Fuckity Fuck Fuck Computer Start Up Freeze

[Havok]

I'm guessing at this point it is a hardware issue as I am now having the same problem with Windows 7 that I had with Vista.

Once I log on into W7, it freezes up. The thing is, it doesn't happen every time.

Any suggestions?

[White Haven]

Was this a fresh install of 7 (nuke the partition to the bedrock and roll from there) or did you install over-top of an existing Vista partition?

[Rahvin]

Also, what diagnostics did you do when you had Vista loaded? HDD scan? Anything?

How frozen? Mouse moves but you can;t click anything? Do the icons/Start button/etc still load? Can you hit ctrl-alt-del? Or is it totally frozen, no input gets any response at all, not even mouse movement?

Can you be more specific about when it freezes?

Do you know how to look at the event viewer?

[Havok]

Fresh install of W7.

No diagnostics on Vista.

I can mouse around, but I can't get the program shortcuts to respond. I can sometimes get into the task manager and sometimes not. I sometimes can click on the desktop and quick launch icons with no effect, sometimes they don't even 'click'.

It freezes after I get to my desktop. Sometimes it goes smooth, others it freezes straight away. There doesn't seem to be a specific point when it freezes as it will do it immediately or it will do it, say, after I get firefox loaded and already get to a site.

What is the event viewer?

[Havok]

Duh... I have zero issues in Safe Mode, so I'm probably looking at a program that is fucking it up.

I wonder if the fact that the programs that came with the computer (Dell) were 32 bit and I upgraded to 64 bit is causing an issue. There were a few things (built in cam, touch pad, fingerprint reader) that didn't have 64 bit drivers for which the Dell site said to use the originals that came with the computer.

This model (XPS M1530) was listed as Windows 7 tested or some such and not Windows 7 upgradeable.

[Rahvin]

Duh... I have zero issues in Safe Mode, so I'm probably looking at a program that is fucking it up.

I wonder if the fact that the programs that came with the computer (Dell) were 32 bit and I upgraded to 64 bit is causing an issue. There were a few things (built in cam, touch pad, fingerprint reader) that didn't have 64 bit drivers for which the Dell site said to use the originals that came with the computer.

This model (XPS M1530) was listed as Windows 7 tested or some such and not Windows 7 upgradeable.

Try ckecking the event viewer. You can do this from safe mode.

Right-click "Computer" in the start menu, and select "Manage." It will require admin rights.

This opens Computer Management. In the list of options on the left, you'll see "Event Viewer." Expand that. On of the options inside will be "Windows Logs." Expand that.

Now we have several event logs. The relevant ones are going to be "Application" and "System." Take a look and see if you have anything listed as an "error" (little red exclamation) in the lists, especially at times when you noticed that the computer froze. That can give you clue what's happening (application stops responding, etc).

Alternatively you could start taking background apps out of the startup list one at a time and see if it stops, but since it's an intermittent issue, I wouldn't recommend it, you're likely to get a false positive.

[Havok]

Yelp, looks like it was the web cam and it's drivers. I uninstalled them and it's running like a champ. Never used the thing anyways. Thanks for the assist guys.