W7 Starting Problem

[Roger Mills]

Had a problem getting W7 to start properly this morning on my Dell
Vostro 1520 running W7 Professional 32-bit SP1.

It took *ages* (like 4 minutes) for the desktop to appear, and I was
able to start one or two applications ok, after which clicking on any
other icons in the taskbar just resulted in egg-timers but no program
launch. I couldn't even start Task Manager to see what was going on.

I re-started the system (without powering down) and the same thing
happened again.

I then powered down and started it for the third time, and it was ok.

Any ideas as to what might have been going on? If it happens again, is
there anything I can do to recover without a restart?
--
Cheers,
Roger
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[Ed Cryer]

Had a problem getting W7 to start properly this morning on my Dell
Vostro 1520 running W7 Professional 32-bit SP1.

It took *ages* (like 4 minutes) for the desktop to appear, and I was
able to start one or two applications ok, after which clicking on any
other icons in the taskbar just resulted in egg-timers but no program
launch. I couldn't even start Task Manager to see what was going on.

I re-started the system (without powering down) and the same thing
happened again.

I then powered down and started it for the third time, and it was ok.

Any ideas as to what might have been going on? If it happens again, is
there anything I can do to recover without a restart?

It sounds as though whatever was running and gobbling resources finished.
AV maybe running a full scan? Or defragmentation on a monthly schedule?
Or some other thing?

If it happens again look at the CPU usage for the processes in Task Manager.

Ed

 

[philo]

Had a problem getting W7 to start properly this morning on my Dell
Vostro 1520 running W7 Professional 32-bit SP1.

It took *ages* (like 4 minutes) for the desktop to appear, and I was
able to start one or two applications ok, after which clicking on any
other icons in the taskbar just resulted in egg-timers but no program
launch. I couldn't even start Task Manager to see what was going on.

I re-started the system (without powering down) and the same thing
happened again.

I then powered down and started it for the third time, and it was ok.

Any ideas as to what might have been going on? If it happens again, is
there anything I can do to recover without a restart?

Any version of Windows that I've ever seen need a cold boot on occasion.

I would not worry about it unless this happens often

 

[Roger Mills]

It sounds as though whatever was running and gobbling resources finished.
AV maybe running a full scan? Or defragmentation on a monthly schedule?
Or some other thing?

If it happens again look at the CPU usage for the processes in Task
Manager.

Ed

Err . . . I would have, but I was unable to start Task Manager! (See above)
--
Cheers,
Roger
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[Ed Cryer]

Err . . . I would have, but I was unable to start Task Manager! (See above)

OK then, enable boot logging;
http://windows7themes.net/enable-boot-logging-in-windows-7.html

Ed

P.S. I was confused by your comments above about "powering down" and
not. Did you just pull the plug? Or did you have some minimal access to
the system?

 

[Roger Mills]

OK then, enable boot logging;
http://windows7themes.net/enable-boot-logging-in-windows-7.html

Presumably the log file gets overwritten each time the system boots? So
I would need to:
a) save a copy from a 'normal' boot for reference
b) find a way of looking at the file if the problem occurs again. [Not
easy if you can't start any programs!]

P.S. I was confused by your comments above about "powering down" and
not. Did you just pull the plug? Or did you have some minimal access to
the system?

Sorry for the confusion. It's a laptop - so you can't truly power down
without removing the battery, which I didn't do.
The first time, I clicked on Start and then on the drop-down menu to the
right of the Shutdown button, and then clicked on Restart. That's what I
meant by "without powering down".
The second time, I clicked on Start and then Shutdown - so that
everything stopped. That's what I referred to (probably inaccurately!)
as "powering down".

--
Cheers,
Roger
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[Paul]

Err . . . I would have, but I was unable to start Task Manager! (See above)

Try control-alt-delete, if the GUI is non-responsive.

It's possible for Windows to "lose the keyboard". I use the shift-lock
as a check for that. If the shift-lock won't light the LED on my
keyboard, then the connection of keyboard to computer is logically
broken. And then, I can't expect control-alt-delete to work.

What could have happened

1) You have automatic updates enabled.
2) A dotnet update installed at the end of your last session.
3) The dotnet optimizer started to run on the next boot.
4) It probably won't give up, until the scan is finished.

And Task Manager would have been ideal to check for that.
Perhaps it's "mscoree" that does the scan ? Not sure.

In any case, it might not be reproducible, unless you
can take the system back a day or two, and retry some testing.

Paul

 

[BeeJ]

Typically this means that some hardware interface was hung. Restarting
(non-power off) does not unstick the hardware. Powering off does allow
for a clean restart of hardware. Could be your CD drive hung or USB
interface hardware hung or .... ??? I have seen this many times on
desktops but never on my laptops (but then I do power off often).

