Hi,

I have a problem where on initially it appeared that I had no start menu / desktop on Windows XP SP2. Whilst looking which at a number of threads , and performing some invistagation they eventually appeared after 5/10 mins.

The system has symantec AV and is free. New accounts have the same problem.

Help appreciated

Hic Hic ,is that right ! is free ,whats free .

any was enough trying to be funny ,have you tried booting in safe mode and see how it works and maybe running you symantic av .safe mode ,hitting f8 on boot up, chose safe mode .

Hm. First, try uninstalling the Symantec antivirus- its probably outdated if its free, and Norton is well known for bogging down systems. There are many better (Cheap (NOD32) or free ( Comodo (www.comodo.com) Avira Antivir (www.free-av.com), AVG (www.avg.com), Avast! (www.avast.com) ) not to mention other free security solutions (Adaware, A-squared, Spybot, SUPERAntiSpyware for spyware, Comodo, Zonealarm for firewall, to name a few)

If your computer doesn't respond too much to removing Norton, try installing one of those free ones (I recommend Antivir strongly), updating it, and running a full scan. Short of that- or in addition to it (preferably) you may want to run some free online anti-malware scans.

Here's a list of what I know of:

CA Virus Scan: http://www.ca.com/us/securityadvisor...info/scan.aspx

CA Malware Scan: http://www.ca.com/us/securityadvisor/pestscan/

Trend Micro HouseCall http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Microsoft Live OneCare Safety Scanner http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

BitDefender Free Online Scanner http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html

McAfee FreeScan http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp?affid=294

Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool http://www.microsoft.com/security/ma...e/default.mspx

Symantec Security Check http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/d...d=ie&venid=sym

Panda ActiveScan http://www.pandasecurity.com/usa/

---Under this line does not remove, only finds, threats---

Webroot Antispyware Scan: http://www.webroot.com/En_US/land-sp...-freescan.html

Kaspersky Free Virus Scan http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner

Prevex free scan: http://info.prevx.com/downloadcsi.asp

I recommend running several of these. Definitely Windows Live OneCare's scan, as it will also clean your registry and system.

Make sure your copy of windows is fully updated.

Check out my response to this post: "Computer Performance-- SLOW!" http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread103189.html

Especially the part about startup programs!

As those steps I described in my first post will also likely help you.

Post back if you have questions or the problem continues!

Good luck,

--The Comodore

Symantec indicates the system is FREE of virus's, and yes the system boots ups , and I can log in running in safe mode without problems

Cheers

so symantics doesn't find all viruses and Trojans and spyware ,so run a few of the programs in the post above

symantec is well known to slow down computers- particularly at the start of windows. Try removing it as I suggested (temporarily if you want). If the problem goes away, you eliminated the culprit!

And check out that other thread. Different problem, same advice!

Good luck, post back with results!

--The Comodore

Whilst the problem looking to be virus related, it turned out that there was a badly formatted DVD in one of the drives. I could not see any process activity, removing the disc solved the problem

I guess the moral is always to check the simple stuff before diving in

Thanks for the help

WoW! must re-remember that one ,I've seen laptop and desktop computers that would not boot because of that problem !!