Posted on 04/11/2006 7:40:57 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
When I turn my computer on and the screen appears, all I get is the hourglass (The mouse pointer turns into an hourglass whenever I move it towards the START menu or taskbar) and I'm unable to access my START menu. I usually turn the power off several times before it works again.
I just did a virus and spyware scan and they came back clean. Yes, I have Windows XP (Cue the "Get a Mac!" responses). Please advise.
Get a Mac!
(sorry, couldn't resist...)
Hey, that's what I came here to say!!!
Sorry, it may not be what you want to hear, but IT'S THE ANSWER.
Mac Mini yeah!
If you can't get to the start menu at all, you may need to reinstall the operating system. If you can get to the start menu, run scandisk to repair your state data.
Press CTRL-ESC and tell me if you can see the start menu.
Hit F8 for option to boot into safe mode (minimum device drivers will load). Restore the system to the last CheckPoint known to work. I believe this is under Start>Programs>System>Utilities, don't quote me, I'm going by memory (first thing to leave from aging).
Other than that; Yer On Yer Own.
WARNING! This will reformat your hard drive and you will lose anything stored on it.
Does it matter how long you wait? 10 minutes? Still no menu?
Have you installed any software recently?
Do not move the mouse.
Hit cntl-alt-delete. Select the task manager. In the task manager, go to the processes pane and sort the processes by CPU percentage. Then proceeed. What process is at the top, using the most CPU?
How do I do that? Just run scandisk as it is?
I have another path for you to take. Press ctrl-alt-del when it does that and see if there are any programs using an abnormal amount of memory and/or cpu percentage. If there is one close the process and uninstall/reinstall that program.
AT&T is sucking on your network port too hard routing to NSA and is pulling bits off of your hard drive, thereby hanging your machine.
Or maybe your hard drive is just giving up the ghost.
Could be a lot of things. Try the safe mode boot to even see if you can get in. Installed any hardware/software recently?
you beat me to it. except i told him to close any process that seemed abnormal.
"If you can't get to the start menu at all, you may need to reinstall the operating system. If you can get to the start menu, run scandisk to repair your state data."
I see where he is going with this but there are a number of things to try first....
1. Try to get to safe mode by pressing the F8 key as the computer boots and selecting safe mode.
If you can boot to safe mode try running scandisk (which may require another reboot) and/or run msconfig and select diagnostic startup. If you can boot in diagnostic startup then some program or service is preventing booting. Go back to msconfig, go to the startup tab and uncheck every program that you don't need at startup.
If you like, I'll give you my phone number and we can do some interactive diagnosis.
I did that once I couldn't make heads or tails from the processes, so I just put the computer on Stand-By (or Restart) to see if it worked.
I can't do it now, since my computer is working for the time being but I'll remember it next time.
The hard drive is brand new. I did a total upgrade back in February.
I'm an old-time Mac guy, but do have two PC systems that I have to keep in working order. Yes, if you can run it, that's what it does.
"How do I do that? Just run scandisk as it is?"
No. The first time select automatically fix file system errors.
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