Vista - boot failure question

R

Richard Fangnail

I recently bought a new Vista computer and after a few hours, it
wouldn't boot all the way.
It drew the desktop background but did nothing else. It was showing
the mouse pointer, and Task Manager said only about 5 processes were
running, including the desktop manager.

It was not the first time I had booted it up.

I wound up totally exchanging the whole computer.


What would cause this to happen and what could you do to try to fix it
- safe mode?
 
M

Manny Weisbord

Richard Fangnail said:
I recently bought a new Vista computer and after a few hours, it
wouldn't boot all the way.
It drew the desktop background but did nothing else. It was showing
the mouse pointer, and Task Manager said only about 5 processes were
running, including the desktop manager.

It was not the first time I had booted it up.

I wound up totally exchanging the whole computer.


What would cause this to happen and what could you do to try to fix it
- safe mode?
Click to expand...

No... do exactly what you did: get it replaced.

Any number of things could cause that problem, so other than that,
your question is quite unanswerable.
 
D

DL

New PC, hardware failure, they excepted it as faulty in exchanging it.
If it occurs after the PC has been used for some lengthy period, then other
than faulty hardware, invariably a driver issue
 
B

Bill Daggett

Richard Fangnail said:
Could it have been caused by explorer.exe being missing or damaged?
Click to expand...

Why do you ask that? Is there something you didn't tell us?
 
R

Richard Fangnail

Why do you ask that?  Is there something you didn't tell us?
Click to expand...

Yes, I had previously created a desktop shortcut for Windows Explorer
but it had ".exe" in the name so I renamed it. It warned me about
something, which surprised me because I thought I was just renaming a
desktop shortcut.

When the boot fail happened, I'm not sure if it was the very next boot
up , or a few boots later.
 
B

Bill Daggett

Richard Fangnail said:
Yes, I had previously created a desktop shortcut for Windows Explorer
but it had ".exe" in the name so I renamed it. It warned me about
something, which surprised me because I thought I was just renaming a
desktop shortcut.
Click to expand...

Next time pay closer attention to the message.
When the boot fail happened, I'm not sure if it was the very next boot
up , or a few boots later.
Click to expand...

I suspect it was the next one.
 
R

Richard Fangnail

Suppose you lost your explorer.exe file, and wanted to fix it so that
you could copy it back from a CD.

The problem is, how do you access the disk drive if you don't have the
Start button?
 
G

Gordon

Richard Fangnail said:
Suppose you lost your explorer.exe file, and wanted to fix it so that
you could copy it back from a CD.

The problem is, how do you access the disk drive if you don't have the
Start button?
Click to expand...

I don't think it's quite as simple as "copying it back from a CD"!
What sort of Vista disk do you have? A proper Vista DVD or a Recovery DVD
supplied by the machine's Vendor?
 
M

Montague Nathanal Hollingsworth

Gordon said:
I don't think it's quite as simple as "copying it back from a CD"!
What sort of Vista disk do you have? A proper Vista DVD or a Recovery
DVD supplied by the machine's Vendor?
Click to expand...

He has a DVD generated by the tooth fairy. But it works at my house!!!!
LOL!
 
G

Gene E. Bloch

Yes, I had previously created a desktop shortcut for Windows Explorer
but it had ".exe" in the name so I renamed it. It warned me about
something, which surprised me because I thought I was just renaming a
desktop shortcut.

When the boot fail happened, I'm not sure if it was the very next boot
up , or a few boots later.
Click to expand...

It looks like you did *not* create a desktop shortcut to explorer.exe, it
looks like you moved or copied the file itself to the desktop. So when you
renamed it you confused Windows, because without the ".exe" on the end
(i.e., the "file name extension"), Windows has no idea what to do with the
file. Also, if you moved (not copied) it to the desktop, Windows wouldn't
be able to find it even with the right extension, except when you clicked
on the shortcut.

That could have been fixed, but I don't see how it could have done the
other things you cited. Expert comments on this remark are welcome :)
 
G

Gene E. Bloch

It looks like you did *not* create a desktop shortcut to explorer.exe, it
looks like you moved or copied the file itself to the desktop. So when you
renamed it you confused Windows, because without the ".exe" on the end
(i.e., the "file name extension"), Windows has no idea what to do with the
file. Also, if you moved (not copied) it to the desktop, Windows wouldn't
be able to find it even with the right extension, except when you clicked
on the shortcut.

That could have been fixed, but I don't see how it could have done the
other things you cited. Expert comments on this remark are welcome :)
Click to expand...

I forgot to say, I totally agree with the respondents (Manny Weisbord & DL)
who said that returning it for a new computer was the right action.
Computers are supposed to last for at least a week :)
 
R

Richard Fangnail

"Richard Fangnail" <[email protected]> wrote in message
Click to expand...
I don't think it's quite as simple as "copying it back from a CD"!
What sort of Vista disk do you have? A proper Vista DVD or a Recovery DVD
supplied by the machine's Vendor?
Click to expand...

Neither. None was provided by Gateway, and I've been confused about
how to make my own.

If I booted from a rescue disk, would it allow me to place the
explorer.exe back?
 
G

Gordon

Richard Fangnail said:
Neither. None was provided by Gateway, and I've been confused about
how to make my own.

If I booted from a rescue disk, would it allow me to place the
explorer.exe back?
Click to expand...

Possibly - the other option is to download and create a Live Linux CD - that
will boot from the CD and run in RAM. This will enable you to rename the
file to explorer.exe and to replace it where it should be.
Then try and reboot after doing that.
The most popular can be found here:
www.ubuntu.org
 

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