Narcoleptic PC
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Narcoleptic PC
I thought I could drive XP reasonably safely without hitting too many pedestrians but have never been that bright on the nuts and bolts bits of a PC. Now however and all of a sudden my (admittedly becoming middle-aged) PC has decided that it will not switch on from the button unless the mains power supply has first been interrupted. There's no time limit to that, the interruption can be straight off/on.
Simultaneously.........the picture I use as a desktop background appears was XP now loads but vanishes when the icons load and I am left with a plain blue background.
Simultaneously.........Once the icons have loaded an 'Autoruns Disabled' file folder (with no programs in it) pops up. That goes away when told to but I can find no deletion facility.
All seems to me to have happened at the same time although I accept that an apparent connection can always just be Dr Sodt's Law in action. Once it's up and running it jogs along perfectly sweetly and closes down quite normally. Am I being dim and missing something obvious?
Simultaneously.........the picture I use as a desktop background appears was XP now loads but vanishes when the icons load and I am left with a plain blue background.
Simultaneously.........Once the icons have loaded an 'Autoruns Disabled' file folder (with no programs in it) pops up. That goes away when told to but I can find no deletion facility.
All seems to me to have happened at the same time although I accept that an apparent connection can always just be Dr Sodt's Law in action. Once it's up and running it jogs along perfectly sweetly and closes down quite normally. Am I being dim and missing something obvious?
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Three possible causes:
1. A mains spike has caused offence to various bits of the innards.
2. A nasty virus has got in, and is doing nefarious things.
3. Something else.
For 1: Can you put things back as they were, desktop pic in place, that sort of thing? Does it stay put? Can you delete the offending new arrivals, and do they stay gone? If you can fix it, maybe just shrug and ignore it.
For 2: Do you have decent firewall and anti-virus software (refer separate thread, but something like ZoneAlarm ane AVG-Free)? If not, you may be in urgent need of help. Otherwise, ask AVG/etc to do a full system scan.
For 3: Tell us more about the symptoms.
1. A mains spike has caused offence to various bits of the innards.
2. A nasty virus has got in, and is doing nefarious things.
3. Something else.
For 1: Can you put things back as they were, desktop pic in place, that sort of thing? Does it stay put? Can you delete the offending new arrivals, and do they stay gone? If you can fix it, maybe just shrug and ignore it.
For 2: Do you have decent firewall and anti-virus software (refer separate thread, but something like ZoneAlarm ane AVG-Free)? If not, you may be in urgent need of help. Otherwise, ask AVG/etc to do a full system scan.
For 3: Tell us more about the symptoms.
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A 'hard' power-down (hold the on/off switch down for 8+ secs) may do less harm than pulling the plug.
Beyond that, the only thing I can think of is to check what the Control Panel|Power options|Advanced|Power buttons is set to - it is possible to set it so that pushing the button is ignored.
Beyond that, the only thing I can think of is to check what the Control Panel|Power options|Advanced|Power buttons is set to - it is possible to set it so that pushing the button is ignored.
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Or, during boot up (from the start) repeatedly use key f8 and you will arrive at a list of start up options which includes "use Last known settings that worked" which is another type of system restore
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Guys
Thanks to you all for that. The man just called to say that I'm off to somewhere I really don't want to go for the next week. I'll close down and take your advice on board when they let me come back.
Thanks to you all for that. The man just called to say that I'm off to somewhere I really don't want to go for the next week. I'll close down and take your advice on board when they let me come back.
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Spit, I don't think it's a problem powering down, but rather a problem with powering up after shutting down.
When you shut down does the box go quiet? There is a slight possibility that some kind of virus is showing all outward signs of shutting down whilst actually keeping the PC running. Quite why it would do that I have no idea, and it would be fairly obvious as the fan etc. would probably still run.
Other than that, run spyware/antivirus software. This doesn't sound like a software issue, as the startup obviously happens while there are no programs running. I've seen it where you have to tap the start button twice quickly to get the machine to start, some kind of hardware glitch.
When you shut down does the box go quiet? There is a slight possibility that some kind of virus is showing all outward signs of shutting down whilst actually keeping the PC running. Quite why it would do that I have no idea, and it would be fairly obvious as the fan etc. would probably still run.
Other than that, run spyware/antivirus software. This doesn't sound like a software issue, as the startup obviously happens while there are no programs running. I've seen it where you have to tap the start button twice quickly to get the machine to start, some kind of hardware glitch.
