Explorer.exe not loading after log on

[PoliMalaka]

Environment:
Windows XP clients and Windows Server 2003 Active directory infrastructure.

Problem:
After logging on, users' desktops will not load. The PC just sits there with the blue background. The logon scripts do not run.
Ctrl-Alt-Del works.
Logging off and then back on will cause the desktop to load and the user can work.
Also using the task manager to start a "New Task" explorer.exe causes the desktop to load.
This has nothing to do with a particular OU, computer, level of user rights, or log on script.

Any ideas why this would happen? Any troubleshooting techniques? keep in mind that this is not something we can reproduce.
Just happens sporadically. I see it personally about once per month.

 

[fatlardo]

The same problem has happened at my college. Bearing in mind im only a student there I dont know if or how they've fixed it! But I do know it happened the first time a user logged on to a computer. After this it always worked, it's just that first logon.

In this case it was just the start menu that didnt work, and I think that is controlled by the logon scripts.

I know it wont solve your problem but it might help you find out where the problem lies, or at least help you reproduce it!

Hope it helps

Gary

 

[PoliMalaka]

Thanks for the reply but nothing about what you've described seems to apply.
It happens even after the 50th log on.
Log on scripts do not run when this happens.
Logging off then back on has (from what we can tell) always worked.

Argh...

 

[linney]

308041 - Resources for Troubleshooting Startup Problems in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308041&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Due to the sporadic nature of these events, about all you can do is to look at the Event Viewer for the time that they occur and see if there are any clues in there.

Are you able to see some type of pattern, for example, same machine type, same user, same time of day, same weather conditions, post Windows Updates, etc. etc.

Are your users logging this occurrence to see what pattern, if any is showing?

Are they running regular maintenance, including Disk Cleanup and Disk drive error checking (ChkDsk /r)?

 

[PoliMalaka]

Are you able to see some type of pattern, for example, same time of day, same weather conditions, etc. etc.

OMG that's it!

LOL

Because it happens so infrequently, we don't really get a chance to "catch it".

And the users know what to do to when it happens.

 

[bccross]

We've been dealing with similar problems in our environment for the last while and we believe we have it narrowed down to a client.

Do you have any software metering clients on these workstations?

 

[PoliMalaka]

We've been dealing with similar problems in our environment for the last while and we believe we have it narrowed down to a client.

To one physical machine or a type of client?

Do you have any software metering clients on these workstations?

Metering? Just the usual logging.

 

[bccross]

The problem in our environment is across various workstation hardware, anywhere from 1.5ghz with 512mb RAM to Core 2 Duo's with 2GB RAM. We think the issue is related to a software client that we install for software / license metering.

Can you provide a list of installed software on the workstation as well as running processes? I'd like to compare it to one of our standard images.

 

[bccross]

PoliMalaka are you still battling this problem?

 

[PoliMalaka]

Still seeing it, but I wouldn't say we are battling it.
The only software we have installed out of the ordinary is a Citrix client.

 

[bccross]

Would you still be able to post a list of processes that are running on a system that has this problem? I would really like to try and determine what similarities, if any, exist in our 2 environments that would be causing this issue.

Thanks