Okay. I'm having a startup/shutdown problem with my Windows XP. The problem is that most of the times I turn on/restart my computer Windows XP freeze. I can see the windows XP pro loading screen but after that a blue screen appears where my PC freezes (before the welcome screen). I must then restart computer and hopefully scandisc runs which is when windows start normally without any problems. But the problem occurs again after restarting computer.
Before this startup problem I had another problem which seems to be gone now. It was similar to this one except that the computer froze when I tried to shut it down. I've noticed that every time before it froze (when I shut it down) a blue screen appeared with a small Windows XP logo slowly fading in for about 3 seconds. After that the blue screen disappeared and I could see my desktop again. Then followed the normal shutdown except that the system froze while in "Saving your settings..." screen. I do not have this problem any more but I still see the XP screen popping up for a moment before disappearing.

I do not know what is causing this problem but it is very irritating so I do not wish to see any "I have the same problem..." posts. I want the solution for this problem!

Ow yea. The problem first appeared after I installed the latest version of CloneCD and software for my new keyboard I recently bought. I doubt that CloneCD has anything to do with this. Tho I uninstalled even the keyboard software I still have the problem. The system restore helped for a while but not any more...
I even uninstalled/reinstalled drivers for my keyboard countless times. It's a PS/2 Office Internet Keyboard from Logitech. We'll see if the software update can help.

Ow well. This sounds very complicated. If you guys can't help me I'll have to get a Windows XP expert. And I am NOT looking forward to reinstalling Windows.

I hope I provided enough info...
Thanks.

I had a problem similar to this when a wire burned out in my computer (the keyboard wire, to be more specific) and it kept giving me an error that my keyboard wasnt attached to my computer. Maybe a wire burned out in your computer as well (highly unlikely though, but could be). Im not sure though, im not an expert on computers. How long have you had your XP?

I've had Windows XP on this computer since the beginning (when I got it). And this computer is brand new. I've had it for 2 months or so.

I had this problem once with Win2000... I had extremly much software on it and also much junk... I think it was the driver of the graphics card, because I couldn't update it anymore But I never was able to track the problem down totally, only a new installation helped. Well, since you don't want to reinstall it this doesn't help much

Eval

I wish Windows XP had a "Step-by-step confirmation" mode...that would let you figure out what the problem is.

But the only thing you can do is run msconfig and choose the "Diagnostic Startup" option. I'm pretty sure CloneCD does install some sort of VXD driver (or the Windows XP equivalent) for its special cloning capabilities, so it's possible that it is the problem.

(Hit F8 twice at startup to get into safe mode if you can't start normally)

The blue screen is some weird Windows XP thing that is used from time to time...I've also seen it in Windows 2000 and Windows .NET (it's not the blue screen of death).

What you have been experiencing is a stop error. It is very likely that the stop error is disappearing too quickly for you to see. You will need to be able to see what this stop error message is telling you. In order to do this, you must:

1) Right-click on "My Computer" on the desktop, or in the non-classic Start Menu.

2) Select properties.

3) Click on the "advanced" tab.

4) Select the "settings" button under "Startup and Recovery".

5) Under "System failure", uncheck "automatically restart".

6) Click the "ok" button on both of the dialog boxes you have popped up. You may need to restart the computer after this.

7) Reproduce what initially caused the stop error (this should not be difficult for you in your case).

8) When the stop error comes on, it will be frozen in place on the screen, and the computer will not restart until you make it restart yourself. There are two very important pieces of information to record here:

A) Record the small string of information near the top of the screen. It is most commonly "IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL", but whatever it is, it should be listed on its own in caps.

B) There will also be some instructions listed on the screen; ignore them. Below the instructions is something that is listed that looks similar to this: "Stop error 0x00000000A (Parameter 1, Parameter 2, Parameter 3, Parameter 4)" The parameters vary by error, and the number that precedes the parameters also differs. Record this stop error information, as well. It is also very important.

When you obtain this information, go back to the dialog box in the system properties to make the computer automatically restart again upon stop errors. You can now search for this information on a search engine to look for solutions (many are in Microsoft's knowledge database) or post the stop error here for us to help you. This procedure is also for future reference, in case you get more stop errors; this is a good way to diagnose them.

Good luck.

...that's some good information Derb.

Derby: Okay. I'll do that right now. But before I continue I must tell you what I found out. The problem seems to only occur if I have "Control Panel=>User Accounts=>Change the way users log on or off=>Use the welcome screen" enabled. It doesn't freeze when I disable it and when I disable it windows startup/shutdown in the classic style.

Link: I thought F5 was to get into the safe mode.

What you're saying doesn't appear to work, Derby (or I missed something). I disabled the auto-restart option and I did not get any error reports on the screen when it went blue and computer froze.
BTW. Is the "automatically restart" option supposed to restart my computer when it freezes if it is enabled? I had to restart it manually even if the optopn was enabled.

