Switching Users Freezes XP

Gadgetman496

I have just created a second user account on my PC. This is something I have done on many, many occasions in the past and have never encountered this particular problem before.

Just to clarify: My PC now has my original user account, plus the one I've just created (2 in total).

Now here's the problem: I can log into either of the 2 accounts at start-up without any problem, but if I try to switch users from one to the other or visa verse, my machine locks up totally. When I switch users, it actually switches to the desired user account; it displays the desktop & starts to populate the system tray & desktop icons. Then it just hangs (freezes) every time. It doesn't matter which way I try to switch, it locks up every time. I have tried deleting the new account & recreating it, changing it's name, changing it's Admin rights, restarting the system, but all to no avail. The only options I have at that point, is to power down the PC & start it again. I really don't know where to go with this one as I have never come across it before. Any help would be great.

Ruu_Old

Have you got Service Pack 2 installed?

Gadgetman496

Yes Ruu, but I have that for ages & never had this trouble before.
Don't no if it's significant but, I recently installed a new HDD and done a clean install of XP Pro.

Gadgetman496

gadgetman496 wrote:

Yes Ruu, but I have that for ages & never had this trouble before.
Don't no if it's significant but, I recently installed a new HDD and done a clean install of XP Pro.

Annoying thing about it is, I've just replaced the HDD drive & done the clean install on 2 PC's (Both with SP2) & only one of them has this problem. The problem PC had SP2 prior to wipe but never had any probs switching users.

Ruu_Old

Probably not this issue but narrowing things down, is Fast User Switching enabled?

Gadgetman496

Yes it is..... Nothing else I can think of with this clean install. I have all the same programs loaded. I'm stumped. I mean the last thing I want to do is another clean install, I've just done one yesterday.

leche solara

Have you had any other slowdowns/freezes before you added the second XP user. Have you enough RAM.
Switchuser is very memory demanding.

Gadgetman496

leche solara wrote:

Have you had any other slowdowns/freezes before you added the second XP user. Have you enough RAM.
Switchuser is very memory demanding.

No prior slowdowns.
I have 1024MB & plenty free.
Before I done the clean install I had four user accounts & all were switching fine.