XP Freezes At Boot..

[Malke]

I'm trying to help a friend of mine. He's using XP Pro SP2.

The problem is it freezes as the desktop is coming up. It starts
normally but after a while his mouse freezes and then XP stops loading.

He can start in Safe Mode and everything works including the mouse so
the first thing I had him do was remove the mouse driver and reboot and
it still froze although it got a little further along. Keep in mind I'm
doing this over the phone so I'm not sure how much more of his desk top
loads.

When he rebooted in Safe Mode it did install a new mouse driver and then
everything works in Safe Mode but when he reboots it still freezes as
the desktop is loading.

When he first had the problem he tried a System Restore but that didn't
fix it.

He's got all sorts of errors in his Event Log which point to needing to
install UPHClean but he couldn't install that in Safe Mode although he
could download it in Safe Mode.

Any ideas or web pages where he could troubleshoot this problem?

Thanks in advance.

It probably has nothing to do with the mouse. Since he can start in Safe
Mode, this means that something running in Regular Mode is causing the
issue. This could be a program, drivers, or even a hardware issue that
doesn't show up in Safe Mode (video-related for instance). There's no
way for us to tell.

Your friend could start by doing clean-boot troubleshooting and also
asking himself The First Question Of Troubleshooting: what changed
between the time things worked and the time they didn't?

Here are links about doing clean-boot troubleshooting:

Clean boot in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Clean-boot advanced troubleshooting in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560


Malke

 

[JD]

I'm trying to help a friend of mine. He's using XP Pro SP2.

The problem is it freezes as the desktop is coming up. It starts
normally but after a while his mouse freezes and then XP stops loading.

He can start in Safe Mode and everything works including the mouse so
the first thing I had him do was remove the mouse driver and reboot and
it still froze although it got a little further along. Keep in mind I'm
doing this over the phone so I'm not sure how much more of his desk top
loads.

When he rebooted in Safe Mode it did install a new mouse driver and then
everything works in Safe Mode but when he reboots it still freezes as
the desktop is loading.

When he first had the problem he tried a System Restore but that didn't
fix it.

He's got all sorts of errors in his Event Log which point to needing to
install UPHClean but he couldn't install that in Safe Mode although he
could download it in Safe Mode.

Any ideas or web pages where he could troubleshoot this problem?

Thanks in advance.

 

[JD]

It probably has nothing to do with the mouse. Since he can start in Safe
Mode, this means that something running in Regular Mode is causing the
issue. This could be a program, drivers, or even a hardware issue that
doesn't show up in Safe Mode (video-related for instance). There's no
way for us to tell.

Your friend could start by doing clean-boot troubleshooting and also
asking himself The First Question Of Troubleshooting: what changed
between the time things worked and the time they didn't?

Here are links about doing clean-boot troubleshooting:

Clean boot in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Clean-boot advanced troubleshooting in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560


Malke

Thanks Malke. I'll take a look at the web pages next time my friend calls.

As far as he can tell, nothing changed to create this problem but I
agree if it starts in Safe Mode then it's something loading for regular
mode.

Were there any Windows updates this past Tuesday? I think he takes those
manually.

 

[Malke]

Thanks Malke. I'll take a look at the web pages next time my friend calls.

As far as he can tell, nothing changed to create this problem but I
agree if it starts in Safe Mode then it's something loading for regular
mode.

Were there any Windows updates this past Tuesday? I think he takes those
manually.

He can tell if he did any updates by going to Add/Remove Programs,
ticking "Show Updates" and looking at what is installed. I'd start with
the clean-boot, though.

Malke

 

[JD]

He can tell if he did any updates by going to Add/Remove Programs,
ticking "Show Updates" and looking at what is installed. I'd start with
the clean-boot, though.

Malke

He ended up doing a repair install so he'll get to do all the updates
again. During that process, his keyboard stopped working? He could hit
Enter to start the install but not F8 to Accept the License Agreement.He
bought a new keyboard and started all over and it seems to have worked.

I have put your clean boot links into my XP notes for the next time he
calls.

 

[Malke]

He ended up doing a repair install so he'll get to do all the updates
again. During that process, his keyboard stopped working? He could hit
Enter to start the install but not F8 to Accept the License Agreement.He
bought a new keyboard and started all over and it seems to have worked.

I have put your clean boot links into my XP notes for the next time he
calls.

Well, let's hope that solved it for him. Thanks for taking the time to
let me know. You're a good friend. ;-)


Malke

 

[JD]

Well, let's hope that solved it for him. Thanks for taking the time to
let me know. You're a good friend. ;-)


Malke

My friend called this morning and it's gotten worse. He tried to install
drivers for his video card and now his start up is caught up in a
loop. He can boot to Safe Mode but it starts to load XP and then it
reboots and repeats that until he turns the power off.

 

[Malke]

My friend called this morning and it's gotten worse. He tried to install
drivers for his video card and now his start up is caught up in a loop.
He can boot to Safe Mode but it starts to load XP and then it reboots
and repeats that until he turns the power off.

Frankly, it's time for your friend to take his machine to a reputable
professional computer shop (not a BigStoreUSA type of place). He could
be having hardware problems and there is no practical way to determine
that third-hand via newsgroup postings. Someone who knows what they are
doing is going to need to look at the machine.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to help your friend, but there are limitations
as to what can be accomplished in this venue.


Malke

 

[JD]

Frankly, it's time for your friend to take his machine to a reputable
professional computer shop (not a BigStoreUSA type of place). He could
be having hardware problems and there is no practical way to determine
that third-hand via newsgroup postings. Someone who knows what they are
doing is going to need to look at the machine.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to help your friend, but there are limitations
as to what can be accomplished in this venue.


Malke

Don't worry about it Malke. As you say, there are limitations as to what
can be done through a newsgroup or over the phone. My friend and I are
amature computer builders so he can probably build a new basic box for
$300 and go from there. I'm curious as to what the problem is but I
don't think I'll ever know.