Resolved Windows 7 freezes on the Welcome Screen

I am having trouble with an HP laptop, Windows 7 32 bit Home Premium.

I turn on the computer, the HP screen appears, goes to the log in screen and I am able to enter my password. From there I get the 'Welcome' screen with the little tire icon spinning, and spinning, and spinning. Nothing else happens from this point.

This same set of conditions happen when trying to open in Safe Mode, Command Prompt, and even booting with a recovery disk.

Basically at this point I can't access anything at all to effect a fix. This computer was functioning perfectly earlier today and there have been no changes made to it since the previous successful session.

This laptop is plugged in to AC power so I think that pretty much eliminates any battery issue, but I am not experienced enough to make that as a definitive statement.

Suggestions would be most appreciated. I was not able to find any threads that dealt with this specific problem.

jim

 

Thank you for your reply Evan,

There is only one user account on this machine.

Yes I have a Windows 7 repair disc, this was created on a different Windows 7 machine, but I think that this repair disc only copies specific files and such needed to get to the actual recovery/repair tools on the 'bad' machine. Might be wrong there but that is what I think...

OK, when attempting to use the repair disk, the instructions I have found instruct that I hit the 'any key' to boot from disc... this does not accomplish anything different, it goes to the login in screen where I enter my password, from there it goes to the Welcome screen and just stays there with the little tire thingy spinning. I get this same set of things when trying to use any of the restart options, which are limited to start normally, start with command prompt, safe mode and start with networking.

I am curious about trying inserting the repair disc, then holding the F8 key down during a restart... have no idea what the results might be but I am out of things to try...

jim

 

Sounds like a program is causing the problem at Start Up. Try doing a clean boot to determine any conflicts.

How to perform a clean boot to troubleshoot a problem in Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, or Windows Vista

 

Thanks Whiskeyman,

This is not an option as I cannot get to the start menu. This think just hangs up on the Welcome Screen and does not allow me to get to anything beyond that.

Thanks for the advice all the same.

jim

 

Thanks Evan,

When I insert the Repair Disk and try to boot the computer I get the prompt "press any key to boot from disk" I press a key, random selection there, and the next screen that appears is the log in screen. Nothing else, no other prompts or display of the disk and options are offered. So the answer is no, the computer does not boot from the CD.

This is why I was speculating that maybe it would worth trying to insert the Repair Disk, boot the computer and hitting the F8 key, have not tried that but I am thinking that is about the only thing I have not tried!

jim

 

Thanks Evan!

Good lick! I took the Repair Disk and tried it in a different computer, worked fine there. I then put it back in the lap top that I was having difficulty with and again it was a non-event as they say... well, knowing the disk was not the problem, I thought maybe the DVD/CD drive might not be functioning correctly. (This laptop is NOT new )... took out the disk, put it back in, total of three times and FINALLY the machine 'found' the Repair Disk. I ran a system restore using a point two days ago.

Good news is that the computer IS now booting up, bad news is that I 'lost' my desktop things, likely more is 'missing' as well. I am sure these things are still on board, but no longer where they were. I have the understanding that a temporary loss or rearrangement of things is pretty much normal in this procedure and that things will sort themselves out, but so far that has not happened.

Any thoughts of getting back to normal would be appreciated!

Thanks for the help Evan, I have yet to ID the exact cause of this problem but I suspect that it came about during an 'auto update'. Whatever, the major issue is resolved, thanks for the help.

 

Thanks Evan, sounds like a plan to me!! Will let you know what this experience produces!!

jim

 

OK, ran the Check Disk. It took about 6 hours for its 'initial run' which gave a read out to the effect that there were just under 30 million clusters to be dealt with. I am pretty sure that there were not 30 million 'clusters' that were bad, but that was what was present on the machine. Once this finished it wanted to run again which I did go forward with. This ran for one full week and a few hours, when finished it signified so by turning off the computer. On start up it wanted to run another repair program which I allowed. This too ran for one week, finishing last night and again shutting down the computer.

Upon restart it instructed me to start with the 'start up repair' program. This I did and this ran for a bit over an hour, results were that it could not repair the start up troubles. I shut down and let it rest for an hour, started up and again it said to run the 'start up repair', did that, same no-go results.

So that is where I am. I have not tried to anything other than what has been stated. Don't know what the best course of action is. Any thoughts are welcome! I don't want to try anything that might hinder matters. I still have the repair disk if that is a good thing to try.

Thanks for any ideas!

 

Win7?s no-reformat, nondestructive reinstall
By Fred Langa on July 14, 2011

 

open command prompt window by running as administrator.

type sfc /scannow press enter.

when prompted, insert win 7 dvd.

Good luck

 

Thanks SpywareDr, went through that exercise but it would not do what I wanted, in the end I decided to just reinstall Windows 7 anew, losing all the stuff that was on the system. When I put my mind to it I realized that there was very little on it that I even wanted to keep!

So, the problem was solved to the degree that I do have 7 reinstalled, now to deal with setting it up like I want, which is or should not be much of a problem.

Thanks for all the help folks!

 

Thanks! I will take care of those tasks as soon as I manage to 'figger out' getting this silly thing back on line! Really have not had the time to mess with it much but presently it (lap top) knows my wireless network is 'there' but I can't get it to make it one of the usable networks... probably not a hard thing to get done but 1) I am not too familiar with wiFi anythings 2) my ISP was changed about two months ago (TWC RoadRunner to ATT&T Uverse) and that may be a factor 3) have not really spent the time to delve into this much at all... Thank goodness I don't depend on this lap top for my day to day NEEDS and Internet addiction 'fix'!