Windows XP startup just runs, does not progress... Please help?

[Clint]

My computer will turn on, and the black "Windows XP" screen with the little
blue bars that run from left to right shows up, but it does not progress past
that point... Basically the startup sequence just runs, but does not get to
a screen where I can log myself into my computer. Any help or advice would
be greatly appreciated. I did notice the previous day that the performance
of the computer had slowed way down, so I did full virus scans with symantec,
windows defender, and lavasoft adaware, but turned up nothing serious. Thank
you for any help!

 

[r_staley_NA]

Clint,

Have you tried to go to safe mode with the computer during startup. To do
this, after any BIOS messages and before XP starts, press the F8 key. Scroll
to the top of the menu listed for "Safe mode". Will it get through the
startup process? If not what is the last process listed?

 

[Clint]

Thanks for the tip. I will try that tonight when I get home. After I start
in safe mode, will the computer operate normallt? Also, what should I do to
make sure this doesn't happen again? Is there any certain process I should
look for if it does not get through the startup process?

Thanks!

 

[Michael]

I have in the last couple days had a similar experinece on my Acer Aspire
5050 with XP sp2 Media Center edition. It appears that updates is attempting
to install 3 files and when I restart my computer gets stuck at the splash
screen and I am never able to login. It just sits with the bars moving at the
splash screen.

In my situation, I am able to reboot into Safe mode and am in fact writing
this while in safe mode.

I don't specifically remember what the three updates were but I think they
were security updates of some sort. I was at one point able to restore to an
earlier date and was able to do a normal startup but then Windows UPdate
installed the same 3 updates and the whole process repeated itself,
restarting resulted in getting stuck at the splash screen.

What to do at this point? I had this happen a couple days ago too and at
that point when I was finally able to restore to a prior time, ran my CA
virus and spyware which found nothing.

I'm very frustrated and looking for some ideas to get past this. I can't
ignore the updates as they are critical fixes and I'd be vulnerable.

What logs can I look at to find out what the problem is?