Boot hangs at 'Welcome'

Hi Guys,

I am posting here on behalf of a friend. Her machine is failing to boot, so she's not able to access the board.

What's happening is that her boot sequence starts as usual, but it only gets as far as the Windows 'Welcome' word being displayed - then that's it. From that point there's nothing, and everything hangs right there with 'Welcome' on screen in the normal colour and on the normal background at that stage in the boot sequence.

She's running XP SP2 (always updated) on a Dell desktop (good spec, about 7 months old). She hasn't installed anything fresh recently, nor changed any settings.

Prior to this everything was fine, with her boot taking normal time (pretty nifty) and the machine stable in all regards.

Funny thing is, she had exactly this problem back in February and then again in March. In March, Dell tech support eventually talked her through wiping the HD and reinstalling Win XP. Once she had done that and set everything up once more, everything remained stable until this morning.

I spoke with her over the phone and asked what happens when she opts to boot in Safe mode. She advised that this function is not available, it being the first thing she tried.

She has also tried booting with a bootable CD (with her Acronis True Image software), with no success.

I'm posting this for her, just in case the symptom of her boot sequence getting only as far as 'Welcome' rings any bells. Any helpful comment would be just terrific. She's a great lass and ever ready to help anyone else.

With all best wishes,

Adrian

 

Ask her if she uses Hibernation. If yes, read this MS/support .. Windows XP Stops Responding at the Welcome Screen

Not sure "which action" you are referring per "no success ".
If Acronis True Image bootable CD did not load, have her check BIOS and set boot order to boot from CD first.
If Acronis TI did load, other than restoring an image, not any Windows repair tools in program.

 

Hi Dennis,

I'll check on the hibernation side of things. My understanding is that she does not use this facility. Her machine is on all day, every day, and she powers down at night then reboots every morning.

As to my comment: 'She has also tried booting with a bootable CD (with her Acronis True Image software), with no success', I am sorry not to have been clearer.

What she was doing was seeing whether she could get into anything at all. She had gone into her BIOS and set her boot order to go from CD first. She confirmed over the phone this morning that she had done this, and if she says she did then I know that she did for sure.

As you say, there's no Windows repair tool in Acronis TI. She was seeing just what functionality she has.

However, it's interesting that there are a set of known circumstances whereby Windows can stop responding at the Welcome screen. I certainly find that intriguing.

If, by any chance, it is a matter of Hibernate having kicked in after all and there's a corrupted memory snapshot that has to be bypassed, I'll check this by getting her to use F8 during a boot attempt and see what happens.

I'll report back. Meanwhile, Dennis, thanks so much for responding.

Adrian

 

Hi,

Now been on the phone further and various tests have been run.

First: it is possible for her to boot into Safe mode. At least, that's something.

One of the options available when using F8 during boot, apart from the Safe mode option, is "Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)" and this was tried. The outcome was that the machine then got as far as the Welcome screen once more and hung as before.

That's it at the moment.

Any input would just be so very welcome. Thanks for everything so far.

Adrian

 

Hi Adrian,

There are several things that can hang XP at the Welcome screen
and also show the symptoms of no Safeboot.
Some viruses do this too.Check this thread
http://didierstevens.wordpress.com/2006/06/22/save-safeboot/
or http://www.ntcompatible.com/thread27472-1.html

There are many others.Unfortunately this problem seems to be quite common.
If you were to do a search just using your own subject line or a slight variation like stop instead of hang, you will find numerous links,
too many to post here.

Pete.

 

Hi Pete (DiggerP),

Thanks for posting. Means a heck of a lot.

I have done some digging and, as you say, it is indeed quite a common prob.

I didn't realise that this morning when I first posted. In my innocence (don't laugh here!) I hoped that it was a prob that would ring a few bells with someone who then said something like: 'Yup, no prob, here's what you do ...'

What's going to happen, now, is that Carol will contact Dell support in the morning and get them to talk her through what's needed. I've a suspicion that they will apply a 'cure all', as happened last time. This involved stripping the HD and starting all over with installing Win XP and taking it from there.

That's not the end of the world, as Carol is always well backed up, both as to her data and her software. Just a pain for her (of course).

Thinking about the possibility of a virus ... yes, of course, that could always be the case. It's unlikely, though, as she maintains top-rated anti virus, always updated (hourly) and with regular system scans. So, any known viruses would be very unlikely to get through her defenses. She never goes near dodgy websites and, in short, always acts with security right in the forefront of her mind.

It's a shame for her. She really is one great person and, as I said earlier, she would always turn out to help anyone else. She's one of those rare people who make you feel optimistic about people in general.

