static XP

[Abraxas]

Sorry for the rush of problem topics lately and all over the place.
I felt I need a new topic for this one.

Sometimes after a fresh boot the icons on the XP desktop are not clickable. Neither is the Start button or anything else. I have to reboot when this happens cause nothing else will work. The strange thing is that every now and then just the start button doesn't respond (which means, it can't be clicked, no outline) and the desktop is fine. Or it can be clicked, but it either doesn't respond or XP locks up (hourglass icon visible).

Perhaps this is a consequence of the several other problems I have concerning boots/reboots/restarts from XP.

 

[Rick]

It sounds like your desktop shell (explorer.exe) is crashing or doing some funny things.

There is probably a reason for it, but who knows?....

In the meantime, you should be able to CTRL ALT DEL and "End Task" explorer.exe in the "Processes" tab. It should restart itself after a few seconds, otherwise in Task Manager, click on File/Run and type in explorer.exe

This should be a good alternative to restarting.

It is likely there is some sort of software misbehaving in the background.. Perhaps a service that is hanging or a badly designed program interfering with explorer.exe. Also, I have seen network connections cause the desktop to pause for literally minutes on startup - Remove your LAN card if you have one.

If you can, try booting into Safe Mode and see if it does it there. (press F8 a split second before the Windows logo appears on bootup) If it continues to do it, then it is pretty certain your problem lies within the system itself. You may want to try updating your XP with SP1 or Repair your XP installation using the bootable XP CD.

If it does not do it in Safe Mode, then you know it is probably due to drivers, unecessary services and/or programs that load on startup. My next best suggestion would be to click on Start/Run/ and type in msconfig.

Choose "startup" and then click on "disable all". Reboot XP normally and see if you problem persists.

 

[Nodsu]

And of course there is that classic prank, replacing the wallpaper with a screenshot of the desktop and setting the taskbar to be hidden..

 

[Abraxas]

Thanks Rick.
No, I tried everything including Ctrl-Alt-Del, Strg-Esc (does that even work in XP?), Alt-F4 and the Winkey. When it happens it's dead. Except if it's the casual hanging which I have sometimes, too.
I haven't seen the same in safe mode, you have a point there. Must be XP.
Currently such deadlines could be caused by AVP scanner and monitor which run in my system. But I had the same problems when those were not installed. I'm pretty sure I once removed all unneccessary tasks and it still hung up itself after this. I used a process explorer tool to find all the tasks.
Yes, I have an Ethercard and I need that one for DSL.
Msconfig I have yet to test, but I'm not optimistic cause I could boot 20 times in a row and it might never happen. Completely random thing. Although it happens quite often, which means I should be safe with 20 boots, hehe.

@Nodsu
I'm not playing pranks at myself!

Edit:
In msconfig I found that a Power Reg scheduler set itself up in the autostart. Didn't notice that.