I am running Windows 7 x64 and have a vexxing problem that cropped up after taking all of the updates on a fresh installation.The problem manifests itself right after login. The system will completely hang - no response to mouse or keyboard, the animated pointer freezes. No option but to power down and power up again.The problem does not occur when I boot in safe mode.I found a partial workaround by using the F8 boot menu to enable boot logging. This makes it more likely that the machine will boot and log in successfully. However, it doesn't always work. Sometimes I still get the hang. After a successful login, the machine is rock solid for days and days. Someone on the Tom's Hardware site is having the same problem and claimed to solve it by disabling DEP. (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/1403-63-windows-hangs-login-stays-screen). I did this and I can now login successfully until I try a Fast User Switch. Right after logging in as a 2nd user, I get the hang.It looks like the login process has some kind of timing dependent error. Boot logging and DEP change the timing a bit so that things work better, but I still don't have a full solution.Any help you can provide in how to debug this is much appreciated.

Hi,Did you encounter this issue after fresh installation without applying all the updates? According to the symptom, the following might be the culprit:1. One of the updates that you downloaded caused the issue.2. Certain Microsoft service when loading windows or system files are corrupted.Try system restore if in the situation of "1". Then install the update one by one (system update or device hardware driver).If "2", you can run complete clean boot to troubleshoot the issue.Let's run a Clean Boot to isolate what is causing this issue. Basically, a Clean Boot turns off all of the advanced features of the Operating System at the same time. We then reboot to see if the problem reoccurs. We can then refine our search, turning the features back on one at a time until the problem reoccurs. Although the process may be time-consuming, this allows us to pinpoint exactly what is causing the problem. Follow the steps outlined below to perform a Clean Boot: Note: A Clean Boot is used for troubleshooting purposes. During the Clean Boot process, your System Display and Desktop will look and perform differently than in Normal Mode. This is only temporary. When the Clean Boot sequence has been completed, the system can be restored to Normal Mode by selecting the Normal startup option in the msconfig utility. Please perform the following steps: 1. Click "Start", click "Run", type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) in the Open box, and then click OK. 2. On the "General" tab, click "Selective Startup", and then clear all of the subsequent check boxes. You will not be able to clear the Use Original BOOT.INI check box. 3. Click "OK", and then click "Restart" to restart your computer. 4. After Windows starts, determine whether the symptoms are still present. If the problem does not occur, please continue to use these steps to narrow down the cause of the issue: 1. Click "Start", click "Run", type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) in the Open box, and then click "OK". 2. Starting with the first available check box (Process System.ini File), select each check box one at a time, and restart the computer as prompted until the problem is reproduced. 3. Once the problem reappears, click the tab that corresponds to the selected file. For example, if the problem reappears after selecting the Win.ini file, click the WIN.INI tab in System Configuration Utility. Then, we can gradually narrow down the root cause by checking the items under the tab one by one.

The email message you sent me proved to be very helpful. I'll add it to this post because it is another way of thinking about the problem:Hi,The information that "The issue does n! ot occur in Safe Mode" is very important.Most crash problems are caused by incompatible or unstable hardware devices. We can refer to the following steps to disable them in Device Manager. In this situation, your system will only have basic hardware devices and it should be more stable. 1. Click "Start", type in "DEVMGMT.MSC" and press Enter.2. Expand "Sound, video and game controllers". 3. Right click on your sound card and then click "Properties".4. In the "Device Usage" dropdown menu, please choose "Do not use this device (disable)" and click OK.5. Please use the same method to disable other potentially unstable ha! rdware such as the modem, network card, and CD-R dri ve. Please note some devices such as the video adapter cannot be disabled. Then, restart your computer. Does it still crash now? If your computer works properly, we can re-enable the devices one by one to narrow down the root cause of this issue. If your computer still crashes, the problem may be with the motherboard or Central Processing Unit (CPU). If this is the case, I recommend you contact the computer vendor for upgrading \ resetting the BIOS settings to the default and update the chipset driver to check the issue.The Microsoft Developer NetworkI scanned my Device Manager and identified 62 devices which could be disabled. I was able to begin a binary search to determine which device was the culprit when I remembered a possible compatibility warning when I installed my Brother MFC-9840CDW printer driver. Disabling that one device stopped my crashes. And, a newer driver that corrected the problem was available at www.brother.com.Thank you very much for the help.