Just as does posting to this great Board and receiving input from folk I have never met.

Thanks, Pete.

Take care,

Adrian

 

Hi,
PeteC wrote "

You may be on to something there.I read in a post(forget where) that
a faulty memory stick was the culprit.
After replacing it everything worked fine.

One thing though,

From Adrian's post I understand that she could not.

Pete.

 

Hi PeteC

Well! Thank you for your super posting!

I really mean that, so much.

You have certainly come up with something there.

I agree with you, that it does indeed look rather odd for this to have happened three times in a few months. I, too, have come round to starting to suspect the hard drive itself.

From what I have researched today, it does seem that Dell is likely to have diagnostics installed. I agree with you, that this is the next thing to run and see what comes of it.

I also agree that, if she is able to start in Safe Mode (which she can - she did this when we were chatting by phone an hour ago) then it would be a really good idea to get those Startup items knocked off and pop them back one by one. Now, that really would be fascinating. It really would. I just wouldn't have thought of it.

Pete, thank you.

Once Carol is back up and running, she will come here and thank you for herself. I know she will, because that's how she is. She'll also post what the outcome was.

In sincere gratitude,

Adrian

 

Hi Pete (DiggerP)

Thanks again.

I was wrong about her not being able to boot into Safe Mode. That's what I understood over the phone this morning, but since then I have been talking to her as she got into Safe Mode.

As soon as I knew this, I came back and posted that she could boot into Safe Mode.

Next thing, I think, is to work through what PeteC suggested. I'll be on the phone to her in the morning (UK here) and we'll take it from there.

Whatever happens, I will post the outcome. As I mentioned in a reply earlier, I know that Carol won't rest until she has also come here and posted how things progressed, just as soon as she is able.

Best wishes,

Adrian

 

Hi Adrian,

You're welcome.(for my small contribution)
Sorry I didnt pick up your later mention of being able to get into safeboot.

I hope that she has indeed a full XP install CD which contains the Recovery Console.
I know that in Canada a friend of mine was initially refused a CD on the grounds that there was a Dell partition on the harddrive.
When he didn't accept that answer and pointed out that in case of hardrive failure this partition would be useless to him,the rep finally conceded and sent him the CD.
Whether this is Dell's policy Canada wide or just an isolated incident,I don't know,but I do know several people who never got the CD from Dell when they bought their PC.

It's certainly a reason for me not to buy from companies like Dell,Gateway Compaq and the like.

The first thing to do if you have one of those machines,is to make your own rescue disc,whether using BartPE or UBCD4Win or any other rescue CD,preferably loaded with diagnostic and repair tools as well as an internet browser.This way you won't be stuck.
Barring major hardware problems,this CD will be a lifesaver

Good luck,
Pete.

PS.I just found this link http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=sw_winxp&message.id=160559
and this post:

which may mean that the Recovery Console may not be present.

 

Adrian

You mentioned your friend has Acronis True Image.
Does she have a recent image she could restore from?

 

Good morning, guys.

Since yesterday's postings here, I have done more research. Thanks to the wonderful support and input from PeteC (Pete), DiggerP (Pete), and also from DennisL, I am now armed with what Carol needs to try and the order in which she will be trying it.

When she bought her Dell she opted for a full XP install CD (as an extra), so this means that she should be able to access the Recovery Console from there and begin with chkdsk /r.

Secondly, we'll see if she has access to any Dell diagnostics.

Thirdly, we can uncheck items in the Startup tab under msconfig, and then reboot in normal mode with startup items enabled one by one.

I quite agree with it being a real shame that so many OEMs have opted not to supply proper sets of CDs with new machines. It seems crazy to me to rely on a 'hidden' partition on the hard drive for full recovery. I once had a new machine where the 'hidden' partition became corrupted right from the word go, before I could produce a backup set of CDs from it. In the end the manufacturer sent me a recovery CD set, but it took some getting out of them without charge and, of course, I still didn't have just an XP install CD.

Anyway ... here we go! I'll shortly be on the phone to Carol and we'll take it from there.

Later (may be quite a few hours) I'll return here and post as to how it went.

Apart from anything else, it will be important for me to follow through here because I am so grateful for the support that's come in so readily and so helpfully.

Wish I could find the words to express what I feel, but I assure you that it runs very deep.

Until later - and thanks again.

Adrian

 

Hi guys,

I have, today, talked Carol through a few procedures with her machine to address her failing boot. This has been as a result of posting here and reading and checking through all the input (and associated links) that has so readily been posted back.

The input has been simply fantastic, and the outcome has been completely successful.

