windows xp home issue

[EJFan]

i've had my PC for a little over a year. i'm having what might be a problem and hope someone can shed some light on this. i'll explain as briefly as possible...

when i first turn the PC on i get the typical cursor blinking for a second or two and then the windows logo comes up with the progress meter beneath it.

last week (and again today) when the logo comes on, it's VERY dim and the progress meter doesn't do anything. it sits like that until i power down. when i restart it, it gives that list of options about starting in safe mode, at the last functional setup point, etc.

i've searched the microsoft KB with no real success. any ideas? if more info is needed just ask. thanks!!!!

 

[darksydeavenger]

I'm no expert in this area, but I'd suggest

http://www.pcpitstop.com


the site can scan your computer and give you a full report on its status and what you can do to fix it...hope this helps

 

[SmilinAngel]

I'm not too sure on this either, but maybe there are some patches you need. Have you been keeping up with those? If not, go to: www.microsoft.com. Good luck!

 

[EJFan]

thanks for the information

i'll be sure to stop at that site you recommended, darksyde. i appreciate it.

angel... i've kept up with the littany of windows updates. i got the most recent half dozen or so last week some time. thanks for making the suggestion though. in general, windows users don't stay on top of patches and whatnot very well... or at least the people i know don't.

i should mention that i have the symantec internet security package as well as spybot. my checks are always clean so i'm pretty secure and am 99% certain that this isn't a virus/adware/spyware type of problem.

any other ideas?

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

I've had this same problem before (and I use xp home as well)..

Well, my screen doesn't go dim, but the progress meter just sits there and scans across but Windows doesn't load and I have to power down to be able to do anything.


The first time it happened, one of my twins had hit the power button on the front of the case. It took 2 tries with System Restore before Windows would load normally.

The second time it happened was after a power outage. That time system restore didn't work. I was going to just reformat, but when I put my Windows CD in, it didn't give me an option to repair/install.. anything. It just tried to load Windows (and hung.... just like the progress meter). I discovered I had a diagnostic disc from the computer manufacturer, so I popped it in. Surprisingly, it didn't find anything wrong, but running the tests must have jogged whatever was hung up loose because when the tests ended, it automatically rebooted and Windows loaded just fine.

I wish I could be more help, but I wanted you to know that you weren't the only one who has had this kind of problem.

 

[EJFan]

good information

thanks crimson... i'm glad to know someone else experienced it. i now know of three or four instances of this type of a problem.

it's odd that i can't find anything in the knowledge base about it. maybe i'm not using the right keywords or somethin'.

anyone else care to chime in??? i'd really like to nail this down more.

aside from visiting lit and other porn sites, i actually do real work on the computer and don't want anything bad to happen to it.

 

[EJFan]

i think i found it!

hey folks...

in case any of you can use this information, i thought i'd revive the thread and post what i think is the solution.

while i was trying to think about what had changed on my pc since this startup problem began i remembered that i changed my wallpaper. i was using a scanned image saved as a jpeg file.

i'm told that windows has trouble handling jpegs as wallpaper and the file should be a bitmap (.bmp). i don't believe this entirely though since i've gotten images off the internet that were jpegs and used them without issue. the file wasn't any larger than any of the others and there wasn't anything out of the ordinary about it.

that being said, i changed the wallpaper about a week ago and haven't had a startup problem since.

 

[sirmed]

after it boots.. is the video okay after that.. and does it run right.??? I might want to look at a video card if it dosent run right after it boots.....

been there done that.. but it would never get right.. changed cards and it all went right...

good luck..

 

[Topher]

Disclaimer:
What I am about to suggest is trouble-free 99.9% of the time, but don't blame me if you try it an something fouls up. Call Bill. I'm also sorry if you have already tried this and I am not telling you anything new.

What just about everyone reading should do is to prevent any applications which start automatically at startup from doing so. This includes your virus protection, so if you are paranoid set it to start automatically later. Personally, I think it is lame to have antivirus eating clock cycles in the background all the time.

click start -> run -> type: msconfig -> select "startup" tab -> click "disable all" -> click "apply" -> reboot

You'd be surprised how many problems this fixes, but no guarantees from me.

Your computer will probably run smoother and be less bogged down as well.

 

[EJFan]

Disclaimer:
What I am about to suggest is trouble-free 99.9% of the time, but don't blame me if you try it an something fouls up. Call Bill. I'm also sorry if you have already tried this and I am not telling you anything new.

What just about everyone reading should do is to prevent any applications which start automatically at startup from doing so. This includes your virus protection, so if you are paranoid set it to start automatically later. Personally, I think it is lame to have antivirus eating clock cycles in the background all the time.

click start -> run -> type: msconfig -> select "startup" tab -> click "disable all" -> click "apply" -> reboot

You'd be surprised how many problems this fixes, but no guarantees from me.

Your computer will probably run smoother and be less bogged down as well.

thanks topher. yeah, i actually went through that to try to isolate the problem. i'm one of those people who tries to keep the system tray pretty clean to begin with but i wasn't sure so i gave it a go. it didn't do any good in my particular case.

i really believe the solution was in the change i made (which is listed a few posts back) to the wallpaper. the only thing is that i can't justify it as being the cause of the problem... it just seems that it fixed it.

i hope more people do what you're suggesting though. there are waaaay too many things in most people's system trays.

 

[The_old_man]

Windows screen saver software is VERY sensitive to size and encoding for wallpaper. Some monitors also require limited format for video. Your .jpeg picture may have violated one or more of the requirements. This has been somewhat of a nuisance since Win 95.