XP laptop boots, logs in.. then nothing

[jayztek]

Really is no more to tell

It boots up, logs in, even can press ctrl+alt+dlt and choose options, if i pick task manager i get the hourglass, then nothing, caps lock works so no frozen keyboard

I have tried to boot to the os in

safe mode
safe mode + CMD PROMPT
last known good
whatever this is it is zapping the os after logon, but i dont think the drive is bad, the reason i have not tried the obvious cures is because the cd rom in this laptop is broken (actually it isnt even in there except for the ribbon cable)

Thinking of trying to boot with a usb, but everytime i try to make one of those they fail because someone forgot to include part of the files?

any ideas on what this is, how to get around it!

 

[kjv1611]

1. Check your temperatures in BIOS. Post those here along with the brand and model# of your laptop. If it's doing this in any mode, including safe mode, then it's a hardware issue most likely. Either the hard disk, or the CPU overheating are my 2 initial guesses.

2. If you have your Windows disk, then if we find it's not hardware, the next thing you could try is a Repair install if you have Windows XP Pro. If it's a Home edition, then I don't think you can do a repair install. You can access the Recovery Console, but that's just running in DOS basically, and you have to know your commands to get through that, AND have at least a clue as to what's wrong. So if it's XP Home, especially, you'd be better off just doing a clean install...

I'd recommend we start looking at the hardware first, though.

And to scan your hardware, etc, you could try loading the UltimateBootCD to a thumb drive. Is that one you've tried so far?

You say you've tried different things on your USB drive. So, what HAVE you tried? Can you list them out? It is possible that you did not copy the right files, or do the process correctly as well.

Also, you could use a USB DVD/CD drive most likely. Some computers won't recognize it to boot, but if your PC will recognize a USB thumb drive, then I'm 99% sure it'll boot from a USB optical drive. If you don't have one and can't buy one, see if you have a friend/relative/neighbor who would let you borrow theirs.

If your optical drive broke, you could also check eBay for a good one to replace in your laptop. Depending upon the model of your laptop, it may be pretty cheap. Of course, it could be expensive - just depends upon model.

But before you go buying anything, I suggest we check your tmeperatures, and then try perhaps the UltimateBootCD to USB.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[goombawaho]

It would be nice to have a Bart PE CD that you could boot to and remotely edit the registry for things like WINLOGON and USERINIT to make sure they are in the registry and also to verify that they EXIST in the folder that they are supposed to run from.

But, hardware testing is always first with me. Temp, hard drive and memory should be first on the list. If you have any built-in diagnostics (most Dell's do) make sure to run them first.

First the quickie tests and see if anything is fingered.

 

[kjv1611]

If you have any built-in diagnostics

That's a VERY good point. I tend to forget about that, of late. It used to be one of the first things I did.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[jayztek]

I apologize for the delay

It is a TOSHIBA SATELLITE
1 gb ram
windows xp pro

the bios gives no temp readings, its 2 pages of info and not very helpful

FYI, to the other poster I DO NOT HAVE A DRIVE in the optical drive, it cannot even be replaced, as the ribbon wire is torn in half, this laptop was working until i transfered a photo library of 80 gb with adobe lightroom, it never booted fully after that

I will try the bartPE but i dont know if this laptop even boots USB

I am holding out hope the drive is not bad, since it boots i suspect it is not!

Memory is brand new so thats not the issue

thoughts?

 

[jayztek]

UPDATE, it appears the bart cd worked on usb, however i see no way to use it on the laptop as it does nothing, and no usb boot option exist in the bios?

 

[PaultheITGuy]

I had that problem a few years ago - turned out to be Symantec Internet Security causing the problem. Removed it in safe mode, and went over to the full version of ZoneAlarm. Never had the problem again.

 

[cmeagan656]

...this laptop was working until i transfered a photo library of 80 gb with adobe lightroom...

After you transferred the photo library, did your laptop continue to work until you shut it down ? PaultheITGuy may be onto something. If you shut down your laptop immediately after doing the photo library transfer then, depending on your anti-virus, the anti-virus may be trying to complete a scan of the transferred files after you start up the laptop.

Have you tried leaving the laptop logged on overnight? It may take a while for 80 GB of photos to be scanned.

What anti-virus do you use?

Also, do you have your data on the same drive as your OS? What is the size of your HDDs and what is the disk free space on the HDDs?

This issue really does sound like a resource issue.

Hope this helps.

Please help us help you. Read Tek-Tips posting polices before posting.

 

[kjv1611]

Also, being as you copied 80GB of files at once, it is more likely to have a hard drive fail after that then with typical usage. A laptop hard drive, I don't think, is really built for that much consistent writing. That may not be the case, but I'd at least think it's a possibility.

