safe boot ok hangs on regular boot

5 year old ACER desktop. XP SP3, auto updates on.

Boots to password, then hangs at what appears to be differnt places after that. does not load items in bar.

I did system restore to a month ago and it did the same thing.

It will boot to safe mode. I can acces internet in safemode.

I feel like something is corrupt in the programs that start up , but I dont know. I think the hardware is fine because we boot in safe mode.

The virus pgm does not come up. I tried to install avast but while it appears to be installed it will not start. ( I dont know if is safe mode issue or some sneaky virus preventing )

I am thinking I should put hard drive into another machine and scan the drive for viruses. but hat to do that if I dont have to. but I woudl do that before randomly uninstalling things.


any suggestions?

 

I ran spybot, and it found several things. It had to run on restart and I was not sitting there when it completed and rebooted so I dont know what it found. My norma boot goes further but still hangs. . I am pulling the HD and may be headed to the format stage. I am downloading the UBCD4Win. Thanks DC

 

Greetings, DocCountry.

Another thing you might try real quick:

1. Boot to Safe Mode.

2. Click Start > Run, type "msconfig" (sans quotes), click Ok or press Enter. In the Startup tab, click "Disbale all", click Ok, and reboot the machine into Normal Mode.

If the symptoms change, then you can repeat the procedure and slectively enable the startups to try to find the culprit(s).

If not, then carry on with MA's suggestions.

 

That worked.

dissabled all and it booted normally.

looking at the 20 or so pgms, some I recognise most I do not. enabled a few of them and it still works. When I have time I will selectively enable and see if I can tell which one is the culprit. Apperantly is a "good program' that is corrupted or something since not found by the scanners.

Re: Scanners
after running the spybot Search and Destroy , the malwarebytes found another 11 items . Yea Malwarebytes! ( didnt fix my problem, but still... ) The distinction between virus, spyware, and malware is a bit fuzzy to me.
and why do they exist? Its seems like kids smashing mail boxes.

Thanks again, up and running. just before reformatting.

 

Glad you're getting it sorted.

Because avast! won't load (it should, even in Safe Mode), I'd strongly suggest you go through the steps listed in the Malware Forum's Read & Run Me First thread, perform all of the suggested steps, and attach the requested logs to a new thread in that forum. Some malicious software can prevent antivirus programs from starting, and just running a couple of spyware cleaners don't necessarily guarantee a clean machine.

A 'Spyware Glossary' has been published here - maybe it can shed some light.

Good luck, and welcome to MG! :major