Weird screen on bootup.

Hi folks...

This has been going on now for several weeks. On boot up, which is, truthfully, sluggish...

Right before the Windows welcome screen, a black screen appears, with a large white or beige square in the middle; along the top of the square is a blue Windows-like strip, with a red Exit box in the upper right hand corner. The left hand side of the blue strip may contain references to some .sys or .dll file in the Windows system32 folder; sometimes there are just a few extended ASCII characters - it varies.

Within this white or beige square is a slightly smaller square, just a blue line drawing. In the upper left hand corner of *that* square are 3 tiny rectangles, stacked lengthwise. These never change.

Finally, at the bottom of the square is an OK button; I have to click OK to continue on into Windows.

I swear I'm not making this up. I've run numerous anti-virus programs to no avail.

Any ideas at all? (Please don't tell me to reinstall Windows, sniff.)

Thanks in advance. I may try to photograph this beasty and post it here, if that's allowed.

 

Firstly welcome to MG.

This sounds as though it may be a driver problem. Does it do the same if you boot to Safe Mode? Or have you tried booting from your OS CD for instance?

 

Yargwel:

Booted into safe mode - same behavior, except the 'OK' button was grayed out.

Did a driver scan as well; two possible driver upgrades to my video cards, one of which I could not find on the OEM's web site. That's it.

The whole thing is beyond weird; as soon as I find my card reader, I'll post a screen photo.

Thanks, Fritz

 

Oops, that's *one* video card, sorry for any confusion.

BTW, thanks for the welcome to MG - been a lurker for years.

f43

 

So what about booting from your OS CD? I'm trying to establish whether it is the Windows installation on your HD that is falling over.