XP won't boot after any change

[Guest]

I'm having a pretty strange problem with my XP/SP2 computer.

It seems that, if I make any change to it (examples below) it will not
reboot until I disable, then re-enable, services through the System
Configuration Utility.

(When I say it won't boot, I mean that it hangs at the XP screen -- the one
with the XP logo and the blue boxes scrolling across below it.)

When this first happened, I tried troubleshooting the problem following the
"Startup and shutdown troubleshooter" under Help and Support. I followed the
steps of disabling non-critical hardware (no effect), then disabling services
(that worked), then re-enabling services in blocks until I found the one that
broke. But nothing broke. I ended up with all services re-enabled and the
system still working.

After some trial and error, I have found that the following sequence happens
every time:

- make change
- restart system
- system hangs as described

- reset system, boot to Safe Mode
- run msconfig, select Services tab, click Disable All
- restart system
- system boots normally

- go back to msconfig, re-enable all services
- restart system
- system boots normally and is happy thereafter (until the next change)

When I say "any change," I have so far had this problem as a result of
- installing a Zone Alarm update
- installing a USB printer
- installing Windows updates

Can anybody explain what's going on here? Can anybody give me an idea of
how I can fix this? Or how I can isolate it further?

Thanks
-- John

 

[bojimbo26]

Do you have Norton av on your system ?

 

[Guest]

Do you have Norton av on your system ?

Yes I do

 

[bojimbo26]

Yes I do

Enough said .

 

[joehoff]

Enough said .

I recently ran into this issue with Norton AV Corporate (10.2). My
solution was to uninstall Norton AV and then do all my updates
(Windows Updates), then re-install Norton AV. I have not had another
batch of windows updates to process since to see if it has permanently
fixed the issue.

I also had success on another computer by changing the real-time scan
settings to start with windows, instead of with the system boot...not
sure if this creates a window for viruses during boot.

 

[Guest]

Enough said .

Well actually, I'd prefer if you said a little more.

Do you know of this being a known problem with NAV, or do you just have a
vague general distrust of it, i.e., one of those "NAV is known to cause all
kinds of bad things and nobody should ever use it" stories?

I ask because I've had NAV on the system for years without a problem, and
after I go through the disable/enable exercise that I described, NAV is still
on the system and still running and the system is okay. So there doesn't
appear to be a connection.

 

[Guest]

John, I've had this problem for over a year. Purchased a new laptop with
Vista and had to copy XP from my old laptop due to some manufacturing
software that would not run on Vista. I had the problem with the old laptop
and now I have the same problem with my new laptop. I just use MFconfig and
sometimes just undoing systems will work but other times I have to also undo
startup. In either case when you finally get both back on and reboot
everything works as it should. Microsoft doesn't have a clue as I worked with
them for over 10 hours over several days without resolution. If you know of a
fix please let me know. I only have Norton Antivirus. I got rid of Norton2007.
Roy Mapes