XP Displays Splash Screen at Startup but No Boot-Up

[Jeff]

Hi,

This morning I purchased and installed Acronis TrueImage Home to trial on a
second workstation I use in my office. At the completion of the install I
chose to wait to restart so that I could shut the system off to repair a DVD
drive. I then chose to turn off the computer. At that time, the XP updates
that had been downloaded since the last shutdown were installed.

When Windows restarted after the updates were completed, the start-up went
only as far as the Windows XP splash screen and scroll bar. (The scroll bar
continues to scroll until I do a hard reset on the system.)

I can start Windows in Safe Mode with no problems. In an attempt to rule out
Acronis as being a problem I attempted to uninstall the program; however,
because I was in safe mode, that option was not available to me.

Can someone help me out by giving me a little advice on how to troubleshoot
this problem? Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

Jeff

 

[Ron Badour]

Do a system restore to a date prior to the onset of the problems. When
there are updates pending, it is best to do them and not make other system
changes. That way, if something goes wrong, you will not have two things to
look at as being the cause.

--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

 

[Jeff]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your message. I do understand, and appreciate, what you suggested.

I am a little confused with something, so I hope you'll bear with me.

Prior to your message, I selected the option in the Safe Mode screen which
allowed me to boot into the last know good configuration. This started XP
without incident. I was curious what system state the computer would boot to
if I restarted Windows, so I gave it a try. XP booted back into the Windows
(non-safe mode). There are some errors that I need to work through; but, in
general it looks like I am past the problem I was experiencing while booting
up.

I am confused why Windows booted-up correctly after not making any changes
to the prior updates that were run. How did it know to do that? More
importantly, what do I need to do to make sure I don't have that same problem
again? (Should I merely plan on running the Windows updates again?)

Sorry if these questions are pretty basic.

Thanks

Jeff

 

[Chuck]

It's likely that the uninstall of Acronis rolled back to a restore point
that was made when Acronis was installed.

 

[Ron Badour]

Last Known Good Configuration is kind of a lite version of system restore.
It probably wasn't the updates that caused the problem. Something was
apparently trying to load and was not able to. LKGC must have gotten the PC
around that problem which allowed the boot to complete. This is just
speculation of course.
--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

 

[Jose]

Last Known Good Configuration is kind of a lite version of system restore..
It probably wasn't the updates that caused the problem.  Something was
apparently trying to load and was not able to.  LKGC must have gotten the PC
around that problem which allowed the boot to complete.  This is just
speculation of course.
--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

Isn't the LKG configuration just a snapshot made of the registry
system configuration and drivers settings at the last successful boot?

The LKG configuration is subsequently replaced on every successful
boot.

LKG can be used to boot successfully in case the the next boot attempt
fails so the changes can be backed out.

A System Restore can be run from Safe Mode or after a boot using LKG -
they are complimentary but in no way interchangeable.