XP hangs at "Loading Your Personal Settings"

  • Thread starter Thread starter MerryWidow62
  • Start date Start date
M

MerryWidow62

I have two different type Dell machines in two different locations,
with no interface between the two, having the same problem that
started on or about June 20th. When I boot, the systems freeze at
'Loading Your Personal Settings'. I've let them sit for hours but
never proceed past that point. They're just dead in the water.

Both are running XP Pro SP2, running the same malware protection
(Corporate Sysmantec AV, Windows Defender and AVG), both are on a
router, and neither require login. Also, both allow me to remote in
and one is networked to another PC. They are two years apart in age.

I can get in via Safe Mode and have disabled everything in Startup
under msconfig but the systems still hang. I tried 'Last Known Good
Configuration' but that didn't work. I tried using earlier restore
points but no luck there. All virus scans come up clean. I even
spoke with Dell Gold Support and tried a few things with them but
nothing worked and the call is still open. Their suggestion was to
restore my Acronis backup mirror images but I'm not willing to give up
that easily.

The only reasonable conclusion I can see is that they both downloaded
some update that caused the problem because why would two unrelated
machines be having the same problem at the same time?

Can anyone give me any ideas as to possible problems? Even knowing
where to look would be a start. And, as you can tell, I'm non-tech
but know enough not to start changing settings without knowing what
I'm doing (i.e. I know just enough to be paranoid)!

My Many Thanks!
Karen
 
"MerryWidow62" <karen.s.powell@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1183662100.027442.283390@r34g2000hsd.googlegroups.com...
>I have two different type Dell machines in two different locations,
> with no interface between the two, having the same problem that
> started on or about June 20th. When I boot, the systems freeze at
> 'Loading Your Personal Settings'. I've let them sit for hours but
> never proceed past that point. They're just dead in the water.
>
> Both are running XP Pro SP2, running the same malware protection
> (Corporate Sysmantec AV, Windows Defender and AVG), both are on a
> router, and neither require login. Also, both allow me to remote in
> and one is networked to another PC. They are two years apart in age.
>
> I can get in via Safe Mode and have disabled everything in Startup
> under msconfig but the systems still hang. I tried 'Last Known Good
> Configuration' but that didn't work. I tried using earlier restore
> points but no luck there. All virus scans come up clean. I even
> spoke with Dell Gold Support and tried a few things with them but
> nothing worked and the call is still open. Their suggestion was to
> restore my Acronis backup mirror images but I'm not willing to give up
> that easily.
>
> The only reasonable conclusion I can see is that they both downloaded
> some update that caused the problem because why would two unrelated
> machines be having the same problem at the same time?
>
> Can anyone give me any ideas as to possible problems? Even knowing
> where to look would be a start. And, as you can tell, I'm non-tech
> but know enough not to start changing settings without knowing what
> I'm doing (i.e. I know just enough to be paranoid)!
>
> My Many Thanks!
> Karen

If you can get in to an admin level account in Safe Mode, create a new
account and try logging into that in regular mode. If you can get in,
consider that the old profile may be corrupt, and migrate the settings and
documents to the new account.

HTH
-pk
 
MerryWidow62 wrote:

> I have two different type Dell machines in two different locations,
> with no interface between the two, having the same problem that
> started on or about June 20th. When I boot, the systems freeze at
> 'Loading Your Personal Settings'. I've let them sit for hours but
> never proceed past that point. They're just dead in the water.

Is your Pagefile too small or have no Pagefile? If it is then read the
following KB article.

Error Message: Your System Has No Paging File, or the Paging File Is
Too Small
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315270

Other Possibility:

Windows XP Welcome Screen Appears to Stop Responding (Hang) During Logon
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816873

<snip>

> The only reasonable conclusion I can see is that they both downloaded
> some update that caused the problem because why would two unrelated
> machines be having the same problem at the same time?

Have you tried a System Restore Point before the problem occured?

How to restore the operating system to a previous state in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084


--
William Crawford
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
 
Did you ever find a resolution to this issue?

I am having the same problem on an HP Desktop running Windows XP Home.

The PC gets to the Welcome screen and then to "Loading your personal
settings..." and then hangs. All HDD activity ceases (or at least the
light stops blinking).

The PC will boot OK in safe mode, with or without networking.

I have tried:
- Turning off all startup entries (using Autoruns), same behavior
- Logging in using another profile, same behavior
- Using System Restore, going back as far as 4-5 restore points, same
behavior
- Turning off the welcome screen and Autologin, the machine then hangs
as soon as I try to log in. (with no error message)

I'm still running some virus/malware scans under ubcd4win, but have
found nothing so far.

Any suggestions?


--
Saldric
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saldric's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/member.php?userid=27887
View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=778269

http://forums.techarena.in
 
Saldric wrote:

>
> Did you ever find a resolution to this issue?
>
> I am having the same problem on an HP Desktop running Windows XP Home.
>
> The PC gets to the Welcome screen and then to "Loading your personal
> settings..." and then hangs. All HDD activity ceases (or at least
> the light stops blinking).
>
> The PC will boot OK in safe mode, with or without networking.
>
> I have tried:
> - Turning off all startup entries (using Autoruns), same behavior
> - Logging in using another profile, same behavior
> - Using System Restore, going back as far as 4-5 restore points, same
> behavior
> - Turning off the welcome screen and Autologin, the machine then hangs
> as soon as I try to log in. (with no error message)
>
> I'm still running some virus/malware scans under ubcd4win, but have
> found nothing so far.
>
> Any suggestions?

Hi Saldric,

Have you tried creating a new user account and see if this issue still
occurs?

How to create and configure user accounts in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279783

If the issue does *not* occur in the /newly/ created account then I
would say your user account profile is damaged (corrupted). You can
copy the data from the corrupted account using the following method.

How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151


--
William Crawford
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
 
I knew I had forgotten something...

I meant to post back to this thread after I found the problem...and
forgot.

In hopes that it will help others:

I did try using a different user account, though I did not create a new
account. After much hair-pulling and intensive web-searching (thanks,
Google!) I found an obscure reference to this problem occurring when
some part (no idea which) of AVG antivirus (or in this case AVG
antimalware) becomes corrupted.

Uninstalling and reinstalling AVG from Safe Mode fixed everything.

It was an easy fix, but figuring it out was totally mind-bending.

Thanks for the reply WTC!


--
Saldric
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saldric's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/member.php?userid=27887
View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=778269

http://forums.techarena.in
 
Back
Top