Vista starts, logs in and then does nothing....

A friend has a laptop with Vista Home Basic SP1 and fully patched. Recently,
she boots up the laptop. Brings her to the login screen. She enters her
password and it continues.

It shows the "welcome" screen with the circular thing and sits there. The
hard disk occasionally works but eventually it's stuck at the welcome screen.

Same thing happens in safe mode but I get to the black screen with "Safe
mode" and the Vista version on the screen. Get the cursor only. Press
Ctrl-Alt-Del, click on Task Manager but nothing happens.

Tried a system restore [using MDOP when I brought it to the office] as well
as other tools in MDOP. Detects no bootup errors. Ran the system file repair
utility [or whatever it's called] and no files were repaired.

Wondering if any damage along the way. Worked in Florida.

Ideas?

Worked in Florida?

So, the computer was moved a long way?

Open the box and look for loose connections or components to start.

It is not an operating system problem if it also freezes during the bios
portion of the boot cycle.

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"Gis Bun" <> wrote in message
news:BAAA515B-C3D6-42AB-899B-...
>A friend has a laptop with Vista Home Basic SP1 and fully patched.
>Recently,
> she boots up the laptop. Brings her to the login screen. She enters her
> password and it continues.
>
> It shows the "welcome" screen with the circular thing and sits there. The
> hard disk occasionally works but eventually it's stuck at the welcome
> screen.
>
> Same thing happens in safe mode but I get to the black screen with "Safe
> mode" and the Vista version on the screen. Get the cursor only. Press
> Ctrl-Alt-Del, click on Task Manager but nothing happens.
>
> Tried a system restore [using MDOP when I brought it to the office] as
> well
> as other tools in MDOP. Detects no bootup errors. Ran the system file
> repair
> utility [or whatever it's called] and no files were repaired.
>
> Wondering if any damage along the way. Worked in Florida.
>
> Ideas?
>
>

I found out that the problem started in Florida after arriving and before
departing Florida.

It's a laptop. Not too many loose connections to check.

It gets into Windows as I mentioned. Able to log in.

I'm going to use MDOP and see if I can enable the administrator account to
log in. Maybe by some chance the only account to log into is corrupt.


"Richard Urban" wrote:

> Worked in Florida?
>
> So, the computer was moved a long way?
>
> Open the box and look for loose connections or components to start.
>
> It is not an operating system problem if it also freezes during the bios
> portion of the boot cycle.
>
> --
>
> Richard Urban
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows Desktop Experience
>
>
> "Gis Bun" <> wrote in message
> news:BAAA515B-C3D6-42AB-899B-...
> >A friend has a laptop with Vista Home Basic SP1 and fully patched.
> >Recently,
> > she boots up the laptop. Brings her to the login screen. She enters her
> > password and it continues.
> >
> > It shows the "welcome" screen with the circular thing and sits there. The
> > hard disk occasionally works but eventually it's stuck at the welcome
> > screen.
> >
> > Same thing happens in safe mode but I get to the black screen with "Safe
> > mode" and the Vista version on the screen. Get the cursor only. Press
> > Ctrl-Alt-Del, click on Task Manager but nothing happens.
> >
> > Tried a system restore [using MDOP when I brought it to the office] as
> > well
> > as other tools in MDOP. Detects no bootup errors. Ran the system file
> > repair
> > utility [or whatever it's called] and no files were repaired.
> >
> > Wondering if any damage along the way. Worked in Florida.
> >
> > Ideas?
> >
> >
>
>

Perhaps the user profile is corrupt.
If you can get into cmd console using MDOP.
you can then rename a profile folder "username" to "username.old"

For example:
cd /d C:\Users
ren jane jane.old

the next time Jane logs on, a new profile will be created.
The old documents, pictures, mail etc will be available in C:\Users\Jane.old


"Gis Bun" <> wrote in message
news:412BF421-609F-4E8B-AB1C-...
>
> I found out that the problem started in Florida after arriving and before
> departing Florida.
>
> It's a laptop. Not too many loose connections to check.
>
> It gets into Windows as I mentioned. Able to log in.
>
> I'm going to use MDOP and see if I can enable the administrator account to
> log in. Maybe by some chance the only account to log into is corrupt.
>
>
> "Richard Urban" wrote:
>
>> Worked in Florida?
>>
>> So, the computer was moved a long way?
>>
>> Open the box and look for loose connections or components to start.
>>
>> It is not an operating system problem if it also freezes during the bios
>> portion of the boot cycle.
>>
>> --
>>
>> Richard Urban
>> Microsoft MVP
>> Windows Desktop Experience
>>
>>
>> "Gis Bun" <> wrote in message
>> news:BAAA515B-C3D6-42AB-899B-...
>> >A friend has a laptop with Vista Home Basic SP1 and fully patched.
>> >Recently,
>> > she boots up the laptop. Brings her to the login screen. She enters her
>> > password and it continues.
>> >
>> > It shows the "welcome" screen with the circular thing and sits there.
>> > The
>> > hard disk occasionally works but eventually it's stuck at the welcome
>> > screen.
>> >
>> > Same thing happens in safe mode but I get to the black screen with
>> > "Safe
>> > mode" and the Vista version on the screen. Get the cursor only. Press
>> > Ctrl-Alt-Del, click on Task Manager but nothing happens.
>> >
>> > Tried a system restore [using MDOP when I brought it to the office] as
>> > well
>> > as other tools in MDOP. Detects no bootup errors. Ran the system file
>> > repair
>> > utility [or whatever it's called] and no files were repaired.
>> >
>> > Wondering if any damage along the way. Worked in Florida.
>> >
>> > Ideas?
>> >
>> >
>>
>>

