help with XP (or...my coworker f'ed his computer)

[Le Pirate]

I'm not a computer genius, but it seems like I'm the go to guy for office tech support for some reason 

the computer boots up sometimes, and it just shows a mouse cursor when it loads into windows....sometimes it loads the whole screen but it's sideways 

then...if you get it to load okay....it won't complete the shut down process...it stalls out or something and you have to hold the power button down.

any ideas?

I just updated his anitvirus, and it's scanning right now...I don't know if it's a virus issue though.

[ducpainter]

video card?

Wait for the results of the scan....

[Gator]

has he deleted/installed any files or programs recently?

He may have gotten rid of a driver he still needed for another program.

[Jarvicious]

It could be software or hardware from the sound of it.  Viruses are generally pretty repetitive and cause the same issue over and over with little variance (that is, until you manage to get more viruses that do different things to your machine).  The sideways thing is weird though.  How does it run when it does manage to come up?  Do you hear any clicking and/or grinding noises coming from your tower (or under the keyboard if it's a laptop)?  What antivirus program are you using?  Some are much better than others, and also keep in mind that there's no one antivirus/antispyware that can get rid of all infections.  If it's a virus, you're either gonna have to clean it out yourself (difficult if it's a tough infection) or pay someone an exorbitant amount of money to do it for you.  If it's just the HD, swapping that and reimaging is pretty simple.  The fun part (especially with a computer that runs as sporadically as yours) is getting all your pertinent data out before you redo the whole thing. 

Afterthought, when you're trying to shutdown the computer and it's locking up, at which point does it lock up?  Are all your desktop icons still viewable/clickable or does it give you the little box in the middle saying "Windows is shutting down" and lock there?  Chances are that would be some bit of software you have running that won't shut down automatically and is causing Windows to seize. 

Another thing, hit ctrl-alt-del and look at the bottom left hand corner of your task manager.  Anywhere from 20 processes to 40 (40 is very high, but it will run) are within range.  If you have much more than that you probably needed a software workup anyway (which it sounds like you do)

I had a customer once who's kids got to dicking around with her computer and manually turned the screen on its side.  If that's the case, you can simple go into the video properties and change it back. 

[derby]

Another thing, hit ctrl-alt-del and look at the bottom left hand corner of your task manager.  Anywhere from 20 processes to 40 (40 is very high, but it will run) are within range.  If you have much more than that you probably needed a software workup anyway (which it sounds like you do)

this really depends on what you're doing. i have >50 processes, current cpu usage is <7%, and >50% of my physical memory is available. no issues here.

[ZLTFUL]

this really depends on what you're doing. i have >50 processes, current cpu usage is <7%, and >50% of my physical memory is available. no issues here.

Ditto...
82 Processes, 6% CPU Usage, 46% Phys Mem.


I had a salesman have very similar issues with a lapto and it turned out to be a bad motherboard. If the PC is an OEM, contact their tech supportand they can direct you to the BIOS test screen which will give you a pretty thorough hardware check and will 8 times out of 10 find the issue if it is indeed a hardware problem.
If it is not an OEM PC, then things get alot more complicated.

[Le Pirate]

after a few reboots, the screen seems to be loading okay.

I backed up everything on it that is important, so thats no worry. Its about a 4-5 year old dell latitude laptop, so it's not super fast, but he says that it's not running any slower than he can ever remember when it is on.

the virus scanner was the first thing I thought of though, because when i opened it, it was disabled, and would not turn back on. I download the free avg, updated it, and scanned.

it's locking up on the windows is shutting down screen, but I'm in town right now...I'll have to wait till I get back out to the hatchery to check anything else.

[optiato]

A program called CCleaner might help.  Especially the registry scan\repair part.

[prudolph]

Your best to start of going with the usual spybot and adware both free to download and they fit on a jumpdrive . if you want a baseline of what the computer shoud be able to do go to start>run>msconfig> on the first screen click diagnostic and reboot. This only loads the bare necessities of what the computer needs to run, and to set back to normal follow the same steps and click normal startup. 

If it were me I would try to save important stuff  on a cd or dvd and re install windows. (Many would agree that windows should be reinstalled every few months) but you probably wont want to deal with that on a office computer.

If you fix it once they will keep coming back to you.... forever

[Jarvicious]

Ditto...
82 Processes, 6% CPU Usage, 46% Phys Mem.

What processes are you running and how is your computer even still functional?  Even if you do have a beast of a machine, XP isn't made to run like that.  The more streamlined the better and I'm sure it would run MUCH better if you knocked some of that extraneous shit out.  Probably 80% of every program you install automatically adds itself to your basic startup list and runs in the background, whether you want it to or not. 

A program called CCleaner might help.  Especially the registry scan\repair part.

+1 CCleaner is good stuff.  I'd run it once a month or so along with a defrag, etc.  That is, if you're running it on an already mostly clean system.....

They sell the shit out of Dell Lattitudes so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for you to have a faulty mainboard.  Depending on what year you got it, there may be a diagnostic utility built in.  Reboot or turn it on and keep tapping F12 when the big Dell logo pops up at the beginning.  There should be a quick hard disk diagnostic utility that would at least be a good start.  +1 the adaware and spybot trials and run them, if only to see if they find anything suspicious.  Remember to run CCleaner before you do that though. 

[Le Pirate]

Well...it's finally running

when I came back to the office yesterday, AVG was done scanning, and I started looking at the system processes to see if I could figure out what was wrong. I finally came up with what I assume happend.

I didn't feel like fighting it any more, so I called our IT people in Austin.

All the computers run Norton. Well, the Network update recently changed it over to McAfee. The IT people do stuff at night to all the computers plugged into the network....all remotely from Austin. Well, his computer was at home with him that night, so it didn't make the switch.

I knew nothing about this because I use a Mac.

Anyways...the norton live update would just sit there, trying to work, and I guess it wasn't letting the computer shut down. Thats also why the Virus scanner was disable I guess. So I got rid of AVG, and all the Norton Live update crap, did the system update through the IT website, and everything is happy again.

I have no idea what the start up problem was, but it isn't doing it anymore so I'm not to worried.

problem solved? maybe?