Expert: Chris Schuh - 10/24/2007

Question
QUESTION: When I start up my Dell Inspiron 8500 the first time after being off for several hours is goes through the startup mode and I log in and the w2k music plays then the screen freezes (light blue not BSOD -- no icons are loaded) and while the mouse moves there is nothing to activate and control alt del does not work so I have to hold down the on button and do a hard shutdown.  I have waited as long as 15 minutes and still nothing -- the hard drive light usually stops flashing after a minute or two so it doesn't look like anything is happening internally.  However, when I restart it usually starts right up and runs fine.

It will start up in safe mode - but I have no idea what to do when it does.

Any help would sure be appreciated.

Thank you for your assistance!



ANSWER: Hi Mike,

Have you tried creating a new user account and having it be the one that automatically logs in? I'd also give it full admin access and see if that does the trick.

Cheers,

Chris

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Great idea Chris -- it seems to work fine in a new user mode -- now what does that mean and how do I get all my files and folders back?

Thanks very much

Answer
Hi Mike,

Okay, that's cool - we figured it out right away. Love it when that happens! What you have to do is create the new account as an adminstrator (you may already have such an account).

Log in as the admin and then you will want to go to this folder:

C:\Documents and Settings

Copy the folder that matches your username and then save the copy to another place on the hard drive (maybe create a C:\Backup folder).

Once you've done this, then you'll want to delete your username and then re-create it. Once you've done this, log out of the admin account and then log back in as your re-created account.

Once it is up and running, you'll want to copy over the files and folders you created and used. So, you'll have to go through the files and folders in the backup copy and find the ones you want to copy into your re-created profile.

Once you know which ones you want to copy, simply copy the files and folders over from your

C:\Backup\username

folder to your

C:\Documents and Settings\username

folder. If you get asked to overwite a file or folder, you should only do so if you are absolutely positive. If not, then skip that folder and find out why you were asked to overwrite something (maybe you have to just copy the files in the folder over and not the folder itself, etc).

Cheers,

Chris