Windows Vista Window Vista never finishes loading

windows vista on my laptop seems to boot OK, but it never finishes loading
the personal settings. It seems to spin forever.

 

You need to tell us about your Windows system. Is it pre-loaded by a computer manufacturer? Do you have a Windows disk?

You can add your system details to your WindowsBBS user profile
http://www.windowsbbs.com/adding_system_specifications.html
but it might not tell us much about if you can diagnose startup problems.

If you are using another Vista computer to post here, try looking up "Startup Repair" in Help and Support. [I have tried looking it up at the Microsoft Knowledgebase, the result says 221 hits for that search, but after you go to the second page it says there is only 37 hits.] I wish I could help further.

Matt

 

There seems to be a multitude of reasons for this fault so I would do a repair install.

If you do not have any recovery discs or the original Vista disc you may have a recovery partition. This download (which you will have to get and burn to disc on another computer) will give you access to the recovery consol. Full instruction are on the site:

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

 

I'm sorry that I hadn't responded back.
The windows system that I have is pre-loaded, and I don't have a disc.
I can boot into safe mode.
Any suggestions after that.

 

Thanks for replying.

You can boot into Safe Mode, go to Start (orb) and type msconfig into the Start Search bar, open msconfig.exe. Go the Startup tab, uncheck all the checkboxes, try restarting. If Windows loads normally, go back to msconfig and put a check in one box, restart and then put a check in the next box. Continue until you find which program is causing the problem.

We have a similar problem at work (stops at Loading Personal Setting), it seems to be caused by Symantec firewall, we need to run the Symantec antimalware system at a higher administrator level. I don't know if you might use Symantec, but if you do you might find it is the cause.

Is your User Profile an administrator? Try logging on as an administrator if not.

If you are still stuck, you can make a new "user profile" and try running that. You might not be be able to access Help and Support, so I will quote it here

You cannot get into your own user profile, but try using those steps to make new user profile in Safe Mode.

Matt