Fast User Switching and Startup Problems

Question

I have a Dell Inspiron 5160 purchased last December
I have 2 administrator accounts (one for me and one for my husband) Starting in February, everytime my husband would go to the laptop and select 'Switch User' the screen would go black and we would have to reboot. A phone call to Dell support proved very helpful and they helped us with some startup options (msconfig) I wish i could remember what they told me to do - anyway - problem solved. In July, my motherboard went bad and they had someone come out and replace it - wonderful! except...that my switching problem was back - Dell refuses to help saying it is a software issue - i have SpyBot and AdAware and until last month, had McAfee protecting my computer but still they will not help - fine, but this computer is not even 1 year old and it is basically ruined - NOW,when we try switching user, we get thrown right back to the WElcome screen in an endless loop and the only way we can get out of it is to log off the original user - this USED TO WORK! What happened??

Running Windows XP Home Edition
Service Pack 2
Pentium 4 (2.8 ghz)
512 MB Ram

Anyone have any suggestions? I truly appreciate you taking the time to read this!

drewsmama18 · Answer

I just find it odd that this would be the solution as it seemed to work just fine before the motherboard swap. Is there a conflict possible? I can list the entries in the startup and perhaps someone can tell me if there are any things that stand out as problematic?

Flooby · Answer

The best fix I can think of in this instance is to disable Fast User Switching, which has proved to be problematic on a number of occasions.  From a performance standpoint, it's far better to completely log the outgoing user off and log the new user on, and this is particularly true on notebooks, which usually have more other stuff going on in the background to begin with.   http://channels.lockergnome.com/windows/archives/20050221_enable_or_disable_fast_user_switching_in_xp.phtml

Flooby · Answer

drewsmama18 wrote:I just find it odd that this would be the solution as it seemed to work just fine before the motherboard swap. Much like the countless posts regarding the use of Hibernate and Standby on desktop systems (not recommended), there are a number of posts here from people who claim fast user switching works fine for them.  There are also a lot of posts and Google hits with problems people have had with it.  Since it's not an essential option, and since it obviously hasn't been perfected by MS, the obvious suggestion would be to eliminate the non-essential and troublesome service.  Is there a conflict possible? Sure.  Figuring out what's causing it is the hard part, and it's going to be even more difficult from here.  I can list the entries in the startup and perhaps someone can tell me if there are any things that stand out as problematic? Certainly, although figuring out whether or not any of them have anything to do with the Fast User Switching thing is liable to be another story.

drewsmama18 · Answer

I am sure you're right that it would be much easier not to use it - i just find it troubling that this worked, without error, previously.

Here are the items in my Startup

sgtray
Trirot
SynTPLpr
SynTPEnh
tfswctrl
dadapp
BCMSMMSG
monitor
avgcc
avgemc
XWatDog
dumprep 0 -u
jusched
RealPlay
qttask
mm_tray
mmtask
DVDLauncher
quickset
DSAgnt
MSNMsgr
msmsgs
TeaTimer
Free Web Site Tools
Microsoft Office
WinZip Quick Pick

Thank you - i really appreciate your taking the time to look at this..

Flooby · Answer

drewsmama18 wrote:I am sure you're right that it would be much easier not to use it - i just find it troubling that this worked, without error, previously. I don't find it the least bit unusual, given all the glitches that have been reported about it, nor would I waste a minute of time trying to make it work, for exactly the same reason.Here are the items in my Startup Good heavens.  You have more unnecessary stuff in there than the U.S. Tax Code.  I'm surprised the thing even boots, let alone allows you to do anything with it, once it does.  It's hard to guess from here which one of these things could be causing you problems, but try eliminating all the ones marked 'Unnecessary,' either from the individual program options (look for this option first - disable any 'Check for updates automatically,' or 'Run at Windows Startup' options) or by unchecking in Startup, and see what happens.  At the very least, you should gain a healthy chunk of horsepower.  Leave the red items checked.sgtray  Only required if you need something to remind you to do what you should be doing on a regular basis anyway, i.e., backing up all critical user generated files.Trirot  Allegedly required, depending on your display drivers.SynTPLpr  Not required, unless you can't live without all the useless Synaptics Touch Pad fluff.SynTPEnh  See abovetfswctrl  Only required if you're using Direct CD (or similar HP/Veritas app).  One of the first things I disable.dadapp  Not required, and a waste of resources, in my opinion - Dell Access DirectBCMSMMSG  Required, if you're using a dial up modemmonitor  Unknown ,but it's not present/running at startup on any of my notebooks.avgcc  Required - AVG anti virus relatedavgemc  Required - '      '       '         'XWatDog  Related to your display drivers.  May or may not be required.dumprep 0 -u  Not requiredjusched  Not required - java update scheduler.  Just check for updates at Sun's site periodically, and then, only if you're having problems with the current version.RealPlay  DEFINITELY not required - Real Player relatedqttask  DEFINITELY not required - Quick Time relatedmm_tray Not required - Music Match Jukebox relatedmmtask  may be required, depending on your audio device.  I've gotten away with disabling it on a number of systems.DVDLauncher  Not requiredquickset  Not requiredDSAgnt  I have a feeling this is related to some worthless Dell Support application.  If it is, it's not required.MSNMsgr  Definitely not required.msmsgs  Not required - MS MessengerTeaTimer  Not required, and could possibly be causing some problems.  Part of Spybot Search and Destroy.Free Web Site Tools  Sounds like malware to me.  Definitely not required.Microsoft Office  Completely unnecessary.WinZip Quick Pick  WinZip?  Why, on an operating system that has a file compression tool built in?  Unnecessary.

drewsmama18 · Answer

Ok - i did remove the things you marked unnecessary - i did find several programs and unchecked the 'automatic update' options, etc but some i just couldn't find so I unchecked it in Startup - is that sufficient - i'm sorry, i had to laugh about the US Tax Code comment - it is true - thanks for a good laugh!

Do you advise getting rid of SpyBot?

drewsmama18 · Answer

Thank you so much - i really appreciate your time and help here - hopefully this will do the trick!

Flooby · Answer

Spybot has it's place, and will occasionally find things that Lavasoft AdAware and (my personal favorite) the MS AntiSpyware Beta don't, so I don't think I'd get rid of it, but I haven't been too impressed with the real time protection option in it, so I just run it manually once a month (or any time I suspect a malware invasion), and that works fine for me.  The MS product's real time protection works very well for me, so that's all I let run in Startup for malware prevention.

sjh_60 · Answer

I had a new Dell 5100 with a 19' LCD Dell monitor. Upon trying the fast switching option from one account to the only other one of the pc the monitor would go black and I got an error message that said I had to change the screen resolution to 1280x768 @ 60Hz. As a note, this message appeared in other circumstances, for example logging completely off one user account before switching to the other user. Both id's on the pc and the setting for the monitor itself are 1280x768 @ 60Hz. Dells first solution was to send me a new monitor. The exact same thing happened. The next thought was that the video card was corrupts so they sent me a new 5150. The exact same thing happened. It should be noted that I tested the system using an ancient 17' CRT monitor and there were absolutely no problems with fast user switching. The monitor responded perfectly. My conclusion: the problem is with the Dell monitors. Something in the monitors' ability to refresh must be too slow. The only thing that works for me when I get the screen resolution message is to power off the monitor for a few seconds and then start it up - voila the fast user switching works. So, it is not the Microsoft software; it is the Dell monitors. In the calls I've had with Dell Support they refuse to acknowledge that it might be their problem. If anyone can point me to a Microsoft fix, they can prove me wrong.

Windows General

Fast User Switching and Startup Problems

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