Win XP Home -Boot Problem

[EPT]

Greetings List,
I have Win XP Home Edition on an HP laptop. In the past, after powering up it fully booted, loaded all the virus software and stuff and you saw the icons in the notification area of the taskbar. The last two days, after powering up you get the desktop but only one icon in the notification area (volume control). In order to fully boot you have to select a program to open, e.g. if I select IE which defaults to Google, then the PC completes the boot loading the virus software and other stuff. Anyone have any idea what's going on here, no settings were changed.
Ed

 

[bcastner]

Do Steps #2 and #3 in this FAQ: faq608-4650

 

[linney]

Anything strange happen to your computer two days ago? Did you have problems with any virus updates or similar.

To get further information about possible errors look in your Event viewer.

Look in the System or Application folder. You can get to the Event Viewer via right click My Computer icon and select Manage.

Any errors logged in the Event Viewer can be expanded by double clicking on the error line.

Take any event error I.D. number and search for it on this site.

http://www.eventid.net/events.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr.../prodtechnol/winxppro/support/EE_winxppro.asp

What you could do is see how it boots and loads Windows in Safe Mode.

See if System Restore will get you back to a restore point before your problem with Windows.

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking.

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp