Win 7 freezes on "Preparing your desktop"

[julzx94]

So, today I turn on my laptop, enter my password to log in, and it hangs on "Preparing your desktop." So I restart a few times, the same thing happens each time, it either freezes on "Preparing your desktop", or halfway through the fade-in transition from the login screen to the desktop. So I let it sit for a while, come back 30 minutes later and it's still frozen. During the whole time, the laptop runs as if it were fine, not as if it was working hard or anything.

So I try booting into Safe Mode, and it works just fine. While in safe mode I ran sfc /scannow, and when it finished it said that the problem had been fixed and that changes would take effect upon the next restart. I reboot normally, same problem. I ran chkdsk in Safe Mode, it returned no errors. I re-enabled the default Administrator account to see if I could log in to that account on a normal boot; didn't work, hung at the same spot.

After that I tried a system restore. Apparently at 2 AM this morning, Windows Update performed a critical update, so I picked the restore point right before that update. I let the system restore do its thing, but the problem still persists. I'm out of ideas. Please help!

Edit// I'm running Windows 7 x64 Ultimate on a Gateway T-6836 laptop.

 

[richc46]

Follow this closely, and you should be ok.
How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

If this does not work at all, it is probably a driver problem, which we can talk about.

 

[Dinesh]

Since you can boot in safe mpde, open msconfig and disable all startup items and then restart the PC in normal mode.

Edit: I see Rich was faster.

 

[julzx94]

Thanks to both of you for the lightning-fast responses. I'll post again after trying a clean boot.

 

[richc46]

Both our posts are bascially the same, with a different approach.

 

[julzx94]

Okay, so I Step 1 of the troubleshooting guide and was able to boot in normal mode just fine. The services that I disabled were:
Apple Mobile Device
Bonjour Service
BootRacerServ
iPod Service
Logitech Bluetooth Service

The startup items disabled were too many to list here

So now I just troubleshoot and try to find which service or startup item is causing the problem?

 

[richc46]

Yes, this is as good as solved. Put them back a few at a time,;when you find the problem, you will be all set.

 

[Jacee]

Let's see what's running at start up. Download HJT from HijackThis - Trend Micro USA

Right click and run as Administrator.
Generate a startup list log:
Go into the Config option when you start HijackThis and then click on the Misc Tools button at the top. Click on the button labeled "Generate StartupList Log". The program will automatically open up a notepad filled with the Startup items from your computer. Copy and paste these entries in your next post.

 

[julzx94]

Thanks Jacee, but Rich's method is working for me so far. I've isolated the problematic startup item: it's Synaptics Pointing Device Driver, located at C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe, otherwise known as the thing that makes my laptop's touchpad features (such as scrolling) work properly. So, what do I do now? I need SynTPEnh.exe to work.

 

[richc46]

I hope that we have this licked

First scan with your antivirus

Download and run malwarebytes.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

If these are negative go to the website of the touchpad mfg
and install a new driver
: Synaptics Pointing Device Driver
Description: Synaptics TouchPad Enhancements
Company: Synaptics, Inc.

A virus or malware may be hiding in the driver, which caused it to malfunction or it could be routine corruption. Make sure

 

[julzx94]

Ok, mbam showed no infections. I downloaded the driver from Synaptic's site, uninstalled the old on, installed the new one. My touchpad works great, but now I'm experiencing crazy random CPU spikes. Chrome, which is usually very snappy, lags hard or completely freezes up when trying to load a page with lots of images or flash objects. Upon trying to open iTunes, the entire computer freezes and I have to force a reboot. I haven't been able to identify what is causing the spikes, because when they happen, I can't navigate to Task Manager before it completely locks up. Everything is dandy when in safe mode though. My CPU usage is 2% as I type this from Safe Mode.

 

[richc46]

Does it work in safe mode,now? If I dont get back right away, will as soon as I am back on.

 

[julzx94]

It's okay, I'm about to call it a night anyways. Coincidentally, it just locked up for the first time while in Safe Mode. It happened when I started the Resource Monitor.

 

[richc46]

So

You had a problem, identified as a driver
We uninstall and install new. Seems to be a problem with the new installation

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/83814-drivers-clean-left-over-files-after-uninstalling.html

If the problem still continues, try the clean boot again.