Strange boot problems.

Question

Hi All,     I have run into a strange software problem.  At least I believe it is software.  When I boot to windows normally, the log in screen appears then it reboots before you can choose a user account.  This cycle just repeats over and over.   It does boot to safe mode properly.  I ran the Dell diags and everything passes.  Went into safe mode and tried system restore.  It could not restore the system.  I go into ms config and turned off everything.  Now if you boot normally, it gets to the log in screen.  You choose your account and log in.  I get to the blue background but I do not get any icons.  I can bring up task manager and there are no applications running.  Reboot into safe mode and undo the msconfig changes and reboot normally.  Same no icon issue.   I have run chkdsk /r from recovery console and it took 2 hours on a 60GB hard drive.  Still have all the same issues.  I am trying to do an OS refresh right now and it is running very slowly in the copying files (non GUI phase) and that took about 15 minutes to finish.  It finally makes it to the GUI phase and it just hangs at 37 minutes.  I have restarted the refresh but I still have the same issue.   I am kind of up in the air whether this is hardware or software.  If anyone can provide any information, it will be greatly appreciated  By the way, it is a Dimension 4550 2.0ghz 256 MEG with GeForce MX 420 video card, sound blaster live sound card.    Thank you all for your time and have a great night.   Respectfully,   George D.

mombodog · Answer

Do you have plenty of disc freespace? Run defrag in safe mode.

dbramlet · Answer

If you can boot into the safe mode it most likely not a hardware problem but could be a hardware driver problem. Could be software like a virus type program. When you boot to the safe mode you just load inly the basic windows drivers. In msconfig you cannot remove everything and get a boot. There are some things you must leave in there. Just go back and take a few out at a time and see if you can boot then. Not all them and all at once. Just take out software type stuff and any extra stuff you can drop. Leave the video card stuff alone and the windows explorer.

GeoGoGo · Answer

Thank you both very much for the ideas.  I will try them out this evening.    Have a great day and thank you for the time.   Respectfully,   George D.

Windows General

Strange boot problems.

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