What kind of antivirus do you use?...ie.  Norton, Mcaffe, Symantecs, PC cillan

Rob,

It sounds as if you might have something running on startup.  Check your hard disk activity light when only your desktop wallpaper is up.

 

I would recommend that you start up in Safe Mode (Press F8 while Dell logo is still on the screen and before Windows boots).  If only your desktop loads, then you may have a hard drive problem.  Lean over and listen to the hard drive.  If it's making a clicking noise during the delay in bringing up your desktop, a bad spot may have developed on the drive surface.

 

Double-click My Computer.  Right click on C: drive.  Left click on Properties.  Click on Tools tab.  Click on Check Now button beside Error-Checking.  Check both options.  Click on Start.  This will cause Chkdsk to run on restart.  When the computer restarts, be patient.  Chkdsk can take a while.  Note any errors and corrections.  Let us know what you find.

 

Tony.

 

 

I forgot to say, I tried booting twice in safe mode and it worked. But then the next time I booted in normal mode it worked too, so I suppose that might just have been coincidence.

Thank you for your replies

 

I ran chckdsk as suggested but didn't find any errors. (The computer booted normally on the occasion that I ran it). However, the next  time I restarted I was back to the same problem with only the background appearing. I powered off and re-booted and it worked. So, the problem seems to be unchanged; sometimes it boots normally and sometimes it doesn't.

 

I will try the ctrl alt +del suggestion next, but first please can you give me a rough estimate of how long the process will take?

 

Thanks,

 

Rob

Rob,

The process recommended by Sparkenh simply verifies that your Windows system files are not corrupt and are the correct version.  Normally takes less time than say, a complete virus scan, 20-30 minutes.  Important thing is that once you start it, don't stop it.  You must have your Windows XP CD available in case a system file needs to be replaced.  Normally, we insert it before running sfc /scannow.  If the CD is not in the drive, you will be prompted if Windows needs to replace a file.

 

Important thing to remember when trying to solve a problem such as yours is to be patient.  You're dealing with a processor and operating system that processes billions of instructions per second.  Finding which correct or incorrect instruction is being processed requires systematic elimination of known causes of erratic operation.  Chkdsk essentially verifies the physical and logical integrity of your hard drive.  Sfc/scannow verifies the integrity of your operating system.

 

In short, Sparkenh and I can help you zero in on the cause of your specific problem.

We don't know all the answers but we do know how to find answers.  

Tony

I have just done the scan with the XP CD, as suggested, but it didn't seem to find anything. There didn't seem to be a report or anything at the end.

 

I don't know whether or not this might be relevent but as I was in task manager, instead of holding down the power button to power off, I tried re-starting through task manager. When I did a box appeared which said "End programme - explorer.exe ... This program is not responding."

 

Is there anything else you can suggest to try to resolve this problem?

 

Rob

Rob,

Ok.  Let's do this.  When the desktop minus icons and taskbar appears,  Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up Task Manager.  Click on the Processes tab.  First look at CPU usage.  If it's running above 50%, then scroll through the list of processes and see what's running.  Could be you've got a background process that's substantially delaying your desktop.  I've seen some virus/spyware scans that run on bootup cause your type of problem.

Tony

Sorry it's taken me a while to reply - I didn't have any problems with it for a couple of days. Yesterday the problem returned. I pressed ctrl alt +del, as suggested. The CPU usage was up and down for a short time (as it is when booting normally) and then settled down to 0-2%.

 

I looked at processed. The application using most CPU initially was svchoost.exe, although as I said it didn't last long. After a couple of minutes system idle process was showing 99%.

 

One other thing that I have noticed: when it isn't booting properly, the windows XP music plays when it is still on the blue welcome screen (before the desktop background appears). When it boots normally the music doesn't play until the desktop background and icons appear.

 

Any further advice would be most welcome.

 

Thanks

 

Rob

 

 

 

I haven't but I will now, and will let you know if I find anything. I'm running avast anti-virus btw.

 

Rob

I've just run a full scan with AVAST AD-AWARE and SPYBOT and didn't find any problems.

 

Any more ideas?

 

Rob

I've run Avast anti-virus home edition. I just missed out a comma between AVAST and AD-AWARE!

 

Any more suggestions?

 

 

Rob,

A little late in the thread for me to ask, but have you recently installed Internet Explorer 7?   IE 7 has Windows Defender AntiSpyware integrated within it.  Reason I ask is because I had a client this week whose system began to experience hangups in previously stable applications; i.e., Corel Office after Windows Automatic Update installed IE7.  I had to uninstall IE 7, restore the system to an earlier date, uninstall the original Windows Defender, reinstall IE7 and then reinstall Corel Office  to get the system back to stable operation.

Tony