i have the same problem apart from its the same when booted to safe mode and a reboot does not sure it. it first appeared after it was left on, had a few progs running, when i came back to it the mousepad does not work. i can hit enter on my login then it freezes any help would be greatly appreciated

I had the same problem! It started working again after i booted into safemode and uninstalled norton. but to be fair i did have bot defender installed too. :S

I had the exact same problem. Windows 7 was working in safe mode but not in normal startup. It would freeze at the login or welcome screen. Here's how I fixed it: I went through turning off each service one by one in msconfig and eventually found out that the WMI Performance Adaptor was the culprit. Disabling this service has returned my system to normal. I dont know why that service is at fault but at least for now I can use my laptop until there is a fix or update to the problem. I spent the last few weeks trying to figure this out, so I really hope this helps!

Most crash problems are caused by incompatible or unstable hardware devices. What a bunch of lies. Most crash problems I've detected in my two decades in business are related to garbage operating system updates. Vista and Win7 have made me rich, because the operating systems are SO flawed, and Windows Update ruins one laptop out of every five. THANK YOU MICROCRAP for putting out such garbage operating systems!

I had the same problem with CA Antivirus. Windows start screen hang on the loading circle, no option but a hard reboot. Started right after I installed the AV and seems to have gone away now that the AV is uninstalled. I have no other virus protection installed.

amen. when will everyone realize it is Microsoft creating the problem! I can't wait till all the hardware/driver excusses start when Win 8 is released. Unless you want some seriuos pain don't be an early adopter - you'll be dealing with crash after crash and no good answers other than 'you must have bad hardware or drivers'.DMM

amen. when will everyone realize it is Microsoft creating the problem! I can't wait till all the hardware/driver excusses start when Win 8 is released. Unless you want some seriuos pain don't be an early adopter - you'll be dealing with crash after crash and no good answers other than 'you must have bad hardware or drivers'. DMM Gee, it's the WIZARD OF OZ!!!

amen. when will everyone realize it is Microsoft creating the problem! I can't wait till all the hardware/driver excusses start when Win 8 is released. Unless you want some seriuos pain don't be an early adopter - you'll be dealing with crash after crash and no good answers other than 'you must have bad hardware or drivers'. DMM God I've heard some dumb A$$ remarks in my 15 years in the Tech Support business but Mr. 20 years in teh biz and you are by far the most pathetic I've ever seen. "Hey, let's all hate on on Microsoft because theya re teh enemy and we want to be like the Hackers or Lunux Fan Boys because MS doesn't give their software away fro free but they should because information should be free to wthe world". Ok so you didn't say all of that but you may as well have. Until you design and package your own OS, stop yammering on about how all MS OS's are awful. MS makes great products. They have a slightely bigger task then any other Software company in teh world because thir OS has to be able to run so many different hardware devvices and run all of the software programs and drivers that other companies create and the moment something doesn't work right or a person doesn't know what they are doing, oooh it's big bad microsoft trying to thwart us again. It's called open architecture and they have a hell of a lot more to deal with than a company who just deals with writing a driver for their hardware or one software package. If it weren't for MS, none of you would be uysing a personal computer right now and mr. 20 years in the biz wouldn't have a job. Your statement about MS ruining 1 out of 5 laptops is THE dumbest thing I think I have ever read. It's idiotic tech support people who ruin laptops. Not MS. I have NEVER, EVER once had a MS update cause a problem wiht a laptop or a PC. It was always some other software that needed to be updated after installing a MS update and that's not MS's fault. Why is windows installed on about 90% of the worlds PC's, not to mention a gazillion other devivces like ATM's, Smart phones, Kiosks etc...? Because nobody has ever been able to do it better then them. Oooh lets scrap windows a put ona copy of Red Hat. Linux rules and its free. It's free because it's unpolished and nobody has ever been able to package into a product that would allow people like my Mom or Grand father to use a PC without havinga full time tech support person sitting by their side. So to summarize, stop making false, idiotic statements like Microsoft ruins 1 out of every 5 laotops. That's THE dumbest thing that has ever been written on teh internet. EVER. It's not only dumb but it's irresponsible because it makes the followers of the world like MrOZ not be abler to diagnose a real problem, but instead just balme it on MS, the Evil empire. And BTW...the majority of feeze up problems are caused by Bad drivers, failing hardware or a corrupt hard drive. Not a Windows Update. Don't you think a big company like MS would maybe doa little testing before they roll out an update? Uh yeah, they do. I can't stand idiots.