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Hi
Have an intermittent problem when booting up my pc. At bootup there is a message about not finding my profiles and the pc begins a countdown and boots into a basic screen with some icons and a message “Take a tour of Windows”. Windows explorer is empty with none of my files and I am unable to see “my” installed programs. At this stage I re-start my pc and everything then shows and works fine. The last time this happened, about 3 weeks ago, I contacted my local pc shop and he advised that it was probably my hard drive causing the problem and suggested a replacement. I reluctantly left my pc to have the hard drive cloned to the new one he installed, as I could not face re-installing Windows and lose all my settings.
The pc worked fine at every bootup until today when the problem appeared again!
My os is WindowsXP sp2.
Has anyone experienced this problem and is there an easy fix?
Thanks for any help.

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This is an unusual issue and I don’t believe there is an “easy fix”.

Have you run scans with your AV software and anti-malware software to rule out infections ?? Run System File Checker to rule out corrupt files causing this ?? Check Disk to rule out Hard drive issues ??

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Do you have another “Admin” user account on this machine, if so try logging into it and BACKUP all of your data.

If this other account works, then it would appear that your user account is corrupt.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Thanks guys – I have run file and computer scans with Kaspersky, which shows no problems. How do I run a system file checker & check disk? I have a guest account but all my personal files are backed up regularly to another pc. I don”t know when the problem is next going to happen and could be days or weeks, but simply restarting the pc solves temporarily.

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For system file checker use : Start>Run> type scf /scannow
For check disk use : Start>Run> type chkdsk /f

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Received a message :
Cannot lock current drive
Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. would you like this volume to be checked the next the system restarts (Y/N).

Should I proceed with Y

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Should I proceed with Y

Yes, and reboot the PC

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Thanks shall give that a try.

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Just tried to bootup my second home pc which is networked to the pc I was having a problem with and lo and behold it did the exactly the same thing. Restarted and problem gone (until next time). Does this mean that it is not a hard disk problem or does it indicate something else? I have broadband & a Linskys router networked to this second pc.
Any further thoughts.
Cheers

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Just tried to bootup my second home pc which is networked to the pc I was having a problem with and lo and behold it did the exactly the same thing. Restarted and problem gone (until next time). Does this mean that it is not a hard disk problem or does it indicate something else? I have broadband & a Linskys router networked to this second pc.

Hmmm, interesting development – both PCs, huh? Having been the recent “victim” of a failing Linksys router, but not knowing how IT could be causing these strange bootup problems, it might be worth a test to connect one of the computers directly to the web, bypassing the router. I know, that might be a long, drawn out process, given the sporadic nature of the occurrence. But it might be worth a try.

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Shall bear that in mind BigAl. I can put up with an occasional reboot but if it develops into regular occurrences I shall delve further, although I am really only a software user and not really tech minded. Thanks

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Shall bear that in mind BigAl. I can put up with an occasional reboot but if it develops into regular occurrences I shall delve further, although I am really only a software user and not really tech minded. Thanks

I used to see a temporary profile built regularly on XP SP2 machines. It seemed to have something to do with booting and not logging in for a while but having some automatically started service that needed a resource that required a login. I know that is somewhat ambiguous but I never could track it down. Plus it seemed to disappear somtime after SP-3 was installed. I can’t say exactly when because I never worried about it knowing that a reboot fixed it and login fixed it.

OTOH, you could have a corrupted user profile and neeed to build a new one. A new profile can cause its own set of issues.

Joe

--Joe

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Thanks Joe, I have now thought about upgrading from Windows XP SP2 to SP3 but remember reading in Windows Secrets Newsletter (Sept 2008) to leave installation in the meantime. Is it okay to upgrade now?
I believe there were issues at the time and had to ensure KB953356 was installed first. Is that still the case and should I uninstall IE7, which I am running, before install? Believe you cannot uninstall IE7 or IE8 after SP3 is installed. Also appears that I may need to uninstall Kaspersky and reinstall after SP3.
Any further advice.
Cheers

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Thanks Joe, I have now thought about upgrading from Windows XP SP2 to SP3 but remember reading in Windows Secrets Newsletter (Sept 2008) to leave installation in the meantime. Is it okay to upgrade now?
I believe there were issues at the time and had to ensure KB953356 was installed first. Is that still the case and should I uninstall IE7, which I am running, before install? Believe you cannot uninstall IE7 or IE8 after SP3 is installed. Also appears that I may need to uninstall Kaspersky and reinstall after SP3.
Any further advice.
Cheers

SP3 has been available since May 2008 and I believe that the initial installation problems have been resolved. Error message after you upgrade a computer that uses a processor other than an Intel processor to Windows XP Service Pack 2 or to Windows XP Service Pack 3: “STOP: 0x0000007E” (AKA – KB953356) is only needed if you do not have an Intel processor. Since you already have IE7 installed, if you are OK with it leave it alone. After installing SP3 I recommend you install IE8. In my experience IE8 is faster and more stable than IE7.

I have always had the best luck with service packs by downloading the full verison rather than letting Windows Update determine which parts I need. Download details: Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers is the full version. Don’t be dissuaded by the title.

I do not know about a need to uninstall Kaspersky. It may be that disabling Kaspersky may be good enough. If uninstalling Kaspersky is the suggested best way then I recommend you download the full SP3 version, disconnect from the internet, uninstall Kaspersky, install SP3, reinstall Kaspersky, re-connect to the internet.

Joe

--Joe

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Thanks for the comprehensive reply and as I have an AMD Sempron processor would it do any harm to install the KB953356 patch before I go ahead with the installation of SP3 rather than wait for a conflict ? Oh and should I uninstall IE7 before installing SP3. What do you think?

Just went to the Microsoft web site to download SP3 but was NOT given the option to save the file to a folder of my choice ( see attachment). Where is the file being downloaded to? I immediately turned off the pc in the hope that the download does not continue upon restart as I really only want to install at a time of my choosing.

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Thanks for the comprehensive reply and as I have an AMD Sempron processor would it do any harm to install the KB953356 patch before I go ahead with the installation of SP3 rather than wait for a conflict ? Oh and should I uninstall IE7 before installing SP3. What do you think?

Just went to the Microsoft web site to download SP3 but was NOT given the option to save the file to a folder of my choice ( see attachment). Where is the file being downloaded to? I immediately turned off the pc in the hope that the download does not continue upon restart as I really only want to install at a time of my choosing.

If you are happy with IE7 leave it alone.

It appears from the KB article that you can apply 953356 to your PC. It should not harm anything. Additionally, you may want to review Steps to take before you install Windows XP Service Pack 3[/url].

Are you using IE to download the file? You never got the dialog to save the file?

Joe

--Joe

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Used Firefox but now tried IE7 and can now save to my location. Thanks

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Used Firefox

Not sure, but I think FF has a designated download folder. You’d have to look at the FF options to find it.

If you use IE, you should get a confirmation dialog where you can choose where to save the file.

Joe

--Joe

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Thanks for all your help. Shall now go and put into practice and hopefully it will resolve my first posted problem in this thread. By the way there is an option in FF (Tools/Options/Main/Always ask me where to save files) and I had this button checked, but it obviously did not work on this occasion. IE7 gave me the option to save
Cheers

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Thanks for all your help. Shall now go and put into practice and hopefully it will resolve my first posted problem in this thread.

NOTE: as usual when installing a service pack backup your system first.

Joe

--Joe

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