Can't get past the XP user selection page.

I have a Dell Dimension 4300 desktop. Until last night, I was having trouble doing anything on my computer. After start up, my outdated version of Norton would pop up saying a virus was found. I couldn't get anything else to respond and the window would never go away. So I eventually got it to stop, and the I ran various spyware, registry, and anti-virus utilities to the point where my computer was working flawlessly.

Then I decided that I would just uninstall Norton (since I installed a new anti-virus program). I hadn't updated it in over a year and I never really liked it anyway. It took over an hour to remove (I think because the quarantine folder was so large). I chose to remove everything including the quarantine folder. After the uninstall successfully completed, I restarted the computer. I got to the Windows XP user selection screen (I have 5 users set up) and tried to select my user profile, but I couldn't click on it. I tried selecting each of the 5 users I have set up, but none of them work. It just seems frozen.

Did I ***** up by uninstalling every last bit of Norton? Did deleting the quarantine folder release viruses back onto my system? Is there anything I can do at this point to at least get into Windows so I can run a new virus scan?

 

Removing Norton isn't easy but it should not have done damage - usually. Removing the quarantine folder should not have put any critters back to run rampant on your PC.

However, note the use of should in the above paragraph.

Can you boot to safe mode (usually a matter of pressing F5 or F8 depending on the PC while you are starting up)? If so, can you log on as administrator?

XP-home or XP-pro and do you have an XP install CD or just a recovery thing from the PC maker?

 

My bet is your uninstall of norton is incomplete. There is still a call for some component in your startup and windows is waiting for it to load.
Try booting to safe mode (tap F8 once a second on boot and choose safe mode) .If login with your account does not work, use user name Administrator. (If you never password protected this account, leave password empty. Ask later how to protect it).
Go to start / run and type services.msc
Locate any norton or symantec services and change startup to disabled .
Go to start / run and type msconfig
locate startup tab. Locate any entries for norton/ symantec and remove the checks.
(We can clean them out later once we get you up and running).

Apply and reboot and try to login to normal windows.

 

Thank you both for the suggestions.

I was able to log on as an administrator. But when I did, I still wasn't able to do anything (except for one try which I'll explain in a second).

When I loged into safe mode, it brought up my desktop with the icons but I wasn't able to access the start button. I hit ctrl+alt+del and was able to bring up the task manager, but it was VERY slow. There were no applications showing, and there were 14 processes and I wasn't able to end any of them (none appeared to be Norton related). The entire time, the CPU usage was 100%. I'm guessing that's the biggest issue.

When I tried to run a new task (the msconfig and services.msc that oshwyn5 recommended), I was able to type the command in, but neither of those 2 would run. The window would just halfway disappear and then nothing happened. The CPU usage continued to read 100%.

I tried booting in several different modes that were available in the safe mode selection menu. I got the same result on all the ones I tried. When I booted in regular mode, I wasn't even able to get to the desktop.

I tried booting about 30 times. Only once was I able to successfully run msconfig (I was never able to run services.msc). There was nothing in the startup or services tab that appeared to be Norton related.

So why is my CPU usage stuck at 100%? I just don't get it? I'm stuck again and I hope you guys can bail me out of this. Thanks.

(Oh... it's XP Home)

 

I am beginning to think that when you say you choose to remove everything, you removed a shared dll used by windows .
I would suggest a system file check, but this will only work in safe mode if you already have a copy of the windows installer (the i386 folder) on your hard drive.
Do you?
If so can you access regedit to change the install path so windows looks there not for a cd?
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windowsxp_tips.htm#sfc_no_cd