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

OK then, enable boot logging;
http://windows7themes.net/enable-boot-logging-in-windows-7.html

Presumably the log file gets overwritten each time the system boots? So
I would need to:
a) save a copy from a 'normal' boot for reference
b) find a way of looking at the file if the problem occurs again. [Not
easy if you can't start any programs!]

AFAIK, the log files append entries forever.

Sorry for the confusion. It's a laptop - so you can't truly power down
without removing the battery, which I didn't do.
The first time, I clicked on Start and then on the drop-down menu to the
right of the Shutdown button, and then clicked on Restart. That's what I
meant by "without powering down".
The second time, I clicked on Start and then Shutdown - so that
everything stopped. That's what I referred to (probably inaccurately!)
as "powering down".

I think that is actually accurate...

 

[Sjouke Burry]

Had a problem getting W7 to start properly this morning on my Dell
Vostro 1520 running W7 Professional 32-bit SP1.

It took *ages* (like 4 minutes) for the desktop to appear, and I was
able to start one or two applications ok, after which clicking on any
other icons in the taskbar just resulted in egg-timers but no program
launch. I couldn't even start Task Manager to see what was going on.

I re-started the system (without powering down) and the same thing
happened again.

I then powered down and started it for the third time, and it was ok.

Any ideas as to what might have been going on? If it happens again, is
there anything I can do to recover without a restart?

It acts like molasses in case of a big auto-update.
So next time, wait a bit, or hit ctrl/alt/del to get
the taskmanager, and check whats running.

 

[Roger Mills]

@mid.individual.net:


It acts like molasses in case of a big auto-update.
So next time, wait a bit, or hit ctrl/alt/del to get
the taskmanager, and check whats running.

I haven't got auto-update enabled. It tells me when updates are
available, and I decide whether/when to install them.

Problem is that ctrl/alt/del *doesn't* start Task Manager - it simply
brings up a menu with options to: Lock the Computer, Switch User, Log
Off, Change Password, or start Task Manager. I could get the menu up,
but clicking on Start Task Manager didn't do anything.

I suspect that it had somehow lost contact with the hard drive. My hunch
is that the CPU(s) weren't 100% busy - but without being able to start
Task Manager, I can't be sure.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
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[Ed Cryer]

I haven't got auto-update enabled. It tells me when updates are
available, and I decide whether/when to install them.

Problem is that ctrl/alt/del *doesn't* start Task Manager - it simply
brings up a menu with options to: Lock the Computer, Switch User, Log
Off, Change Password, or start Task Manager. I could get the menu up,
but clicking on Start Task Manager didn't do anything.

I suspect that it had somehow lost contact with the hard drive. My hunch
is that the CPU(s) weren't 100% busy - but without being able to start
Task Manager, I can't be sure.

What keeps troubling me is that you can restart. That implies
communication not only with the system, but with the HD too. And all
done by routines running in the CPU(s).
There's something missing in the info we have here. It doesn't add up.

Ed

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I haven't got auto-update enabled. It tells me when updates are available,
and I decide whether/when to install them.

Problem is that ctrl/alt/del *doesn't* start Task Manager - it simply brings
up a menu with options to: Lock the Computer, Switch User, Log Off, Change
Password, or start Task Manager. I could get the menu up, but clicking on
Start Task Manager didn't do anything.

I suspect that it had somehow lost contact with the hard drive. My hunch is
that the CPU(s) weren't 100% busy - but without being able to start Task
Manager, I can't be sure.

Useful shortcut: Ctrl-Shift-Esc *does* bring up the task manager
directly in W7.

I forget where I learned it, but probably in this NG

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

On Wed, 07 Nov 2012 18:25:12 -0800, Gene E. Bloch

[snip]

Useful shortcut: Ctrl-Shift-Esc *does* bring up the task manager

^ Insert "Very".

directly in W7.

I did not know that shortcut. Thank you. CAD then selecting the
Task Manager, I have always thought to be silly.

The shortcut also works in XP.

I forget where I learned it, but probably in this NG

It is acceptable to learn here. Some of us even come here for
that. <BEG>

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[Roger Mills]

Useful shortcut: Ctrl-Shift-Esc *does* bring up the task manager
directly in W7.

I forget where I learned it, but probably in this NG

Yes, I tried that too! Whereas it starts Task Manager under normal
circumstances, it *didn't* when this problem was present.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Yes, I tried that too! Whereas it starts Task Manager under normal
circumstances, it *didn't* when this problem was present.

Oh. That's a bummer...

I didn't know it could fail that way.