Blank Screen instead of the Log In Display

[dwlpl]

My PC boots up Windows XP Home Edition and displays the normal 'User Selection Log In' screen as expected.

But sometimes when a User logs out and the 'User Selection Log In' screen should display a black blank screen appears with only the mouse cursor to be seen.

The PC will not display anything else and the only way around it is to re-boot.

But again with the not normal shutdown process being adhered to I am expecting a Check Disk to occur but it doesn't and goes into the normal 'User Selection Log In' screen.

Anyone with any ideas?

[Keef]

When it does that, have you tried pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del to see if that will shake it awake? It's a bit less drastic than powering it down, and often solves minor glitches.


I don't remember if XP Home has the "log" feature. Try Start - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Event Viewer - Application and see what red flags are there. That might help.


Other than that, I have no ideas. I've never had one of mine do that, but I rarely switch users anyway.

[dwlpl]

I don't remember if XP Home has the "log" feature. Try Start - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Event Viewer - Application and see what red flags are there. That might help.



The user page immeadiately after booting up that has all the Users listed ready to log on.

[vapilot2004]

If you would like to revert to the classic NT/2000 logon scheme, this may be a work-around:

Open User Accounts in Control Panel
Click Change the way users logon.....
Un-check the Welcome Screen Option and
click the Apply Changes Button and try it out.


As an aside:
With Fast User Switching enabled, you can switch users while
still logged on by using the Windows Key (little flag on it by the CTL key)
and tapping the L key at the same time.

Good Luck!

[dwlpl]

Changed to the 'classic login' yesterday and today it did not sign out one of the users properly and display the login screen after he logged out.
Went to the Event Viewer and this is what it said for the UPHClean (the user name here is replaced with ??????)
*********************************
Event Type: Information
Event Source: UPHClean
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1401
Date: 29/01/2007
Time: 18:29:23
User: PRE-INSTALLEDCO\?????
Computer: PRE-INSTALLEDCO
Description:
The description for Event ID ( 1401 ) in Source ( UPHClean ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: PRE-INSTALLEDCO\?????, S-1-5-21-1085031214-1935655697-1060284298-1007, SVCHOST.EXE (944)
HKCU (0x370)
.
******************************
Maybe I should replace UPHClean?

[vapilot2004]

For multi-user setups, UPHClean is a good utility. AV software and hardware drivers can interfere with the logoff process according to Microsoft. User hive issues would not be good and could cause data loss. Hives are another name for part of the registry.

DWLPL, let me ask you this:
Do you get the same logged event when using the Welcome screen and the blank screen issue appears and is it always the same user?

If so, a visit to Control Panel Add/Remove to uninstall this item may help.

Alternatively, an investigation into the cause of the event by process of elimination by closing any TSRs, Anti-Virus and hardware drivers/software that are presented in the tray as an icon (next to the clock) one-by-one on the user(s) desktop prior to logoff, then checking the event viewer. A bit tedious, yes.

Good Luck!

[dwlpl]

DWLPL, let me ask you this:
Do you get the same logged event when using the Welcome screen and the blank screen issue appears and is it always the same user?



It happens to different user on my PC.

Sometimes I do get a message that Zone Alarm is holding things up shutting down.

I have cleared the Event Viewer and will monitor it to see what happens now.

Before I did clear it I did notice that some of the entries stated that the 'happening' had to be 'remapped', I have no idea what this means, can anyone tell me what it means?

[vapilot2004]

A router should take care of most direct network attacks from the internet which is the main purpose of Zonealarm and the like. Without a router, ZA and others are required for even basic security due to all of the security targets available on Win XP. Protection is best done with a bit of hardware like a router - ZA is a good layer but is known to not shut down in a timely way.

The remapping error is typical when the user's space at logoff is unwilling to release all of the memory space upon logout.

If this is a repeatable issue, perhaps before the offending user logoff, you could try killing suspect processes one by one until the event viewer is happy and reporting nothing - that is if the issue is consistent.

One suggestion - please ask your wayward user to backup things like Outlook Express email folders and accounts - MS Outlook PST files if they use MS Outlook (no express), their favourites, the Desktop and their My Docs and subfolders - just in case Windows uncerominously 'decides' that their hive is no longer 'viable.'

Good Luck!

[dwlpl]

Isn't there a way to 'kill' a program (Zone Alarm in this case) after a certain time period by altering something in the registry?