On the optical drive, it IS replaceable (so long as the connection on the mainboard isn't damaged as well). You just have to get a new ribbon cable, open up the laptop, remove the old cable, connect the new, put your laptop back together, and connect new optical drive.

I've got a Toshiba laptop as well, so I know what you're talking about with the BIOS. I don't know why in the world they made theirs so different than every other MFG on the planet. With that said, I think the temp readings are in the BIOS somewhere, but I don't have my laptop with me to find just where... If I remember when I get home, I'll go into my laptop's BIOS settings, and see if I can dig it up.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[jayztek]

Very interesting AND HELPful replies, as for some of them

As an IT guy i WOULD NEVER install symantec OR ANY of that stuff on ANY pc or LAPTOP knowingly

AV scan, possible i guess

ESET NOD32 CORPORATE its what everyone of our pcs use in the company

I think it was running ad i rebooted it after the xfer, and it didnt come back the normal way, i thought maybe i had clogged it

Temp in bios, that would be great show me the way

FYI: i DID KNOW i could replace the drive, but you have to understand this laptop has NO SCREEN (the screen and rails are not even on the machine anymore) it fell off a car on a business trip (DONT ASK) but it works or did work fine on an external monitor

the drive up until that day was reported healthy by its SMART tests, and it had a WD drive monitor on it

I am not giving up on this quite yet, any other ideas!

 

[jayztek]

ok i logged it in as of now

we will see what it is doing in a few hours

 

[jayztek]

ok its wishful thinking to just let it sit here, i hit CTL+ALT+DLT and clicked task manager 5 times, hour glass then nothing

I ll eave it set for awhile longer

 

[jayztek]

ok i left it running for 9 hours or so, no change, if we cannot do this from an optical drive, usb wont boot, hdd does not want to go forward, all i can think of is pce (network) boot to RIS or something

thoughts?

 

[BadBigBen]

have you ever considered that it may have just reverted back to the build in screen as the primary display (since it is missing you wont see anything)...

in that case, have you tried the key combos to switch between displays?

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[jayztek]

Ok here is where i am at

I have been able to connect to it by plugging an etwork cable into it, ican see all the contenst of the drive and everything appears healthy

I am doing scans on it now via the network

Bigbadben i am a bit confused by the last post?

 

[BadBigBen]

I was talking about the key combo: Fn + F5

these usually switch between the internal and external monitor...

I also found this:

The keyboard function was not working correctly, (probably ia driver issue), and I found a workaround. The keyboard (function - F5) switches between external monitor, LCD monitor or both. This was working in safe mode, but not under a normal boot. I found that when I went into the accessibility option, I found an option which assists a disabled person to make a key command that requires holding multiple keys. This was called "sticky keys" which allows you to press the Alt or Control or Function key twice, then pressing the second key (F5) worked.

source: PC Help Forum...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[jayztek]

Badbigben

alas i wished that were the answer

However no the screen is SHOWING the logon screen, not sure if you didnt catch that in the last posts, i tried as you suggested, and the keyboard is working or i would not be able to sue control alt delete from the laptop

I am in the process of deleting all user profiles by forcefully deleting them over the network, i will tehn create a NEW one and logout, it is my hope that will fix the issue, i found a enormously large amount of files in one of the profiles, they were all supposed to be "lightroom previews" but the folders were all empty, I have also noticed that the mapped drive in windows is showing the laptops hdd as a 19.0 gb drive, when in fact it is over 100gb large

Things to add to the file i guess

I AM ALMOST 100% POSITIVE THIS IS NOT A DRIVE FAILURE, A MEOMRY FAILURE, OR A HARDWARE FAILURE

 

[jayztek]

Ok update, over the night i had one of our techs delete a lot of files that had appeared on the drive, also NTFs is not reporting the mapped drive as seen by other pcs as a 100gb, rather a 19gb (the drive IS 100gb lol)

Finally we created another user account but upon login it allowed the tech to change the password on first login, but then it just sat at the wallpaper

No icons no windows load, after logon NOTHING

I am confident the drive in this laptop can be used via the network for storage, however im not so hopeful of getting windows to run any longer

thoughts are welcome

 

[tlcscousin]

You can try setting permissions on all folders on the drive and giving the user full access.

 

[DTracy]

Use that BartPE disc to start it up and on the Bart menu choose open a command window. In the black box type "chkdsk c: /r" with no quotes and let it run, may take a couple of hours. If the results are positive ie: the drive was recovered, try a fresh start in XP.

Best of luck,
David