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Booting up problems


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Hi everyone

Nothing to do with France, I know, but I wonder if some knowledgeable person out there could advise please.

The problem is that the computer freezes at some point during start up. It could be at any point during the process, and requires a power off and reboot. This can occur up to a dozen times, freezing, unplug from mains, switch on again, freezes again, ad nauseum.

When it does eventually boot up it runs fine, no problems, perhaps a bit slow but that could be unrelated. Goodness what would happen to the starship Enterprise if its computer ran on Windows OS !!

Details of the system, Windows XP home, AVG free edition with windows pop-up blocker running

Thanks to all who respond

 

John

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Just to get the ball rolling and I am not a tecchie but could it be a virus?

When it is up and running, try doing a check for viruses. I think there is one called chernobyl that can stop your computer starting up properly.

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Hi, Choochoo - firstly, your post is hard on the eyes. It screams when it's large and bold. Any particular reason? Sight? [;-)]

Down to business:

1.    How long has it been going on? Did you install anything just before all this started?

2.    Are you running Service Pack 2?

3.   When did you last defrag the drive? If you want a defragger far more efficient than Windows' own, download free drms-s and buzzsaw-s.

4.   Are you running any anti-spyware/malware. If not, it's worth it. Try Xoftspy - it's free as well.

5.   Defrag, run AVG and some anti-spyware. Let's eliminate what we can.

If you still get probs, it may be time for a fresh install - assuming you've checked all leads and cabling for security. Considered opinion is that a Windows OS benefits from a fresh install every year. There'll be arguments against (don't fix what ain't broke etc.,), but a lot depends on what you actually understand about computers. And it's no big deal.

Something else can cause probs: computer running too hot and not enough ventilation. Has it been moved recently?

Something to be going on with. If you go down the route of a fresh install and your hard drive isn't partitioned (I don't know what your computer knowledge is like), come back. I'm currently triple booting ME, XP and Linux.

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Hi Thunderhorse

Sorry about the font size, operator error !!

1) Started about 3 weeks ago

2) Yes

3) Tried defragging when it first started but no difference, will try your suggested alternatives.

4) No, will load up your suggestions.

5) Will do as you suggest and report back.

Thanks very much for your time.

Regards

 

John

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Hi salty Sam

Thanks for your input. I am not quite clear on the restore facility. Does it only restore windows as it was at a specific date or will I lose everything I have done since that date on Word or excel etc. ?

By the way, this morning it took me an hour before it finally booted up and countless switches on and off, file checks etc. very frustrating !!

John

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If you use restore you won't lose any work or files you have created and saved - it restores the system parameters to what they were at a given date and time.  So you can safely go back and restore to a date before the problem started.

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While you will not lose any work you've done in Word, Excel, etc., you will lose anything you've installed (such as MS updates)- that's the point, really.  So you may need to go back and download and reinstall any updates, etc.,  that you still want to have (that you don't think caused the problem with your system).
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