XP Hangs At Wallpaper Every Other Boot Like A Charm

[AC/DC]

My computer hangs solidly at wallpaper only with no icons. A reboot
brings up everything nice and quick with no problems. Yet if I reboot
again, I get the hang at wallpaper. This happens like clock work. This
problem started a month ago. Ad-Aware, Spybot, and AVG Anti Virus has
all been updated and ran. There isn't any crap on my pc. No
MySearch,SuperDooperFindCrap.


I get the same results with SP1 and SP2. A repair install did not
help. Removing all cards and trying different video cards did not
help. A different power supply did not help.


The only thing left is a full clean install. I really don't want to do
that because the thing still boots half the time with no other
problems. Plus I can't stand not knowing what could be causing this
problem. It's like a puzzle that can't be solved.


I mean, you would think that if the damn thing boots up perfectly
once, it should continue to do so. Unless there is another hidden boot
config file I don't know about. Hell I have screwed with this thing
for hell and ever and just can't figure it out by myself which is
rare.


Any ideas as to what could cause this would be appreciated.

 

[Guest]

My computer hangs solidly at wallpaper only with no icons. A reboot
brings up everything nice and quick with no problems. Yet if I reboot
again, I get the hang at wallpaper. This happens like clock work. This
problem started a month ago. Ad-Aware, Spybot, and AVG Anti Virus has
all been updated and ran. There isn't any crap on my pc. No
MySearch,SuperDooperFindCrap.


I get the same results with SP1 and SP2. A repair install did not
help. Removing all cards and trying different video cards did not
help. A different power supply did not help.


The only thing left is a full clean install. I really don't want to do
that because the thing still boots half the time with no other
problems. Plus I can't stand not knowing what could be causing this
problem. It's like a puzzle that can't be solved.


I mean, you would think that if the damn thing boots up perfectly
once, it should continue to do so. Unless there is another hidden boot
config file I don't know about. Hell I have screwed with this thing
for hell and ever and just can't figure it out by myself which is
rare.


Any ideas as to what could cause this would be appreciated.

You say you have been tackling this problem for some time. You don't state
what type of correctives measures you have taken. So, I'll just throw in
something for the heck of it. Upon bootup programs will sometime battle for
a spot on the bootup heirarchy and you may be having this problem. It's a
long and tedious thing to do but go to msconfig (Start-run-type
msconfig-enter). Start with the Startup tab. Deselect the first program and
then click apply or ok and restart your computer. Keep doing this down the
list until you are able to get two or three restarts in a row. The last
program you deselected is most likely your culprit. If you don't need it
leave unselected. If you do then try reinstalling it.
good luck!
JG

 

[V Green]

Are you using an ATI video card?

I have this as well, although less frequently than you.

I got rid of it by turning off the SMARTGART crap
embedded in the ATI driver. The downloadable tool
to do it is on the ATI site:

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/misc/catalystutils.html

make a restore point first, I have no idea what it's
gonna do to your situation...

 

[Rock]

My computer hangs solidly at wallpaper only with no icons. A reboot
brings up everything nice and quick with no problems. Yet if I reboot
again, I get the hang at wallpaper. This happens like clock work. This
problem started a month ago. Ad-Aware, Spybot, and AVG Anti Virus has
all been updated and ran. There isn't any crap on my pc. No
MySearch,SuperDooperFindCrap.


I get the same results with SP1 and SP2. A repair install did not
help. Removing all cards and trying different video cards did not
help. A different power supply did not help.


The only thing left is a full clean install. I really don't want to do
that because the thing still boots half the time with no other
problems. Plus I can't stand not knowing what could be causing this
problem. It's like a puzzle that can't be solved.


I mean, you would think that if the damn thing boots up perfectly
once, it should continue to do so. Unless there is another hidden boot
config file I don't know about. Hell I have screwed with this thing
for hell and ever and just can't figure it out by myself which is
rare.


Any ideas as to what could cause this would be appreciated.

As the other poster suggested, try some clean boot troubleshooting:
How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=316434