XP Freezing at Select User Stage

[Mark Griffiths]

Hi All,
I've just been given a PC to look at that has the following problem;
When XP has loaded and you are asked to select a User to login as, the
machine basically freezes.
It will take 10 mins to show the wallpaper and then another 15 before the
desktop icons appear.
But the taskbar at the bottom continually has the hourglass when you move
the mouse pointer over it, and where the date should be its just blue, same
with the quick launch toolbar area.
If you right click on an icon on the desktop, then nothing appears after 5
mins and I get bored and restart the thing again into safe mode to try
something else.

In safe mode its fine.

I've tried creating a new user, but that does the same.

I've tried taking the hardware down to barebones to see if there was a
hardware problem, no luck there.

I've even tried to use system restore, but on every one I've done, it
appears to complete, but the problem is still there and when you go back
into safe mose, it tells you that system restore didn't happen and no
changes were made to the system.

I've removed everything in
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Currentversion\Run - still no luck.

I've removed eTrust Inocculate - apparently this freezing really started to
happen after this was installled, but the PC was showing signs of being slow
at times before this - still no luck!

Ran out of ideas now.

Oh and I've run a full Virus scan (before I removed eTrust) in safe mode and
MS AntiSpyWare and both came up clean.

Any one come accross a similar problem, or anyone have any ideas would be
great help.

TIA
Mark

 

[Malke]

Hi All,
I've just been given a PC to look at that has the following problem;
When XP has loaded and you are asked to select a User to login as, the
machine basically freezes.
It will take 10 mins to show the wallpaper and then another 15 before
the desktop icons appear.
But the taskbar at the bottom continually has the hourglass when you
move the mouse pointer over it, and where the date should be its just
blue, same with the quick launch toolbar area.
If you right click on an icon on the desktop, then nothing appears
after 5 mins and I get bored and restart the thing again into safe
mode to try something else.

In safe mode its fine.

I've tried creating a new user, but that does the same.

I've tried taking the hardware down to barebones to see if there was a
hardware problem, no luck there.

I've even tried to use system restore, but on every one I've done, it
appears to complete, but the problem is still there and when you go
back into safe mose, it tells you that system restore didn't happen
and no changes were made to the system.

I've removed everything in
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Currentversion\Run - still no luck.

I've removed eTrust Inocculate - apparently this freezing really
started to happen after this was installled, but the PC was showing
signs of being slow at times before this - still no luck!

Ran out of ideas now.

Oh and I've run a full Virus scan (before I removed eTrust) in safe
mode and MS AntiSpyWare and both came up clean.

Any one come accross a similar problem, or anyone have any ideas would
be great help.

Inocculate is very outdated, I believe (unless this is a corporate
version). MSAntiSpyware looks like it will be a good tool, but it is
still in beta. Follow the malware removal steps here, starting with a
scan with TrendMicro's Sysclean (instructions included on website) and
doing everything with updated tools in Safe Mode.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Malke