A start up oddity

[rundwald]

Since my computer came back from the repair man, having been re-installed and with a new graphics card, a DOS screen appears very briefly.

Can anyone tell me why this is happening now? Please!

 

[benjy206]

I would say that is a program that you are running

I would disable all start up programs apart from the Microsoft ones.

Click Start

In the search bar type "msconfig"

Then go to the startup tab and disable them all and enable one by one

 

[alphanumeric]

Is it a full screen BIOS screen during boot up, or a small command prompt window that just briefly appears on screen when Windows loads?

 

[rundwald]

I'd say a Command Prompt that covers 1/4 screen, that appears momentarily between my inputting password and appearance of desktop

 

[senseless1707]

I would first go with what Benji suggested, turn off all unnecessary startup items and then go from there. let us know if that fixes anything.

 

[benjy206]

Yes that is what I would start with.

 

[gregrocker]

Nothing needs to startup with Win7 except your AV so there's no reason to add them back after disabling in the msconfig>Startup or >Services (after Hiding all MS Services) tabs unless its something you absolutely must have running at boot because you use it then. Otherwise they're freeloaders and likely spying on you.

How is performance otherwise? If you'd like to go over your install closely here are the basic Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

 

[JackALope52x]

Is it a full screen BIOS screen during boot up, or a small command prompt window that just briefly appears on screen when Windows loads?

This is what it sounds like to me. If disabling some of your start up programs doesn't work then I would go into the BIOS and look into this. Inside the BIOS you typically have the option to change what your boot screens look like. Weather you want a full screen / half screen logo, or if you want certain command prompts and or warnings to show, and even the display time of each screen. Your computer guy could have reset the motherboard which would have changed any personal settings back to default.

 

[alphanumeric]

Is it a full screen BIOS screen during boot up, or a small command prompt window that just briefly appears on screen when Windows loads?

This is what it sounds like to me. If disabling some of your start up programs doesn't work then I would go into the BIOS and look into this. Inside the BIOS you typically have the option to change what your boot screens look like. Weather you want a full screen / half screen logo, or if you want certain command prompts and or warnings to show, and even the display time of each screen. Your computer guy could have reset the motherboard which would have changed any personal settings back to default.

Turning fast boot off in the BIOS will often get you a more detailed BIOS Boot screen that looks a lot like the old style Dos screen. That's why I asked for a better description. It sounds like its a small command shell windows opening briefly though. That may be a result of a script being run at boot up or possibly a driver being loaded.

 

[DavidE]

I'd say a Command Prompt that covers 1/4 screen, that appears momentarily between my inputting password and appearance of desktop

Is it a Windows password or a BIOS (Setup) password?
Could a PC display a BIOS (bootup) screen after the PC is that far into the startup process where the Windows password is entered?
It sounds like something in Windows startup to me...
MS Sysinternals Autoruns may help find the culprit.
Autoruns for Windows

 

[rundwald]

So far disabling the few start up items has had no effect. With the ZA ones it seems that (see att) only one in the list may be disabled at a time. Also I see in the list ( again see att) that some other items seem to be duplicated too. I am sole user with Admin rights can those dups be right?

 

[UsernameIssues]

They are probably not duplicates, they are probably 3 different things from ZoneAlarm (which you should uninstall) and 3 different things from Intel. You need to expand the column for the command to tell what is actually being started. One seems to start with Cmd.exe - you minght want to uncheck that one.

 

[AddRAM]

Whoever worked on your pc enabled the boot time diagnostics screen, if you go into your bios you can disable it. You should then see the manufacturer`s logo again.

There`s no reason to tinker with msconfig, it has nothing to do with what you`re seeing.

 

[rundwald]

Whoever worked on your pc enabled the boot time diagnostics screen, if you go into your bios you can disable it. You should then see the manufacturer`s logo again.

There`s no reason to tinker with msconfig, it has nothing to do with what you`re seeing.

Your comment about msconfig is puzzling as I was following post #2.

Also not dure how manufacturer's logo enters the thread.

 

[rundwald]

@UsernameIssues

It was the cmd exe item that I hadn't disabled, it being an MSoft item. Another incidental matter is that the boot tab reveals as in attachment one current and three old versions. Despite being deleted under advanced options the old ones come back on restarts

 

[gregrocker]

Highlight each listing shown above besides C and delete it there in the Boot tab.

You don't need the Intel Startup items unless you're overclocking or using other specialized settings found only the intel panels.

I would not use ZoneAlarm as we see nothing but problems with it here.

Uninstall ZoneAlarm and install Microsoft Security Essentials or Avast free with the Windows 7 firewall which is perfected in Win7.

 

[rundwald]

Got rid of Intel lines.

I installed ZA Av and Fw as Avast was apparently mucking things up,but that was when I was having lots of BSODs leading to clean install and new graphics card, and ZA Fw seemed to be the easiest to use and not intrusive like others. How does ZA cause problems as you have stated?

 

[gregrocker]

I have only seen it mentioned here causing problems, nothing else. The Windows firewall is perfected in Win7 so it seems unnecessary to replace it.

But if it works for you and you paid for it then keep it. Let us know how it goes.

 

[rundwald]

Free version, too mean for bought!

 

[UsernameIssues]

Just curious, what was the cmd prompt entry [was] doing?

If you still have the entry in msconfig, maybe you could expand the command column and see what else is on that line.