2 users/annoying restart probs

[Humbucker]

I've just spent the last few mins directing expletives at my PC and Windows XP in particular, although I'm hoping the problem I have can be fixed and I don't just have to put up with it. Here's my problem - my wife and myself each have our own profile in Windows XP Home. Whenever I log her off and to go back to my profile to shut down or restart the computer just refuses to restart - it doesn't even get to the Windows XP logo screen, it just hangs on a black screen after the white bios writing comes on.

Gradually I have had to restart more and more times for it to boot up until today when I must have restarted 30+times. What forced me to have to restart was a power cut, at the time ONLY my wife was logged on so it seems her profile/settings or whatever are causing the problems. Am I supposed to leave a bigger gap between attempted restarts? Cos as it is I have been simply turning it off at the back then restarting one time after the other.

This is incredibly frustrating and although I am not that much in the know about XP and technical stuff in general it seems this having seperate user profiles is totally lame. When I install something it seems to make it's own mind up if it installs on my wifes profile aswell. Yesterday I installed 3 or 4 new programs on my profile and only one of them installed on my wife's desktop. I had a pretty basic PC with Windows '98 for four years and I'm not exaggerating when I say I've had 10 times the problems with this much more powerful one in 4 months than I did with that one in 4 years.

I do Spyware scans reguarly(I have Adaware, Spybot S+D, Spysweeper, Spyware Blaster), do virus scans reguarly(I have AVG Anti Virus and do the online housecall scan too) and generally take care to look after this PC the best I can. I have Ashampoo Winoptmizer which I got cos it's very highly rated in keeping your PC in good working order. I use it to get rid of unrequired files in the hard drive and registry. I ditched IE a few months back to use Mozilla Firefox exclusively too.

Sorry I sound so annoyed here but we spent a lot of money on this PC and the amount of problems we have had is massive compared to it's trusty predecessor. BTW we have Service Pack 2. If anyone can help with these problems it would be much appreciated. I apologise for the mammoth post.

 

[Humbucker]

I realise the length of the post is probably putting people off replying but if anyone could take the time to it would be much appreciated.

 

[CntdwnToExtn]

i do not know what is wrong with the restart stuff, but when you install programs...sometimes you have to make sure that you chose the option "allows all users to acces" or something along that lines...sometimes what you have multiple users, the default for the program installing might be "only for this user".

 

[Inaris]

do you and your wife both have admin access rights?
Also, you can try recreating her profile by simply renaming the folder for her login name in C:\Documents and Settings to something else. This will cause the system to recreate her profile from scratch, but leave the files alone that are in the old folder. I can also show you how to switch it back it that doesn't work.
Aside from that, have you ran a checkdisk? this would be very imporant to try as it will tell you if there are disc errors that might be causing this. To start a check disk, open my computer, right click the C drive and select properties. Then select the TOOLS tab and click Check Now under error checking. This will give you a dialog with two check boxes. Check both, and click start. This will be followed by another dialog. Click OK and then reboot. when the system restarts, it should initiate a scan disk so it might take a little while...

Good luck...

forgot to add...

on the installing programs thing, it's possible that missed a check box or something. As the previous poster said, that is the case for most apps. There are some that are user specific only, but they are pretty few and far between. if you can't get them to instal they way you want, let me know and I'll give you some command line options to try.

 

[Booyah]

generally speaking, i think that multiple users accounts are a pain. its just so each user has the illusion of their own computer. "i like my wallpaper and screensaver as opposed to yours." my advice and the advice i give my customers is to just go with one user account and try and compromise on the little things such as wallpaper, window's modes, and screensavers. it will save you headaches. i know u said u spent alot of money on your computer but don't worry about it, its not anything serious. i could fix it in a few hours without spending a dime. ur local mom and pop pc store (not best buy or compusa) will fix it right and at a reasonable price.

 

[Humbucker]

Thanks for all your replies! Lots of helpful info by the looks of it - I'll try out the stuff you guys suggest. Many thanks.