control Panel.
It does give me that option when I go F8>>Safe Mode

 

[JS]

The password for the built in Windows Administrator account is normally
blank (none).

In XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do this by repeatedly tapping
the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will get you to the right
menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key; the mouse will not work here. Once
in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden Administrator account. The
default password is a blank.

In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode.
At the Welcome Screen, do/press the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys twice to get the
classic Windows logon box.
Type in "Administrator" (without the quotes) and whatever password you
assigned (default is no password)
when you set up Windows.

JS

 

[William B. Lurie]

G'morning, JS..... Help!
Now that I have Tweak-UI, even when booting to Safe Mode, I
never see the choice of accounts. I have Autologon set to OFF.
Now I don't see the choice of accounts, not even Administrator
Account, during start-up, not even using F8>>Safe Mode. Clue
me as to how I can get to the 'normally hidden Administrator
Account'. Incidentally, going to Safe Mode, the 5-seconds of
all-black screen didn't occur.
/Bill L./

 

[JS]

This first part is a repeat of what I sent you, however at the bottom of the
message is a section where you enter 'Control Userpasswords2' without the
quotes.
The password for the built in Windows Administrator account is normally
blank (none).

In XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do this by repeatedly tapping
the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will get you to the right
menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key; the mouse will not work here. Once
in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden Administrator account. The
default password is a blank.

In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen,
do/press the
Ctrl-Alt-Del keys twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in
"Administrator" (without the quotes) and whatever password you assigned
(default is no password)
when you set up Windows.

Once your in then:
Start/Run/type in: Control Userpasswords2 and press OK
You should now be able to manage you accounts including adding/creating a
new account which I would do as a safety net.

JS

 

[William B. Lurie]

I made tests with three hard drives and clones of the
basic OS, and I have resolved the Autologon situation.
With Autologon ON, it bypasses the choice of accounts.
With Autologon OFF, on the way to Safe Mode it stops so
that I can select Main User or Administrator.
So I'm past that hurdle, and now I'm at the Autoruns.

I downloaded, installed, and executed it, and it showed
hundreds of files that get run on startup, and I guess
your thought is that I should look at the non-Microsoft
items and uncheck a bunch of them, and see (a) what ones
can I do without on startup, and (b) which ones are associated
with the 5-second blackout. No way could I guess which Microsoft
items I could uncheck. It's beginning to look like one of those
cases where it ain't all that badly broke, so mebbe I shouldn't
try to fix it. In that case.......thanks for trying.
Bill L.

 

[JS]

A simpler tool is 'msconfig'
Start/Run enter msconfig click Run and then select the startup tab.
You can selectively stop any item from starting up.

JS

 

[William B. Lurie]

Been there, done that, JS. I'll play there some
more.
Thanks.
WBL

 

[JS]

Not certain why I didn't mention this earlier but....
Sometimes video drivers can create strange results, especially if you
updated driver(s) using Microsoft's Windows Update site which has a bad rep
when it comes to driver updates. You may want to download and install the
latest driver for your video card from the card manufacture's web site.

JS

 

[William B. Lurie]

AHA! Interesting and logical, JS. So I contacted HP, who control
all my drivers, and they agreed that that could be the problem.
So they gave me two links to download and execute, installing
heaven only knows what. Did it twice. It moved my icons around
and changed my resolution, but didn't solve the problem at all.

I screen all the Windows Update downloads (I don't just let
them install automatically), and I don't think I accepted any video
drivers. But I don't know how I can find out if there were any
that got installed (unless some lurking MVP wants to tell me how
to do that). Presumably HP has gotten me to install good drivers
by now, in any case.

Anything else?
Bill L.

 

[JS]

Any correlation between the time of the last Windows Updates and or other
software installs and when the problem started occurring?

JS

 

[William B. Lurie]

Not really, JS. But I believe there is a listing of all the
Windows KS updates that have been installed, maybe somehow
I could get Microsoft to indicate which might have video
driver consequences. I'm selective on what WUs I do install,
and I generally avoid those with video consequences.

At HP's request, I tried a different monitor, and got almost
the same results, the difference being that the blanking duration
was only about one secod with my spare monitor, versus about six
with my 'regular' monitor.
WBL