HELP!

[[AK]Swae]

Something is very wrong with my new laptop.

When I boot it, windows loads, I select my user and enter my password, my desktop pops up, and about 10 seconds later it freezes and requires a hard shut down. I'm currently in safe mode under Billy's user (which has no programs on it). How in the world can I figure out what the problem is? Is something that is autorunning on startup causing the problem, and if so, how do I isolate it when I can't even get windows to load without locking up? Argh!

[[AK]Hylander]

Does your laptop have any manufacturers installed "update" or "management" software on it? Sorry.. I don't recall what kind of laptop you have, but the first thing I remove off any Dell I get is their crapware because it causes so many issues.

Do you have any AV / firewall applications installed? If so.. remove them and install Security Essentials. You should be able to remove them in safe mode, but you will need to be able to boot into normal Windows to install Security Essentials.

Did any updates run? Did you install or update any software? Were you in sleep mode prior to the crashing?

Before it freezes, can you hit ctrl-alt-del to see the manager and look at the programs running?

Can you open event viewer in Safe mode to view it and see if any errors are showing?

--> Open Event Viewer by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, clicking Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Event Viewer.* If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Sorry - just shots in the dark at items that have caused me problems in the past. Which OS are you using?

[[AK]Swae]

I have an Asus running Windows 7. I got it at Best Buy and it came with the Geek Squad setup, which was supposed to have removed all the crap that came on the computer.

Would it be a dumb idea to disable all the stuff that autoruns at startup and see if that fixes it? I've tried to dig through the event logs, but it's mostly greek to me. The antivirus they installed is Kapersky (?) which has been working like a charm so far.

[[AK]Hylander]

Kapersky is usually pretty decent. McAfee is horrible though.

Can you copy and paste any info from the events log here?

If you can disable the start up applications and see if it works without uninstalling I would try that first. If it works, then try starting each app 1 by 1 to see which one causes the problem.

[[AK]Swae]

I just disabled Steam and Skype and that seemed to do the trick. I can't image why either of those would be the issue though...I'll keep digging and see what I come up with. Thanks...I was completely freaking out.

Edit: The error logs that seem to coincide with me trying to boot up all seem to say some variation of:

DCOM got error "1084" attempting to start the service ShellHWDetection with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{DD522ACC-F821-461A-A407-50B198B896DC}

or

DCOM got error "1084" attempting to start the service EventSystem with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{1BE1F766-5536-11D1-B726-00C04FB926AF}

[[AK]Hylander]

Good deal - Perhaps there was a conflict with background 'updating' routines or something along those lines.

Try re-activating just one of the programs and see what happens, then the other. At least then you will know which one is the culprit.

[[AK]Swae]

So I tried to actually launch Steam today, and it froze my system up. I'm digging around for solutions now - it seems the Asus G-Series laptops have a sound driver that is causing Steam to act like this maybe? Odd because I've been using it for over a month with no problem. I'll keep you guys posted in case anyone else is having the same problem.

Update: Found the problem and it appears to be fixed. Apparently the Asus gaming laptops are pre-loaded with 2 different sound drivers, which will interact somehow in a bad way and make Steam angry. I uninstalled one, and everything is working fine now. What a strange problem!

[[AK]Bribo]

Ain't Windows grand?

[[AK]Nuts]

Ain't Asus grand?

FIFY