Can't boot into windows-sort off

The_Bullman

I have a problem that only developed this week on two of my pc's. Both are running windows 2000 professional but apart from that they are completly different spec. My problem is that the both of them are having trouble booting into windows-sort of.

Let me(try to) explain whats going on. It seems to be busy just after the loading screen. My wallpaper comes up and the hourglass is working away in the background, but thats it. It will stay like this indefinitly. I can ctrl+alt+del to bring up the usual pop-up and from there I can go into task manager. The only process that is taking up any cpu is the system idle process which is at 99%. The strange thing is that if I click on new task I can open programs. For example I am writing this without having seen my taskbar boot up. I just browsed until I got to explorer and opened it that way.

I can't think of any program that I just installed that would be causing this. Normally if I ctrl+alt+del and then click shut down>restart, it will boot up grand but even that doesn't seem to be working now.

Anyone have any ideas?

I am lost at the moment.

Another slight problem that I was having which I am assuming to be unreleated was that I couldn't get windows(like explorer/mirc) to "snap on" to the taskbar on the bottom. If I clicked maximise then it would sometimes snap onto below the taskbar, which means that I would be losing the bottom part of internet explorer(the page loading progress bar) and the same lower on other programs. Difficult to explain really but I thought that I would try to get it sorted when I am having this other problem.

Thanks in advance guys

Ruu_Old

will it run ok in safe mode? looks like Windows doesnt like something thats in ur startup folder or something, eliminate them one by one and see if that does the trick Try the last known good configuration option

The_Bullman

You see its running ok now.

It just takes a few restarts. It took 4 restarts(2 more after I made the original post)

I don't know if the last good configuration would work so. but I will check what the story is with safe mode.

How do I check what programs start up with the pc, apart from the ones in my startup folder?

ando

hmm, you saying you can log in but your desktop will not load?

If you can get into the task manager, goto 'file, new task' and type 'control'. See if that loads your desktop. If it does go into the registry and delete any suspitious tasks that run on startup. Also, apply service pack 3 after editing the registry.

Thats what I did and it sorted the problem

ando

from microsoft support:

SYMPTOMS
When you log on to Windows 2000, you may see a blank desktop or no desktop. When this occurs, you can press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to start Task Manager, but Explorer.exe is not listed in the list of running tasks or processes. Starting a new instance of Explorer.exe does not resolve the issue.

CAUSE
This behavior can occur if there is an older version of the Shdocvw.dll file in the %SystemRoot% folder. Because Explorer.exe is located in the %SystemRoot% folder, the search path for any called files starts in the %SystemRoot% folder before the path is searched. The default search order always looks for a called file in the folder containing the program file before searching the path to locate the file.

RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue:
Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE, and then click Task Manager.
On the File menu, click New Task (Run).
Type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.
If necessary, change to the %SystemRoot% folder. This is typically the Winnt or Windows folder.
Rename the Shdocvw.dll file by typing ren shdocvw.dll shdocvw.old.
Restart the computer.

MORE INFORMATION
Other older files that may cause problems with Explorer.exe or the shell if they are located in %SystemRoot% folder:
Browseui.dll
Comctl32.dll
Comdlg32.dll
Mlang.dll
Ole32.dll
Oleaut32.dll
Shdocvw.dll
Shell32.dll
Shlwapi.dll
Urlmon.dll
Wininet.dll
Setupapi.dll

Ruu_Old

emm its the Services Applet in Control Panel. Heres a good program for startup programs, click here
It is also possible to download msconfig.exe from here and it will work, just disregard the messages

The_Bullman

Thanks for the replys lads.

Ruu. it does boot into safe mode. I don't know if that was a freak accident or if it does it anyway. It did take ages though(and mess up my desktop icons! )

Ando, thanks for that reply one quesion though. Does it matter that explorer.exe is in the processes list. I assume that that problem fixes you suggested work only if it isn't there. I don't want to risk it otherwise.

Ryo Hazuki

Sounds very like some disabled services are causing this.

I had almost exactly the smae problem when I disabled lots of my services, in the end I had to go through regedit and enable them, and eventually reinstall win2k.

I didnt read the other posts.

SouperComputer

refresh your OS, often cures problems.

last good config is no use to you because you have logged on successfully since the problem started.

The_Bullman

Originally posted by SouperComputer
refresh your OS, often cures problems.

last good config is no use to you because you have logged on successfully since the problem started.

What do you mean by refresh? If you mean reinstall windows, I should say that I only installed it about 2-3 weeks ago

ando

bullman, when I had the problem Explorer.exe was running iswell. There's no risk if you 'end task' for explorer.exe. All you have to do is log back in and it will start itself again.

anyway, do you get this problem with only one profile? The next time your in, go into control panel and users and passwords. Create a new user and log in as him a few times. If the problem does not appear, then its probably a corrupt profile you have possibly

SouperComputer

What do you mean by refresh? If you mean reinstall windows, I should say that I only installed it about 2-3 weeks ago

no not reinstall as such. Choose "install windows 2000" at the first setup menu. it will search for existing installations and ten give you the option to repair an existing one. It will then rewrite the system files etc etc. DX and IE will revert to 2k versions (7.x and 5)

as for 2-3 weeks, it dont matter. for example there is a problem with office 2000 that causes a problem similar to yours and the simplest and most effective cure is a refresh