Windows XP freezing @ desktop before anything loads

[ku]

Hi. My friend is having a problem with his computer. When he boots, everything loads up fine: gets past the Windows loading screen and then goes to the pre-login screen. However, at this point, the computer freezes showing nothing but the mouse cursor (which can be moved) and a black background. There's nothing to click on and keyboard shortcuts do not work (ctrl+alt+del / ctrl+shift+esc / start shortcut / etc.). The computer just sits there for over 20 minutes doing nothing. The situation is identical when booted in safe mode (except for the "Safe Mode" at the corner of the screens). If anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated!

 

[mechBgon]

I'd start by slapping his hard drive into a different system as a slave and backing up anything he wants to rescue... just in case. While it's in there, set up a virus scan to scan it without actually taking action, just an informational scan to gather info on what it's infected with.

Once you've rescued everything you want to keep, you can try a repair-install of Windows (or just go for a full reinstall). Be aware that this will take you backwards on your security patching to whatever the Windows CD is (SP1 or no SP at all, perhaps), so make sure you're behind a router in order to keep the worms at bay. No pluggin' it straight into the modem with the firewall down. 😛

 

[ku]

wow... Ironically enough, I just ran into the same problem. I went to sleep last night with the computer on (as usual) and in the morning, my virus scanner updated and required a reboot. And so I did, but now, I have a similar problem: The desktop and taskbar loads, but freezes after a few seconds. I can close it through the taskmanager, but when I try to reload explorer, the same thing happens.

This is really ironic as my friend and I rarely talk online, or do much online in common (I stick to gaming while he uses his computer mostly for work).

Anyway, as for the solutions that I've tried, I've tried using the Windows File Protection utility (sfc in command prompt), Registry Mechanic (along with various other registry tricks like looking for the explorer.exe key in Image File Execution Options but it didn't exist), and of course, the virus/spyware scans w/ various scanners. Reformatting (for me, anyway) is not an option as all my suitemates/friends have laptops. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[mechBgon]

and in the morning, my virus scanner updated and required a reboot. And so I did, but now, I have a similar problem: The desktop and taskbar loads, but freezes after a few seconds.

1) What virus scanner, exactly?

2) Does your friend use the same virus scanner?

 

[ku]

I used Grisoft AVG, Trend Micro online one, and now I have Anti-vir Vpersonal edition.

edit: I'm not sure which one my friend uses (he's back at home, and I'm at school so I haven't gotten a chance to look at his computer yet)

edit2: Would anyone happen to know where I would be able to find out what windows updates I have already installed and when? If I updated within the past couple of days, perhaps that could be the problem.

edit3: Problem solved? While I was downloading partition magic to salvage whatever I could in case of eminent reformatting, I decided to mess around with a couple of things: I changed back the windows appearance back to default (so I got the blue bubbly titlebar and things) and all is good. I don't understand it, but it seems to have worked thus far. Thanks for the help mechBgon