Laptop won't complete boot

13 years ago

My Toshiba Satellite MX 35X with Win XP is a bit over 5 years old. Last week the HD died and I replaced it with a WD 120GB HD and used the Restoration disk to re-install XP.

I booted a couple of times and all was well. I spent considerable time downloading & installing the software I wanted - Open Office, Mozilla FireFox, Avast virus protection, and Family Origins a genealogy software. Then, I downloaded files from an external Seagate to re-install my files from a prior back-up.

All appeared well, I shut it down to plug in another external Seagate to move some files from my desk-top machine as my wife uses the lap-top as her pc.

On re-starting, it appeared to boot OK, but the "hourglass" would not go out and all the tray icons were not there. Also, all the desktop icons were not properly displayed. The IE and Re-cycle Bin were normal, but the others including FireFox were a generic Windows display.

I let it sit there over 25 minutes with no changes.

Any idea what may be wrong now? A HD failure or other types of problems?

Thanks in advance.

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Comments (6)

ravencajun Zone 8b TX
13 years ago
had you gone to windows updates and got the multitude of updates you would need after using recovery material to re install windows? If not that is probably what happened it started trying to download and install all those many updates and it locked it up. You may have even needed service pack 2 and 3 with a unit that old. plus of course all your antivirus programs etc would be trying to update also.

It is always best when doing that kind of recovery where you will be very very far behind in windows updates to turn off automatic updates and go manually to windows update and first get your service packs in order and be absolutely sure to reboot the computer after each service pack, then get any remaining updates. I usually suggest getting them in small batches and creating a restore point before each service pack and before each batch of updates. Should something go wrong you have a good restore point to return to.
samtom_gw
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks RC for the suggestions. I had selected "manual up-dates" when I re-installed XP. A couple of additional things:

1) the clock ran while the computer was turned off, however, it's not running now.
1. I got the cursor arrow immediately on re-booting. However, when I attempt to open a browser, nothing happens except the desk-top icon turns grey. And, the icons have not converted to the standard icon, still the generic Windows thing.
If I attempt to go to start, the cursor becomes a hourglass until I move back to the screen and the arrow comes back.

I'm wondering what may happen if I leave it up over-night? So, if various things are trying to up-date they may get finished.
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genes
13 years ago
Unplug the external hard drive and try rebooting again...
genes
13 years ago
Did anything work..let us know
samtom_gw
Original Author
13 years ago
I was busy most of yesterday re-installing, configuring, etc. After reading Raven's suggestions, I discovered I could not access the start menu, and nothing worked. I had to turn it off by holding down the start button. And, by leaving it up all night, all the icons disappeared and all I had was the blank desk-top.

I decided to re-install XP and shut down after each installation of a new item. But, reading through some other threads, first decided to check for an anti-virus software that may have been part of the installation. And, I found a rather out-dated Norton.

In the first install, I had put Avast on top of the old Norton. Needless to say, I immediately un-installed Norton, put Avast on and all appears to be fine. Really, we learn by doing.

Many thanks for the help that, as always, steered me in the right direction.

It would be a boring world with out this forum.

Best wishes and happy computing.
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
13 years ago
excellent detective work! yes that Norton can be a bear and will cause conflicts if it is not fully removed prior to a new AV being installed. Glad you got it sorted out.
When doing those installs with original restore material using the pc decrapifier tool helps find and remove all that old original stuff you do not want.
The PC Decrapifier

Laptop won't complete boot

Comments (6)

ravencajun Zone 8b TX

samtom_gw
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Laptop won't complete boot

Comments (6)

ravencajun Zone 8b TX

samtom_gwOriginal Author

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