Windows freezes when booting up

[rhoenig1277]

My computer boots up normally or so it seems. When it get's to the desktop (with no icons or taskbar) you see the taskbar flash then Mcafee splash screen displays and goes away then nothing. It just sits with the backgroud. I can do a CTRL-ALT-DELETE and end all the processes (which are mcafee related) but that doesn't do anything. I let it sit for about an hour and no changes. The hd lights are not blinking. I can do a CTRL-ALT-DELETE and click shutdown and the machine goes down without any problems. Is there anyway to stop Mcafee from loading on startup? I tried it in Safemode and got the same result. The only thing that was changed was trying to update mcafee so I'm pretty sure that is the culprit but can't get it to not load on startup. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Thank you
Robert

 

[ski]

McAfee and all other startup items should not load in Safe mode.
It appears that something else is causing your problem.

If you're using Win 98 or 98SE:
-Restart the computer, press the Del key(or whatever key is specified on the 1st screen at startup) to enter CMOS Setup, use the arrow keys to highlight Default, Standard, or Fail-Safe settings, press Enter, press Y at the warning(if it appears), highlight Save And Exit, press Enter, type Y at the warning, insert the Windows boot floppy disk, press Enter, select 'Start Windows Without CD-ROM Support', press Enter, at the A:\> prompt type dir c: and press Enter:
(1)If you do not see the contents of the hard drive, then it has a problem(defective, loose cable, or disabled or bad IDE1 controller).
(2)If you see your hard drive's contents, then do the following:
-If your hard drive is using 3rd party overlay or compression software, make sure it's properly configured.
-Use an antivirus floppy to check the hard drive for a virus(see your antivirus program's instructions).
-Type scandisk c: at the A:\> prompt, and press Enter to fix any errors.
-If no good, then type C: at the A:\> prompt, press Enter, type fdisk /mbr at the C:\> prompt and press Enter to replace the master boot record.
-If still no good, then type sys c: at the A:\> prompt, and press Enter to replace the system files.
-If nothing works, then the memory may be bad. Remove and reinsert it a few times. If that does not help, then swap it out.

 

[1stITMAN]

Ok boot up in safe mode

Then run msconfig if you have win 98.

You can delete startup items from there.

In win 95 boot in safe mode.

Go to start run and type regedit
The registry editor will load.
Look here HKEY_LOCALMACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run

Mcafee should be in there delete it.

Zaheer Ahmed Iqbal
I.T Systems Support Engineer
Bsc. (Hons).

 

[ski]

1stITMAN,

rhoenig1277 said that the same problem happens in Safe mode, so msconfig cannot be accessed there either.

 

[rhoenig1277]

I can't boot into safemode. After it gives you the message that non of your drivers will be installed it stops. I can move the mouse and do CTRL-ALT-DELETE and shutdown but that's it. No processes are running nothing.

 

[rhoenig1277]

I'll try what you suggested ski and if that doesn't work then I'm going to try and reinstall Win 98. Thanks for all the help guys. Anything else you think of would be of great help.

Robert

 

[rhoenig1277]

I can plug the drive into another computer and access it as a secondary drive. I have backed up the data. When I plug it into a different computer as a primary it gives me the same problem. I'm guessing the drive went bad. I've run scandisk and disk defrag on it and have found nothing wrong. I'm going to try formatting and reinstalling windows. We'll see if that clears it up. I did find some viruses on it so they may still be causing problems.

 

[ski]

If you can access the contents of the HD but not boot from it, then it's possible that the viruses are causing the problem, the MBR(master boot record)is missing or corrupt, or the system files are missing.
And you may be able to get it working with the steps in my 1st post(if you have not already done so), and possibly not have to go thru all of the hassle of formatting and reinstalling Windows.

 

[rhoenig1277]

I did try your steps in the first post before and after cleaning the HD of the viruses. When I did the fdisk /mbr the hard drive spun a little then the c:\ prompt came back. Should I have gotten a confirmation that it was done? When I did the sys c: it gave me a confirmation that it was done. I tried reseating the memory but can't get it at. It's an HP pavilion mini tower and the memory is behind the CDrom and hd bays and I can't get the front off to move those. Very inconvenient. Thanks for all your help.

Robert

 

[ski]

I may have given you incorrect information.

Type fdisk /mbr at the A:\> prompt(instead of the C:\> prompt), and press Enter.
It should then return to the A:\> prompt.
If so, then retype the sys c: command at the A:\> prompt, press Enter, and after it confirms it was done, remove the boot floppy, and reboot the computer.

 

[rhoenig1277]

Thanks I'll try that today.

 

[michparks]

I am having the exact same problem too.
It just started a few days ago. There is another thread going on with the same thing also- thread615-750816.
I downloaded and installed the Excite Search toolbar from excite.com and noticed problems after that.
Please post the fix if anyone finds it.

 

[rhoenig1277]

I ended up running a format and recover using the recovery disk sent with the PC. It was an HP pavilion pc.

Robert