I'm gonna describe the blue screen once more because I think some people thought it was something else.
This blue screen is not there because of an error or anything similar. It appears always when windows start up (It's a standard part of windows startup before the welcome screen). But the problem is the welcome screen doesn't show up. When I use the classic startup way a window pops up asking me for username and password. I can start windows normally in this case.

Are you sure this is a stop error?

Link: If CloneCD installs such drivers, doesn't system restore remove them? I still get the problem even if first I uninstalled CloneCD and then used system restore to restore it before the CloneCD installation.

The diagnostic startup appears to work. Windows start without any problems. It must be a driver or something...

Hmm...so it might be a conflict with the welcome screen if it doesn't happen when you use the normal login. Personally I dislike the welcome screen, and it causes problems on my computers too, so I just stick with the regular login.

Derby, the blue screen I mean is not a stop error. It's a special windows screen that you might see when installing Windows XP or where Overlord described it.

If the diagnostic startup works, now you'll have to use trial and error to find out what the culprit is. The first thing I would do is go into the Startup and the Services tabs (in msconfig), and disable anything you don't want. Many programs install things in one of these two places, and a lot if it is just unneeded stuff.

Okay. I went through my setrvices a bit and here are the results. I disabled all the services (which made me unable to connect to internet) and then began enabling them one after one while restarting computer to see if it freezes.

Here is a list of all my services:
1 Alerter
2 Application Layer Gateway Service
3 Application management
4 Windows Audio
Background inteligent Transfer service
Computer Browser
5 C-DillaSrv
Indexing service
ClipBook
COM+ System Application
6 Creative Service for CDROM Access
7 CryptKEy License
Cryptographic Services
DHCP Client
15 Logical Disk Manager
16 Logical Disk Manager Administrative service
DNS Client
20 Error reporting service
21 Event Log
COM+ Event system
Fast USer switching Compatibility
26 Help and support
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
Server
Workstation
35 TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Messenger
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
25 Windows Installer
29 Network DDE
30 Network DDE DSDM
Net Logon
8 Network connections
Network Location awareness (NLA)
NT LM Security support provider
31 Removable Storage
9 NIVIDIA Driver Helper Service
Plug And Play
IPSEC Services
32 Protected Storage
27 Remote Access Auto connection manager
28 Remote access Connection manager
Remote Desktop Help Screen Manager
22 Remote registry
10 Remote procedure call (RPC) Locator
11 Remote procedure call (RPC)
QoS RSVP
Security Accounts Manager
23 Smart Card Helper
24 Smart Card
17 Task Scheduler
Secondary Logon
System Event Notification
33 Internet connection firewall/Internet connection sharing
Shell Hardware detection
37 Print spooler
12 System restore service
38 SSDP Discovery service
Windows image acquisition (WIA)
MS Software shadow copy provider
34 Preformance Logs and alerts
Telephony
Terminal services
40 Themes
Telnet
13 Trend NT Realtime service
Distributed link tracking service
Upload manager
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
18 Uninterruptible Power supply
Volume shadow copy
19 Windows Time
14 Web Client
Windows Management Instrumentation
39 WMDM PMSP Service
Portable Media Serial Number
Windows management Instrumentation Driver Extensions
36 WMI Preformance Adapter
Automatic Updates
Wireless Zero Configuration

The numbers before the services indicate the enabling sequence. The problem first appeared after I came to and enabled this Theme service + restart. This service makes the taskbar and all the windows look in Win XP Style. I again disabled this service and the problem was gone. Then I tried some more combinations like enabling all the services except the Themes one. And guess what? The problem did not appear. I then disabled all the services except the Themes one and the problem did NOT appear. Weird.

One more discovery is that when I disabled all the non-microsoft services, the problem still appeared. Later I Disabled almost all microsoft services (excluding Themes) and left the non-microsoft services enabled. The problem appeared. And finally, I disabled all the non-microsoft services and left the few microsoft ones enabled. The problem did NOT occur.

Here's a list of the services which I used in the second example - all non-microsoft and few microsoft. Again the numbers indicate the enabling sequence but doesn't make any sence because when the problem appeared the last enabled service was a non-microsoft one... I said before that the problem did occur while all of the non-microsoft services were disabled.


Microsoft:
5 Alerter
6 Application Layer Gateway Service
4 Event Log
1 Remote procedure call (RPC) Locator
2 Remote procedure call (RPC)
3 Themes

Non-microsoft:
7 C-DillaSrv
8 Creative Service for CDROM Access
9 CryptKEy License
10 NIVIDIA Driver Helper Service
11 Trend NT Realtime service


Now what? I'm lost again. Looks like the Themes service is in trouble but I'm sure it's not the causer of the problem because it's a microsoft service and it was running on this PC before the problem arrived.

Maybe the theme stuff is corrupted or something. Or it is conflicting with something else.

Did you try changing to the standard login style from the welcome screen?

Yea, I did. Same result.