Vista freezing on welcome page

[dave56]

My Dell Inspiron 6400 freezes in vista on welcome page and will not load any further. This has happened quite suddenly and for mo apparent reason!! Help -please. Thanks David.

[RandyL]

Hi dave.

By any chance will it boot in safemode?

[dave56]

Hi Randy .Thanks for replying. . Only a beginner-how do you get into safe mode? Dave

[RandyL]

At startup before the splash screen start tapping the F8 key. It may take several trys to get the timing just right.

[dave56]

Hi there. Tried safe mode but still will not start.David.

[dave56]

Thanks Randy for your advice.Have found system restore and restored my laptop to a date before I installed some new printer software. I think this software must have been the problem as it was for XP and not Vista. Anyway it does seem to have solved the problem. Thanks David. Have a Happy Christmas.

[RandyL]

You're welcome dave. Thanks for letting us know.

 

You did what I was hoping you could do if you got into safemode.

 

You're probably right about the printer. I've seen that happen before when printers were installed and the OS didn't support it.

[dave56]

Bad news! I thought I had fixed it but it is doing it again-freezing/hanging on Welcome page. Any more suggestions? Thanks David.

[RandyL]

What's changed Dave?

 

From the time you did a System Restore to now has anything changed. New programs or settings perhaps. Or maybe new hardware added like that printer again?

 

What antivirus do you have?

Do you download music?

Have you run any malware scans?

Have you tried doing a chkdsk?

 

Do you have your Dell recovery disks?

 

How about Windows updates? Do you have the new ones? Has this problem resurfaced after a Windows update?

 

I could go on and on but the point is that the more information you can give us the better chance the issue can be isolated.

 

Hope to hear from you soon but I may or may not have time in the next few days execpt for Admin duties but there are many fine members here who can assist you.

[dave56]

Thanks for the reply.

No changes

AVg anti virus

No music download

no malware scan done

What's CHKDSK?

no disks

windows update will not load!!!

 

Thanks David.

[Dalo Harkin]

AVG is really really bad and wont pick up much at the best of times - replace it with Avast or Avira.

CHKDSK is Check Disk and it checks the HDD for errors, when the PC loads does the HDD light on the front of the case flicker lots or stay solid?

It would appear that something either at start up (we can go into that later) or the HDD itself is struggling

[dave56]

Thanks for all your trouble. The light flickers and keeps on flickering while it is stuck at the welcome page,-like right now!!! Didn't know that AVG wasn't so good -will look up Avast and Avira -are they free? David.

[dave56]

P.S I now find that I can get the laptop to move on from the welcome page by pressing ctrl/alt/delete and cancel and then it works ok -strange?? David.

[dave56]

Me again! Just looked on my pc and find that I am running both Avast and Avg,but not Avira. My laptop has avg only and my net book has avg only.What would your advice be? Do I need to run more than one at a time? Glad of your advice.David.

[Dalo Harkin]

No you only should run one AV - use Avira or Avast over AVG.

I would suggest that something at startup is causing you issues, but you need the PC to boot before you can edit the startup programs

[dave56]

Back again after Christmas preparations!! Have got the pc to boot up from safe mode-anything else I can do to make it act normally? Thanks for your patience. David.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Dave, if you can totally remove AVG while in safe mode then do it, once done make sure Avast is running. It just may be the the AVG and Avast conflicting right from start up that is creating the freeze up.

it is because two anti-virus programs trying to run at the same time will conflict is the reason for the recommendation for not having two anti-virus products together.

Nev.

[dave56]

Happy Christmas.Thanks for the reply. Just escaped from the mayhem for a few quiet moments.

Well,I now have only 1 anti-virus running but the laptop still freezes at welcome page,(It now works ok in safe mode) Any more I can do? Thanks.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Dave sorry to have not got back to you sooner, Christmas stuff and other things etc.

You said ctrl/alt/delete, then cancel would get it running is that still the case?

ctrl/alt/delete is the normal code to get into task manager and wondering if there is something in there set incorrectly, let us know.

Nev.

[dave56]

Hello Nev.Trust you had a great Christmas.

 

Thanks for getting back to me. Yes-when it gets to the welcome page I ctrl/alt/del and then press cancel when the options come up and the laptop carries on to work normally. I can select task manager but I don't understand all the info there!! (Beginner)

What do you think I could do next?

 

Happy New Year when it comes. Dave

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Dave, there is obviously a clue there, but puzzled about what it is that comes up with the cancel option. I don't run Vista being still on XP, so I will have to leave it for one of our guys with Vista knowledge.

Nev.

[RandyL]

dave can you go through the exact steps you take to get Windows to boot in normal mode? Please be specific.

 

If you can get into Windows but not normally then I suspect malware as an issue.

[dave56]

Hi there! Happy New Year! Thanks for the reply. Here goes!

Switch on laptop

Loads up to welcome page and freezes.

press ctrl/alt/delete

Click on cancel

Laptop operates normally Any ideas? Many thanks. David.

[RandyL]

dave since you can get into safemode and you can get into Vista via a strange method I'm suspecting either a startup item, which could be malware or a driver corruption.

 

Go to run>msconfig>startup tab. Disable startup items there.

 

Also have a look in device manager for anything that shows an error. Right click Computer then click properties then device manager.

[dave56]

Hi! Nothing wrong in device manager.Will try disabling start up items. Just re-started laptop and it worked normally!!! Tried again and still working normally-strange? Will keep going and let you know how I get on. Many thanks for helping. Dave.