Resolved Laptop frozen on Desktop

Gateway Laptop, Windows XP. Stuck on Desktop, nothing works. Help?

 

A little more info will help. Does your desktop finish loading but your mouse and keyboard are frozen.

 

Try booting into Safe Mode, does it finish loading properly there?

 

Frozen Desktop

Thank you so much for your reply.

When I boot up in Safe Mode I get a message, "Windows XP needs to be activated, do you want to activate now?" When I click on "yes" or "no ", i get the Windows logon screen, to choose Administrator or Owner, and the process begins again.

When the laptop boots normally, the Desktop picture comes up, no taskbar, no icons, no mouse or keyboard action, and can't get the task manager either.
I hope this helps you help me.
Thanx again

 

If you cannot boot into Safe Mode, that is "not good"

Why Safe Mode asks you to re-Activate I have not come across before. You should not need Activation for an original Gateway installation of Windows. If you have an original Gateway installation of Windows installed, contact Gateway through their "Contact Us" support system and explain the situation to them. Some OEM systems are being tagged as pirated.

If you can't get very far and want to reformat, your data will still be on the hard disk. You will need to take the HDD out and back up the data by connecting it into another computer.

Because it is a Gateway computer it is not a "normal" version of Windows to us, or at least to me, you would have to follow Gateway's methods of trying to repair it.

Matt

 

Ari,
Thanks for your help. Yes, I let the 'puter sit all morning. As I replied to Matt, I am now in safe mode, with working mouse and keyboard awaiting instructions from you. Peace,
Fernando

 

While you are waiting for Arie and Mattman you can run a bit of diagnostics. As the computer runs in safe mode it would suggest that one of many other drivers that loads in normal mode has been corrupted.

1. Press Start > type cmd in the search box and enter. At that c: prompt, type chkdsk c:/r and press enter.

2.Check disk will start to run but then it will say:

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Type Y for yes, and press enter. Then reboot the computer into normal mode. Chkdsk will start when Windows begins loading again. Let all 5 phases run and don't use or turn off the computer. (The chkdsk process may take an hour or more to finish.)


3.Chkdsk finds any corrupted files that are causing the problem and fixes them. Read the results of each phase as it finishes. During the final phase, it will notify you if it finds any corrupted files.


4.When the Check Disk is done, it will finish loading Windows.

Let us know what happens.

 

Thank you so much. CHKDSK is doing its thing. I really appreciate your help.
Peace, Fernando

 

Hola!
CHKDSK cycled and reboot resulted in the pretty desktop picture, no taskbar, icon. The mouse cursor moves, buttons not working, no access to Task Manager. Peace

 

First, shut down the computer completely, wait about 30 seconds then switch it on again and let it boot up. (Report any error messages you might see) if there is no change continue following this.

It sounds as if Windows Explorer is not running so try this and report back.

After boot up is complete. Hit the Windows key on your keyboard (thats the one with the windows logo on it) and R together. A dialog box should pop up, when it does type the word explorer and hit enter. If that doesn't work, let me know and we will look a little deeper.

Please give as much detail as you can in your posts as this will help us to identify the problem.

 

Hola! Computer booted to the screen prompting me to select which system to start. I selected WinXP Home Edition, then went to desktop picture. Pressing the Windows key and R did not materialize the dialog box. Peace

 

I was given this computer to try and fix it. The owner was surfing the net one day and it froze on the desktop picture without any warning. That's all I got. Peace

 

OK, I think I have heard enough to suggest taking your problem to the Malware and Virus forum. Please follow the instructions in the link below, you will receive help to make sure your computer is free from any infections.

http://www.windowsbbs.com/malware-virus-removal/announcements.html

 

Thank you so much. Peace

 

Ari,
Thank you for your response.
I believe you are right. Formatting may just be the answer.
Is the newly-formatted hard drive going to be safe to use? Will it retain any viruses or spyware or anything else harmful? Also, I'm going to have to clean-install Windows, correct?
Peace

 

Is your system a dual boot? That will make for a lot of work to re-install everything. It should be possible to clean the system by following the instructions in the Malware & Virus forum.

Although rare, it is possible to have a virus in the boot sector. Normal formatting will not erase this so if you are going down that road you can use your hard drive manufacturers utility to zero fill the drive. Then using your Windows disk, partition and format the drive and reinstall.

 

Frozen Laptop

hola! Thanks for that suggestion. I'll try anything before having to format the drive. Peace