Laptop only works in Safe Mode

450knotOffice · 450knotOffice's Garage

A couple of days ago the laptop I own stopped working properly after a normal boot into Windows. The laptop is a Gateway M-6750 with an Intel Core 2 Duo chip running Windows Vista Home Premium and it has 3GB of ram.

The computer will boot up properly, with the hard drive light on the computer flashing normally as the hard drive is accessed. Then, once everything seems complete, the hard drive light, which is normally flashing away as I use the system, will just disappear. It seems obvious to me that the hard drive basically stops doing its thing at that point. Once that happens, any programs I may have tried to bring up become non-responsive and that's it. The computer becomes useless - frozen. Nothing works at that point (except for the mouse pointer, interestingly enough). Not even Ctrl-Alt-Del. At that point I can only force a shutdown by holding the power button for about five seconds.

However, if I start in Safe Mode with networking, the computer seems to run fine. In fact, I'm actually typing this message on the malfunctioning laptop right now.

Yesterday evening I ran a full scan with a program called Malwarebytes (that Slodave recommended) and it came up clean. I scanned the computer with my own AVG anti-virus software and it came up clean too. I tried to use Vista's System Restore, which returns the computer to an earlier known good state, yet for some reason the system is telling me that it has no Restore Points have been created on my system disk. That seems really odd. According to the Windows help menus, Vista automatically creates restore points periodically.

I also tried disabling many of the programs that automatically start on boot, to try to find out if one of those programs was causing the problem. No change.

I'm stumped.

kmhemi · 03-19-2009, 10:41 AM

I got a virus a while back that delted my restore points. If I remember right I ended up reloading windows to get everything working right again

onewhippedpuppy · 03-19-2009, 10:51 AM

Yet another case of too much porn.

My in-law's computer had a virus that wiped out the restore points. I had to remove and restore the OS to get it running again.

450knotOffice · 450knotOffice's Garage

I have a bad feeling that a virus got in there somehow. Were you able to find the virus or did you just you just deduce that one got in there? So far my virus scans come up clean. I've done a Bot check with Spybot and I'm in the process of scanning with Adaware as I type this.

rcecale · rcecale's Garage

Try enabling Boot Logging and then boot once again to see where the machine hangs and what it's hanging on.

Randy

slodave · slodave's Garage

In Safe Mode, run msconfig and disable all non MS entries under the startup tab. Reboot and see what happens in normal mode. Is the the 64 bit version of Vista?

450knotOffice · 450knotOffice's Garage

I'll check that Dave? It can't remember.

450knotOffice · 450knotOffice's Garage

I disabled all non MS apps, and the same thing happened. I was initially able to start a browser and another file, then it locked again.

slodave · slodave's Garage

I have to go to LAX tomorrow morning.... We could meet and I can take a look at it.

kmhemi · 03-19-2009, 11:43 AM

I think that same virus also removed my admin rights on the machine....I think that was why I reloaded everything.

450knotOffice · 450knotOffice's Garage

Sorry I disappeared. Work, ya know. In fact I'm in a hotel typing this right now on a layover. Dave, I'll be at LAX today, but only for a very short time before I head back out again. Thanks for the offer though.

So yesterday I noticed that when I went to open MS Outlook (in the Safe Mode), the computer slowed down and then locked up again (except that freedom loving mouse of course; that thing has never quit working correctly, even when the rest of the computer is locked up solid). I forced a shutdown and went to work. This morning I fired the computer up again (in Safe Mode of course) and so far everything still works normally. I even opened up MS Word and MS Excel. Everything's still good. It works fine using both browsers I have - Mozilla and Explorer.

As stated earlier, the antivirus, Bot and Adware scanning apps I've run so far have come up clean, but of course that could simply mean a virus is hiding well. Do you guys recommend any online scanning apps? How about hard drive diagnostics?

I'd like to be able to use this computer in a normal fully enabled mode.

450knotOffice · 450knotOffice's Garage

Well, I tried running MS Outlook again and it locked up the computer again - even in Safe Mode. It initially opens up, then it starts to pick up the mail, and then it locks during that phase. The computer slows down to a crawl, the hard drive light stops responding, and then it just stops working entirely.

I wonder what MS Outlook has to do with all of this. None of the other apps I open in Safe Mode cause this problem - at least none that I've tried so far.

slodave · slodave's Garage

Scott, here's the link for the Hitachi DFT software...

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/downloads/dft32_v415_b01.iso

450knotOffice · 450knotOffice's Garage

Thanks. Do you have any suggestions for freeware to monitor the CPU usage? I'd like to see what's going on there when I open MS Outlook.

slodave · slodave's Garage

Scott, got your message.

Just hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and the Task Manager will come up. The "Processes" tab will show you mem and cpu usage for each process...

slodave · slodave's Garage

I forgot to have you look at the event logs. Right click My Computer -> Manage -> expand the Event Viewer under System Tools. Look at the System and Application logs and see if if errors are reported. One or two won't mean much, but if there are a number in a row... Double click on an error in the log and a bit more info will show.