Windows Freezes on Welcome Screen

Hi Folks,



Firstly I apologise for the fact that I have already posted this request for
help in Performance and Maintenance , I know multiple listings upsets some
folk but I only had one reply and although I was grateful if did not help me
resolve the problem and its driving me mad!!!!

I am running Windows XP Professional and I have a problem that is driving me
insane.

Every time I try to start my computer it freezes at the Windows Welcome
screen and no matter how long I leave it doesn’t start-up and the little
process bar keeps flowing across the screen. I can start the computer in Safe
Mode and have ran all the usual anti virus and spyware programs , but no
matter what I do when I try to restart or turn off then turn on the computer,
it still freezes on the welcome screen. I have been living with this problem
for about to months.

About two weeks ago I tried to download and upgrade the Windows SP3 upgrade
an after an age it failed and give me a message about ACCESS DENIED or
something similar. However and this is the interesting part , after failing
SP3 ran a clean up job and uninstalled and then asked me to restart the
computer, which I did. And the computer started perfectly normal and did not
freeze up on the welcome screen. However the next time I had to restart the
computer I was faced with the same old problem, the computer froze at the
welcome screen.

I can only assume that when SP3 failed and restarted the computer it loaded
the right files or whatever it took to make the computer start normally. Now
when I want to start the computer normally I have to go through the whole
process of trying to install SP3 and when it fails and restarts the computer,
the computer starts normally, until I try and restart it.

Please please can someone help me out here?

Ta in advance
JC

have you tried to do
a system restore via
safe mode?

however, before doing
the above, boot up with
a winxp cd and access
the repair/recovery console.

then at the disk prompt
run the following commands>:

chkdsk
fixboot
fixmbr

then "exit", remove cd
and try to boot normally
again.