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Windows stuck at "Welcome" screen even after repair installs
I've been having problems with my Alienware X51 since about a month ago. The issues are as follows:
- Windows sometimes gets stuck at the "Welcome" screen. Even when it doesn't, logging in often takes up to 15 seconds. Of note is that this has not happened in safe mode.
- The computer would often freeze shortly after login. This only seemed to happen within the first few minutes; once the window has passed, the OS is stable until shutdown.
- Some system tools (such as the Windows Performance Monitor) are unresponsive after launching.
- Screen artifacts would appear in safe mode when I close certain applications.
Cleaning out the dust, reinstalling graphics drivers and reseating the RAM didn't make any difference. I then did a repair install, which solved everything except the first issue. All of this normally suggests a problem with a third-party driver. However, I've also seen a few other issues that suggest that there is a hardware problem as well:
- The Dell ePSA tool often freezes during memory tests.
- The BIOS complained once about being unable to find the hard drive, and Windows displayed a BSoD when it did finally start up. The Ultra DMA CRC error count in the S.M.A.R.T. data also increased. However, this was right after I took the PC apart for cleaning and did not occur again after I reseated the SATA cable.
- Windows might have froze once after loading the files for safe mode. Granted, I was impatient at the time and didn't wait very long before rebooting the computer.
While I'm not ruling out a hard drive problem just yet, I suspect there may be an issue with the memory controller. From what I've heard, a faulty memory controller could result in the symptoms described above. Anyone know of a good way to determine whether this is the case?
For the sake of completeness, here is the full list of observations and things I've tried:
- Cleaned out the dust and reseated the RAM.
- Removed Nvidia graphics drivers using DDU and reinstalled them.
- Upgraded Intel graphics drivers to latest version.
- Upgraded the BIOS to latest version.
- A repair install fixed all of the issues except for Windows getting stuck at "Welcome."
- The issue never happens in safe mode, in which case logging in is actually really fast.
- The Dell ePSA tool often freezes during memory tests.
- OpenHardwareMonitor show no unusual voltages.
- Ran CCleaner just in case some corrupt registry items were responsible - no difference.
- Started repair reported no problems.
- sfc /scannow reported no problems.
- CHKDSK automatically ran a few times (after I forcefully turned off the computer) and repaired some corrupt attributed. However, this has not happened since I did a repair install.
- S.M.A.R.T. tools show no hard drive problems besides the increased Ultra DMA CRC error count as mentioned above.
- Memtest86 (the PassMark version) detected no memory errors.
- Event Viewer shows nothing unusual.
- HijackThis logs do not show any suspicious items.
- Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and TDSSKiller all found nothing.
- There is a known issue that causes a deadlock in Winlogon, but the hotfix was not applicable to my computer.
- Removed a single rarely-used program (Jenkins) that I installed a few weeks before the issue started coming up - no difference.
- Windows detected and repaired an issue with an Ethernet driver - no difference either.