T43 - Windows XP Boot-up Freeze

[paulhod]

Hi

I haven't had any problems with my T43 for a while and then today, I can't get fully into Windows XP. After the login screen, it is really slow and then finally transitions to my desktop background and then stops before displaying the Start Menu or any icons.

I can access everything in Safe Mode with Networking. I've even done a System Restore for as far back as 30 days but still with no success. I'm not aware of any recent software changes anyway.

Grateful for any advice on possible causes and/or a process for eliminating possible causes.

Cheers

Paul

[Harryc]

Try selective startups with msconfig and see if you can isolate the issue to a driver or startup app.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560

[paulhod]

Thanks Harryc. I ran a number of elimination start-ups and have isolated Norton Internet Security LiveUpdate as the cause of the problem.

I assume that I can remove LiveUpdate and just run manual updates on a regular basis. Any other thoughts?

Thanks again.

Paul

[Harryc]

I assume that I can remove LiveUpdate and just run manual updates on a regular basis. Any other thoughts?

Paul

That is true, or you can run a better antivurus - nod32.
nod32 link

[USSS]

...I haven't had any problems with my T43 for a while and then today, I can't get fully into Windows XP. After the login screen, it is really slow and then finally transitions to my desktop background and then stops before displaying the Start Menu or any icons... Paul

On Saturday (9/1/07), I experienced precisely the same symptoms on my T43, which also is still running Norton.

It took approximately 35-40 minutes from power-on to the appearance of the taskbar and full population of the system tray. I thought the culprit might have been the latest ATI Radeon driver update. But Event Viewer reported no such problems, just the "usual" errors associated with Norton's LiveUpdate.

I reverted to the previous day's System Restore point (in Safe Mode). Still, it took almost half an hour for everything to appear on the desktop. I created another restore point, rebooted, and the problem mysteriously disappeared. So long, Norton. Hello, Kaspersky.

[andyP]

All very strange, a massive coincidence??

On Saturday morning 09 01 07 my T43 worked fine. On Saturday evening I experienced exactly the same problem as described above, after the log-in a real patience game.

I then decided to waste my Sunday afternoon and solve the problem. I booted from a clone of my hdd, (made about 6 months ago), and everything was fine which indicated to me that I didn't have a hardware problem. The next step was to try safe mode on the primary hdd which also was no problem, therefore indicating a software / sevices problem.

Using "msconfig" I started the extremely boring trial and error process of trying to find out which service / autostart was causing the problem. Symantec was the first possible culprit to be killed , but it wasn't the culprit .

To cut a long story short, I eventually found the culprit after about 4 hours of testing, (and a few bottles of tasty german beer), it of course was the second to last service which I had left to try , namely "TVT SCHEDULER".

To close this story on a happy note. When I came into work this morning the first phone call was from a customer whose T42 wouldn't boot past the log-in, as I was explaining the solution to the customer another customer came into the shop, yes you guessed right, with the same problem. Since then another 2 customers have contacted me. After changing the autostart mode of "tvt scheduler" service to manual from automatic, everybody got a quick solution and are happy and my time and effort wasn't wasted.

BUT - how many other people are experiencing the problem and haven't called in

p.s. I notified Lenovo of the problem, they said they would look into it and get back to me.

[logic]

You guys just made my day. I came in this morning to an r50 and r51 both exhibiting the same problem. After disabling TVT Scheduler, they appear to be working perfectly again.

Also, I came across an older thread that seemed to hit on the same thing here, if anyone is interested.

Thanks!

[andyP]

@ logic firstly, welcome to the forum and secondly, glad that you found your solution.

An update to my post; Lenovo contacted me, as promised. They said that they hadn't had any other calls regarding this problem. They agreed that it probably wasn't a hardware failure as my 2nd hdd worked ok and it was definitely a software problem. They then asked if I could restore my T43 to factory, install all Windows updates and then all Lenovo updates. If the problem didn't arise to again recover, install Lenovo updates and then Windows updates. The reasoning behind this was to discover if the "failure" was due to a Windows or Lenovo update.

Obviously I like to be helpful, BUT, I realised all of that would have been very time consuming and asked how many "brownie points" I would receive. The answer wasn't encouraging - "nothing, nada, null, nix and are you joking?".

If I get the time to do their diagnosis and work, I'll post it here, but I will be ****** if I am going to find the cause for them for 0. Hopefully you all agree.

[andyP]

Another update:

This evening I finally decided to dedicate some time to solving this problem. Having backed up my working system, with "tvt schudler" service set to manual, I set it to automatic. The "freezing" problem was still there.

After reseting it to manual in safe mode and restarting I decided to run sytem update and see if there was anything new available, there was; no critical updates but some recommended and optional. I chose 8 updates:
1. Intel WLAN abgn / abg / bg (wtf abgn with a T43 I don't know)
2. Win trusted platform 1,1
3. Ultranav driver
4. Ultranav wizard
5. Presentation director
6. Ultranav utility
7. ThinkPad configuration
8. NetXtreme 1GB LAN driver

System update downloaded all, but could only install 1-5 and required a restart - No problem. After the changing "tvt scheduler" to automatic and restarting - frozen system. Had to change again in safe mode.

I then restarted system update and it installed the last three updates, [6-8], and required a restart. After the restart I again changed "tvt scheduler" to automatic and restarted - WOW!! No problem.

My conclusion; "tvt scheduler" has alot to do with various TP utilities, if I was a betting person I would put my money on TP configuration as the culprit.

If anyone has been suffering this freezing problem and has "tvt scheduler" still set to manual, please update TP configuration utility only, set scheduler to automatic and let us know if everything is AOK.

[USSS]

After encountering this problem back on Sept. 1, I have had no further issues following subsequent sessions with System Update.

While I have not been able to pinpoint the exact cause on my system (I'm not completely convinced now it was Norton AV; see above post), I have experienced similar problems with svchost.exe recently.

My T43 would inexplicably slow down to a crawl, e.g. it was impossible to get IE6 to open and populate its window with content. In Task Manager, one of the five svchost.exe processes was consuming upwards of 95-100% CPU cycles.

This issue is probably not directly related to the initial reports of freeze-ups reported in this thread. But if svchost.exe is running at abnormally high levels, the fix can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927891