Tried that. Still no go.

There wasn't a lot on the laptop to start off with. I'll probably trash the
system and use the recovery DVD. Then slap on SP1 and maybe SP2 [suppost to
be released next week].

"Dusko Savatovic" wrote:

> Perhaps the user profile is corrupt.
> If you can get into cmd console using MDOP.
> you can then rename a profile folder "username" to "username.old"
>
> For example:
> cd /d C:\Users
> ren jane jane.old
>
> the next time Jane logs on, a new profile will be created.
> The old documents, pictures, mail etc will be available in C:\Users\Jane.old
>
>
> "Gis Bun" <> wrote in message
> news:412BF421-609F-4E8B-AB1C-...
> >
> > I found out that the problem started in Florida after arriving and before
> > departing Florida.
> >
> > It's a laptop. Not too many loose connections to check.
> >
> > It gets into Windows as I mentioned. Able to log in.
> >
> > I'm going to use MDOP and see if I can enable the administrator account to
> > log in. Maybe by some chance the only account to log into is corrupt.
> >
> >
> > "Richard Urban" wrote:
> >
> >> Worked in Florida?
> >>
> >> So, the computer was moved a long way?
> >>
> >> Open the box and look for loose connections or components to start.
> >>
> >> It is not an operating system problem if it also freezes during the bios
> >> portion of the boot cycle.
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >> Richard Urban
> >> Microsoft MVP
> >> Windows Desktop Experience
> >>
> >>
> >> "Gis Bun" <> wrote in message
> >> news:BAAA515B-C3D6-42AB-899B-...
> >> >A friend has a laptop with Vista Home Basic SP1 and fully patched.
> >> >Recently,
> >> > she boots up the laptop. Brings her to the login screen. She enters her
> >> > password and it continues.
> >> >
> >> > It shows the "welcome" screen with the circular thing and sits there.
> >> > The
> >> > hard disk occasionally works but eventually it's stuck at the welcome
> >> > screen.
> >> >
> >> > Same thing happens in safe mode but I get to the black screen with
> >> > "Safe
> >> > mode" and the Vista version on the screen. Get the cursor only. Press
> >> > Ctrl-Alt-Del, click on Task Manager but nothing happens.
> >> >
> >> > Tried a system restore [using MDOP when I brought it to the office] as
> >> > well
> >> > as other tools in MDOP. Detects no bootup errors. Ran the system file
> >> > repair
> >> > utility [or whatever it's called] and no files were repaired.
> >> >
> >> > Wondering if any damage along the way. Worked in Florida.
> >> >
> >> > Ideas?
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >>
>
>

Hi,
Most likely a corrupted file on the drive.
You can try getting to the c: drive thru a network connection. It depends on how far windows has booted.

Failing that, I would try getting into BIOS and taking C: off the boot sequence list.
Put the windows cd in the drive and let it boot from the cd.
See if C: appears in windows explorer and if it does run checkdisk on the C: drive.

The only other option I can think of is finding another computer that will accept a second HD.
Remove the bad notebook HD. Install on second machine. Run checkdisk.

John

"Gis Bun" <> wrote in message news:BAAA515B-C3D6-42AB-899B-...
>A friend has a laptop with Vista Home Basic SP1 and fully patched. Recently,
> she boots up the laptop. Brings her to the login screen. She enters her
> password and it continues.
>
> It shows the "welcome" screen with the circular thing and sits there. The
> hard disk occasionally works but eventually it's stuck at the welcome screen.
>
> Same thing happens in safe mode but I get to the black screen with "Safe
> mode" and the Vista version on the screen. Get the cursor only. Press
> Ctrl-Alt-Del, click on Task Manager but nothing happens.
>
> Tried a system restore [using MDOP when I brought it to the office] as well
> as other tools in MDOP. Detects no bootup errors. Ran the system file repair
> utility [or whatever it's called] and no files were repaired.
>
> Wondering if any damage along the way. Worked in Florida.
>
> Ideas?
>
>