MCE freezing at Welcome screen

[cokecan]

Hey Guys

I've been asked to remove a virus off a PC (it's a Dell Dimensions E520 with Windows Media Center on, though I'm not entirly sure if this is the original copy of windows that came with it, or something someone else has put on at some point) but I've since found another problem with the PC. Windows just seems to freeze at the welcome screen in both normal and safe mode about 90% of the time I try to boot up, with the occasional time will actually get onto the desktop before freezing while loading startup stuff.

Now I don't think the PC is actually frozen because I can still use the mouse etc, it's like the HDD has just had enough and stops loading anything. I have ran a chkdsk /f on the drive while connected up to another PC and that found no errors, the western digital software has found no problems with the drive so I'm wondering whether theres something broken in windows? It also could be the virus and tonnes of other crap thats been installed thats slowing the PC down

Do you think it would be possible to repair windows using an XP pro SP3 disk on this version of media center? As far as i know MCE is just XP pro but with the media center app added? the MCE version installed on the PC also has SP3 installed.

Any thoughts or ideas are welcome

 

[this_is_gav]

Can you close WMC by hovering over the area where the cross should be and clicking?

The black screen in WMC has been one of those bugs that's always been around with no apparent fix. Not seen it in the Vista versions yet though.

 

[cokecan]

thanks for the reply but I think you've misunderstood the problem, Windows it self seems to freeze or at least stop loading at the Welcome screen before you actually logon. It occasionally stops loading during the Windows loading bar bit before the welcome screen. I dont think it's actually freezing because in both cases the windows loading bar will still be moving and i can also move the mouse if and when it gets to the welcome screen.

I guess saying hte system hangs is probably a better way of describing it other than freezing

 

[this_is_gav]

Ah sorry, I thought you meant WMC was appearing to be frozen.

If it's working sometimes but not all, I'd suggest a hardware issue of some description rather than software. On the rare occasion you can get into Windows, is it completely stable, or do you have random crashes, hangs or any BSOD?