The least I can do, for the benefit of anyone else who might experience such a problem, is to detail exactly what was done to resolve things. I am doing this below (perhaps a little pedantically) so that this experience might be as beneficial as possible ...


************************************************
1. First Stage

Booted with Win XP CD in tray (having set boot to look for CD first).

Decided to run Recovery Console from CD, rather than installing it.

Waited for the 'Welcome to Setup' screen. This came up after some delay while setup files were loaded.

Once the 'Welcome to Setup' screen was up, opted for pressing R to start the Recovery Console.

Opted for 'D' drive from the available choices that came up next.

At the prompt for Administrator password, pressed ENTER.

At the command prompt, typed in chkdsk /r and the chkdsk procedure then commenced. As expected, this took some time. There was a readout on screen as to percentage completed throughout the procedure.

With the procedure completed, there was the following report:

'CHKDSK found and fixed one or more errors on the volume.'

Tried rebooting and found that the boot still hung at Welcome.
************************************************


************************************************
2. Second Stage

Booted into Safe mode.

Went into Start > Run and then msconfig, then the Startup tab of the System Configuration Utility. Unchecked all items in the Startup listing. As expected, this defaulted msconfig to 'Selective Startup'

Rebooted.

The machine booted normally (first time in over twenty-four hours). Obviously, the items normally in the system tray weren't there at the completion of the boot.

With the boot having completed at last, there had to be a problem with something previously checked within the Startup listing.

OK then, time to start some weeding and checking there.

After various checks and trials, it was found that the machine booted normally with everything checked in the Startup listing except the item governing Spy Sweeper.

Spy Sweeper was then set not to start at Windows startup (from within the Spy Sweeper software options), and all was well. To play double-safe, Spy Sweeper was subsequently removed altogether. The uninstall was clean, and the item previously in the Startup listing had gone after the removal.
************************************************


************************************************
3. Conclusion

There had been an intermittent clash with something, generated by the Startup setting for Spy Sweeper. Who knows with what? It could be that the clash was with Carol's version of Zone Alarm, which also runs anti spyware.

The situation, now, is that with the previous Startup for Spy Sweeper no longer cutting in at boot, everything is as fine as it ever was.

Looking back to February this year, the first time that Carol's machine hung at the Welcome screen on booting was fairly shortly after installing Zone Alarm while also having Spy Sweeper on board from previously.
************************************************


So, guys, that's it.

The help and input from this Board has been fantastic and, quite honestly, pretty humbling.

I am so grateful.

I would never have thought of PeteC's suggestion: after having run chkdsk /r, to go into msconfig having booted into Safe mode, and then to work through things from there. That was the breakthrough, and it worked.

Carol will certainly be following DiggerP's (Pete's) suggestion over producing a really good rescue disk. Thanks, Pete.

Dennis L: thank you for being there when the chips were down. Your support meant so much at a time that felt pretty grim.

Every guy who has responded to this posting has helped so much. Words fail me. Had Carol gone to Dell's support, she would have been talked through wiping and starting all over again. In fairness to Dell, that's all they can do - to get the machine back to as it was when it was delivered. They can't get into possible clashes/problems with subsequently installed software.

Mind you, it would help things if they sold machines with proper sets of CDs. But, we all know that.

I wish, so much, to try and convey my sense of gratitude and appreciation to this wonderful Board.

Thank you. And again, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Adrian

 

Hello everyone,

I would so love to be able to express my heartfelt thank you to everyone who has helped Adrian to help me to resolve my computer problem today. But, I will never have the words.

With the help of everyone who took the time and trouble to post, Adrian has talked me through various procedures and I am so pleased to be able to say that my wonderful computer is now back up and running perfectly (without SpySweeper on board).

I dreaded having to contact Dell and to be told that I needed to strip everything off my computer and start again. It would have taken days to get everything back to how it usually is. But, I don't need to do that now.

Please know that I am truly grateful to you all and I appreciate your help and input more than I could ever tell you. It's great to know that the 'Net still has good guys like you around. Thank you all.

Take care,

Carol

 

Hi Adrian & Carol,

I'd like to add my sentiments which are similar to PeteC's that you guys are model posters.
It isn't often that the feedback is as detailed and grateful as yours were.
It gives you a good feeling during the problem solving as well as the resolution.
It is also important for other board members or visitors.
This topic will eventually be read by thousands of people.

I would still recommend a separate diagnostic disc as well as a "rescue" disc,(Live CD)
for cases where you can't resolve the issue quickly.
A separate drive also helps.

As to running more than 1 anti-malware,anti-virus or firewall, I think PeteC
would agree, that this is not advisable.
Just run 1 of each and use others for on demand scanning.

I wish you both well and hope others follow your example.

Pete.