Windows hangs near end of boot

[aquanut]

Windows Home 5.1 with SP3
Compaq Presario, 3 to 4 years old

Recently (last calendar week) boot and startup seemed slower than usual
(removed norton 360, installed mcaffee from comcast on or about 2/27)
Thursday 3/5 boot and startup hung before displaying toolbar. Able to access
only a few programs, NOT "START" on toolbar, NOT system restore. I was able
to find a diagnostic log (unable to repeat today) that seemed to indicate one
or more of several background programs were not able to complete opening.
Attempts 3/5, 3/6 also failed. Ran hard drive maintenance (spinrite) 3/7 and
3/8 (takes a long time).
Tonight (3/8), a little more of toolbar displayed, but "start" and any other
place on toolbar gives hourglass.
Alt|Cntrl|Del > will get task manager, and allows terminating non responsive
programs and shutdown.
Shutdown> turnoff attempts to end
{44c6fb81-kbdwindcls-b4f7-11d9fdd0800460222f0}, fails to end, reports program
as not responding, > select end now. Windows shuts down, turns off computer.
Rebooted again while working on this. Can't believe it. Seems to be working.
Found the "computer management>system tool>event viewer>application. The
entries that were "error" "application hang" or "error" "mssql$pinnaclesys"
that were present each time boot failed either do not appear or, in case of
"mssql$ ..." is a warning, not error.
Shutdown was normal (except that every night since 2/27 or so there has been
a Windows Update).
Things that fix themselves for no apparent reason leave me very concerned.

 

[Gerry]

aquanut

Moving from Norton to McAfee is exchanging one resource hog for another.
There are better freeware alternatives.

Your long post is difficult to follow. Does the system now boot and shutdown
properly?

Are any devices malfunctioning? Select Start, All Programs, Accessories,
System Tools, System Information. Open Components under System Summary
and click on Problem Devices. Is anything listed there?

Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right click on
the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties,
Hardware,Device Manager. If yes what is the Device Error code?

Have a look in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for
Errors and Warnings and post copies here. Don't post any more than 48
hours ago.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
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