here's a strange XP problem. . . - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

shakran · 04-18-2009, 10:43 AM

anyone ever heard of the themes service causing XP to hang at the welcome screen? Testing has narrowed it down to that service, but I can't think of any reason why it would fail, or why its failure would kill the computer.

running on an AMD machine. Everything else is fine, less than a year old, RAM has been tested and is verified to be working. Any ideas?

MexicanOnABike · 04-18-2009, 03:58 PM

are these things working:
safe mode loading?
are you able to recover using system restore?
Last previous working?

shakran · 04-18-2009, 06:10 PM

yup, I can boot into safe mode. No system restore points because it's a fresh install of XP - 1 week old. I reinstalled XP because it was doing this and I couldn't make it stop. after the reinstall it worked fine for a few days and then crapped out again. It's not mine, but she swears she hasn't installed anything weird, and I couldn't find anything weird that she'd installed.

Hain · 04-18-2009, 10:33 PM

I'd say it has to be something software related---possibly a conflict with a windows update. If it isn't that, it might be the hard drive going kaput. At my university's helpdesk, we see all kinds of weird problems because system files get corrupted from bad HD, but never do we see the same problem after fresh windows install.

MexicanOnABike · 04-19-2009, 07:57 AM

after 1 week is really odd unless she installed something weird or a part of the hardware is defective. Can you do more testing on the parts?

Radio Monk33 · 04-19-2009, 08:42 AM

Curious...here's a silly question, but is everything properly updated? Clean installs and keeping everything updated seems to resolve 99% of problems..

shakran · 04-19-2009, 02:49 PM

b'lieve I found it. over 300 SMART errors in the last 4 hours of HDD operation. Everything from CRC errors to read/write fails. I'd say it's time for a new drive.

04-18-2009, 10:43 AM	#1 (permalink)
shakran Tone. Super Moderator	here's a strange XP problem. . . anyone ever heard of the themes service causing XP to hang at the welcome screen? Testing has narrowed it down to that service, but I can't think of any reason why it would fail, or why its failure would kill the computer. running on an AMD machine. Everything else is fine, less than a year old, RAM has been tested and is verified to be working. Any ideas?

04-18-2009, 03:58 PM	#2 (permalink)
MexicanOnABike Location: up north	are these things working: safe mode loading? are you able to recover using system restore? Last previous working? __________________ █ █ Movie Reviews - Ratings longest thread ever!

04-19-2009, 07:57 AM	#5 (permalink)
MexicanOnABike Location: up north	after 1 week is really odd unless she installed something weird or a part of the hardware is defective. Can you do more testing on the parts? __________________ █ █ Movie Reviews - Ratings longest thread ever!

04-19-2009, 08:42 AM	#6 (permalink)
Radio Monk33 Insane	Curious...here's a silly question, but is everything properly updated? Clean installs and keeping everything updated seems to resolve 99% of problems.. __________________ "Punk rock had this cool, political personal message. It was a bit more cerebral than just stupid cock rock, you know" -Kurt Cobain

04-18-2009, 06:10 PM	#3 (permalink)
shakran Tone. Super Moderator	yup, I can boot into safe mode. No system restore points because it's a fresh install of XP - 1 week old. I reinstalled XP because it was doing this and I couldn't make it stop. after the reinstall it worked fine for a few days and then crapped out again. It's not mine, but she swears she hasn't installed anything weird, and I couldn't find anything weird that she'd installed.

04-18-2009, 10:33 PM	#4 (permalink)
Hain has a plan Location: middle of Whywouldanyonebethere	I'd say it has to be something software related---possibly a conflict with a windows update. If it isn't that, it might be the hard drive going kaput. At my university's helpdesk, we see all kinds of weird problems because system files get corrupted from bad HD, but never do we see the same problem after fresh windows install.

04-19-2009, 02:49 PM	#7 (permalink)
shakran Tone. Super Moderator	b'lieve I found it. over 300 SMART errors in the last 4 hours of HDD operation. Everything from CRC errors to read/write fails. I'd say it's time for a new drive.