Startup Problem

[yona17]

Greetings, I am completely new to this forum and have no idea whether i am posting this in the right category, but, I have a problem and was hoping one of you could help me to solve it. I bought a new pc two days ago, equipped with windows 7 and a myriad of other bells and whistles, and was loving it until today. I left the computer on for about a 4 hour period, and when I returned, the screen was blank with the windows logo in the background. I restarted the computer numerous times, with the usual bootup, but each time after the startup process I was greeted with a darkened screen with the windows logo on it (This logo is my computer's default background, by the way). I tried pressing ctrl+alt+del and my screen turned completely black, with no response. Pressing escape brightened the screen, and I was given my pointer, but nothing else. Also, I found that if I clicked and dragged on the far right of the screen I was able to pull my AIM toolbar onto the screen, and I was able to right-click as usual, but all of my icons and start bar were gone. My apologies for the wall of text, but any and all help would be much appreciated.
-Thanks in advance

 

[KSoD]

Sounds like your explorer.exe file is corrupted. Have you tried booting into Safe Mode?

 

[yona17]

yes, I have, and everything works fine, how can I fix my system completely now? (Also, thank you for the quick response)

 

[KSoD]

Then it is a driver issue. If you can boot into safe mode that means that there is a driver that is being loaded in normal mode that isnt in Safe Mode that is causing this. So you need to start checking for updated drivers. Things like Video Devices, chipset and all of that from the manufacturer's site. Yes you may have only had the PC for 3 days, but that doesnt mean that when it was assembled and put into the box that it didnt already have drivers that were outdated.

 

[yona17]

As far as I can tell, all the drivers are all up to date, but I still have the same problem. on another note, when I do not boot in safe mode, sometimes my computer works normally, while others it starts the same way as before, with no noticeable difference in startup procedure. I have a feeling one of the main components was damaged in some way, because system restore did not help either. What should I do now? (Also, thanks again for the continued support.)

 

[KSoD]

Have you checked not only the manufacturer's site but the parts manufacturer;s sites as well for each component? The PC manufacturer's site might not have the latest drivers for a specific component. Like a video card or network adapter. The only thing that should be obtained from the PC Manufacturer's site should be the chipset drivers. Everything else should be obtained directly from the component manufacturer's site as they update their driver far more often than the PC Manufacturer.

If one of the main components was badly damaged, you would never be able to use your PC normally. As the performance would always be affected, not just on certain boots. Same thing goes for system restores. They can easily be corrupted by infections. Have you tried to verify that it isnt just an infection messing with you by running some in depth scans from Spyware Asylum?

 

[WhiteFlare]

Try Drivermax. It will tell if drivers are current and can assist in ID of unknown hardware. It works like a charm. It also makes it easier than going to all the part manufacturers websites and checking.

 

[KSoD]

But then you have to depend on if the software is updated with the current information instead of getting that information directly from the manufacturer. So who is to say that the software is up to date enough to know if a new driver is out? I would rather trust the manufacturer's website than rely on 3rd party software which has to not only go to these sites to see if there is an update but to update their site and software as well. To many hands in the cookie jar.

 

[yona17]

Ok, sorry for the staggered replies and thanks for all the help so far. I've executed multiple system scans for viruses and found nothing, and I've updated most of my drivers, but I still have some more to go. I think I may have found another clue to what is going wrong though. Whenever I boot normally, my screen also tints because a notification comes up, and pressing escape is one method of dismissing it, so that solves that. Additionally, I've found that when it decides to boot normally, if I leave it idle long enough for the screensaver to come up, when I return, the computer is back in its "broken" state. I deeply appreciate all the help that you guys have given me so far, and I feel like I am close to a solution!

Ok, sorry for the double post, but seeing as I cannot edit my previous one I'll just state here that I have updated every one of my drivers to par as far as I can tell via the manufacturer's websites and I am still experiencing problems.

 

[KSoD]

Well there could be a few things that are causing this. Have you tried a different screen saver? Have you installed any screen savers? If so is this is screen saver that you have set? Maybe that screen savers isnt Win7 compatible. That could be part of the issue.

First i need you to try a Clean Boot. You can also try this. See if any of these help as well. But try the Clean boot first.