XP dies after logon

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8d52797c436

264 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

# 36108 19-Jun-2009 11:07

Hi Everyone,

So I got into work this morning, sat down at my laptop (which had been on all night, just locked), unlocked it and started to do a couple of things. I deleted a few emails and went to check a few sites then the computer became completely unresponsive, to the point where I couldnt even load Taskmanager using ctrl+alt+del. So after a few minutes of waiting I held down the power button till it turned off then restarted it. Now, it boots up but about 10 seconds after the computer starts everything freezes. I have managed to log into safemode and quickly opened taskmanager but the computer is only using < 10% CPU and RAM.

I have done a full virus scan from Lenovo repair, and the machine is running Zonealarm and AVG. The first time I loaded into lenovo repair it found corrupt windows system files and repaired them, but it doesnt seem to have changed anything.

Any help would be appreciated, as it took 3 days last time to set the computer up I dont really want to have to do a factory restore (I stupidly dont have any restore points) and do all of that again haha.

magu

Professional yak shaver
1599 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 8

Trusted

BitSignal

Lifetime subscriber

# 226619 19-Jun-2009 11:20

If you can get Safe Mode with Networking going, download and run Spybot. It sounds very much like a worm or trojan trying to use up your CPU for something else.

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." - Doc Emmet Brown

8d52797c436

264 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

# 226625 19-Jun-2009 11:28

Yeah, unfortunately I dont really want to connect the laptop to our work network incase it is a trojan or worm as it managed to get into my computer, connecting it up just risks infecting others. I'm gonna try and get it running off the flashdrive through command line, but even safe mode only gives me a few seconds before everything freezes, so hopefully the comman prompt option works.

Canterbury

176 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

# 226645 19-Jun-2009 12:11

try another user login account - might be profile related..

8d52797c436

264 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

# 226660 19-Jun-2009 12:38

Theres only one account on the machine, and I tried logging in with the administrator account when I was in safe mode but got the same problem. I'm just hoping now it isnt hardware related (laptop is 2 months old) cause that will definately put me behind in my work at the moment. I've done hardware diagnostics on it in the lenovo pre-boot recovery app thing and didnt find any problems, so I'm currently getting all my files off it and am just going to have to bite the bullet and doa factory restore I think.

Flare

12 posts

Geek

# 226910 19-Jun-2009 23:25

I'd recommend a second partition for another OS, so if that partition decides to die again, you will have a second to go to for easier backing up and restoring, or even fixing your first partition possibly.
I don't think that's even possible with the system restore disk, to be honest... those things just format the whole harddrive uncontrollably once you say "yes" to system restore. Well, you could always install a copy of the OS you're using and use the drivers on the restore disk, instead.

but yeah, just a suggestion to avoid these kind of situations again

Tarq57

156 posts

Master Geek

# 227361 22-Jun-2009 13:34

What version of ZoneAlarm, and what version of AVG do you use?
If both are the "pro" versions, it's fairly likely you have a conflict.
(Attempting to run 2 AV's/2 Firewalls together.)

8d52797c436

264 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

# 227370 22-Jun-2009 13:56

Haha nah my work is far too cheap for that. I use the free version of both, so only Zone Alarm is acting as a firewall and AVG as an AV. I ended up doing a full factory restore, and am still working on getting the development environment back up to what I need it to be. Lesson learned thou, I'll be creating a restore point and a recovery cd as soon as I am done.

Tarq57

156 posts

Master Geek

# 227373 22-Jun-2009 14:06

Well, just a heads-up (I'm not the license police) but if you are using the computer for or at work, you are supposed to use the pro versions of these programs.
The license to use the free versions is almost always limited to computers used at home only.

8d52797c436

264 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

# 227374 22-Jun-2009 14:08

hmmm, I should probably look into that. My boss is a lawyer so I figured that he would have checked that sort of thing before telling me to install them.

Flare

12 posts

Geek

# 227594 23-Jun-2009 03:37

it's mainly big organizations that need to be careful, small ones are normally overlooked until they get big enough. (what, they're gonna chase you half way around the world for err $30? I can't remember the price)

Just don't let us know what your company is on this forum, lol

Tarq57

156 posts

Master Geek

# 227624 23-Jun-2009 09:10

Flare: it's mainly big organizations that need to be careful, small ones are normally overlooked until they get big enough.

Or another way to look at it, just to put a bit of balance in, "do I want to be an honest person or not."

serafis

21 posts

Geek

# 228009 24-Jun-2009 16:25

When connected to the work network, do you have any drives mapped to network drives? I have seen similar behaviour caused by Windows attempting to reconnect network drives that aren't there any more and it goes into an unending wait state with no CPU, no disk activity and no network activity. Sometimes it comes right if you leave it long enough (I assume there are some timeouts in there somewhere). Alternatively booting it on the network may fix it (but as you say there is some risk in that if it's something more sinister).

Other thing to consider is, if everything is completely frozen (no mouse, keyboard, no signs of responsive life at all) by far the most common cause of this is video driver problems. In which case go to Safe Mode, unistall the video drivers, reboot (you'llg et VGA only) and see if the problem stops. If so, download the lates drivers from the net and install them.

Good luck

8d52797c436

264 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

# 228013 24-Jun-2009 16:32

Yeah there are a couple of network drives connected, but I left it for 30 minutes at one stage while working on another machine and nothing happened. I think the problem was corrupt windows files that just couldnt be fixed.

In terms of the video card drivers being faulty, even safe mode was having the same problem.

It's a lesson that not only I have learned from this. It took 4 days to get the laptop set back up to the way I had it before, although its running a lot nicer than it was before but we'll see how long that lasts. First thing I did after finishing the repair last night was to create a backup image and a restore point using the lenovo care tools, so hopefully this wont happen again.