WinXP startup Problem and Strange Solution

[Graz]

I have XP installed on one of my machines where its been running fine for about 2 months. In the last week I've noticed the boot up has taken longer each time. In the week prior to this last week I installed AOL messenger, but made no other changes. I defrag once a week. This morning when I tried to boot up I got to the "Welcome to Window" screen and the machine stopped loading. No luck with safe mode, debug mode, or last know good conf. It just stops at the welcome screen. I have a week old backup but I'd lose quite a bit by applying it and I'm saving that as a last resort. Any suggestions about what I should (could) be trying before I got to the backup??

Thanks.

 

[Graz]

Anyone??

 

[yanon]

I had a similar problem two weeks ago after installing a sh*tty software which isn't compatible with Win Xp. I used the Recovery Console to restore windows system and software profile. Win XP works fine after the restore, but I lost all my settings. I had to reinstall all the software apps. BTW, Recovery Console do let you save a backup copy of your system and software profile but I don't know anyway (system restore utility doesn't work in this case) to recover the old settings using backup profiles. You probably don't want to use the old profiles since there might be something wrong in them that caused the system lock-up. You can search www.microsoft.com for more information on how to use the Recovery Console.

 

[Graz]

Well, I found the answer and its odd enough to warn others about. I had updated the epson printer driver from the Windows update site a few weeks ago. It seems the driver looks very hard for the printer on bootup. Printer on Boots fine, Printer off It never compleates booting. I know it sounds strange but I booted the machine up 20 times last night to test this and thats the way it worked. Truly odd. Oh well, one more thing to add to the bag of tricks

 

[kursplat]

i'm not supprised. windows update had one for the C-Media sound chip, (which was working just fine with the XP drivers from C-Media's site). so i think " well o.k. lets go "...
well 1 format\reinstall later and i'm going to be very carefull about driver updates @win update.