windows xp locks up on boot

I'm having a problem with Windows XP locking up during boot up. It doesn't always do it, just most of the time. It's nearly always when it's partway through displaying the desktop icons. It just locks with the cursor and the hourglass locked on the screen. Nothing I do will free things up except to press the reset button. CTR-ALT-DEL does nothing.

My wife and I both use this computer, and it also happens when we log off one user and attempt to log on the other.

I've been running XP for about 3 months now, and ever since I got it, it has had a tendency to lock up during bootup every now and then. Now it's doing it three times out of four and driving me crazy.

I Ghost every week, so I have ghosted files I can fall back on if anyone thinks that will help.

 

Check your recent installs and updates. Have you upgraded any software such as your AV to a newer version? Nice work keeping the weekly images - use them if nothing else comes to mind. It sounds very much like a driver that isn't staying in its proper place. Perhaps trimming your Startups systematically will reveal which program is causing the problem.

 

OK, maybe I'm being naive, but walk me through how I remove startup items.

BTW, I did intall Winamp recently. When the problem arose, I uninstalled it but the problem persists.

 

Excuse the delay, had to do a time-out for some turkey!

In view of your latest report...

Try the System restore feature of XP. Try to select a date that predates your last install or upgrade.

Access System Restore by going to Start > All programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.

I think that's the path to it. I don't use it.
<burp>!

 

Try using Start-Run and type in "msconfig" without the quotes. Click the startup tab and start unchecking things systematically till you find the culprit. There are some things that are required for startup so be careful. Someone else here can tell you what those are. Others will be obvious things you dont need.

 

I read somewhere that you could save a lot of disc space by disabling System Restore, so I did. I think I just learned a valuable lesson there.
I'll try the Startup route. This really just became a severe problem, so I can probably spot some things that were added in the last week. I'll let you know.

 

Wow, it's amazing how much junk is in that startup file. And you were right, it's pretty obvious which stuff needn't be there. Bottom line is that I must have unchecked at least a dozen programs, and things seem to be OK now. At least I've been able to log on and toggle back and forth between users quite a few times.

Now, here's a related problem. When I log off, every so often, I get a message block that says, "The application failed to initialize because the window station is shutting down." This happens even if I've just logged on, so I figure it has something to do with startup. The box always shows the name of the failed application, and it was always a dll file for my modem.

I never use my modem so, when I was getting rid of startup programs, that's one I 86'd. Now, it's done the same thing a couple of times, but the program involved is Google Desktop Search, which is also on the startup list. With the dll file, of course, it never could open it, but now that it's picking on an actual application, I get a second box showing that the program is shutting down while I also get the "...failed to initialize..." message box.

Somehow I have a feeling all this is related. Any thougts?