Windows stuck on welcome screen

[10JH]

Hey guys, I need some help!

When I start my computer it gets stuck at the welcome screen, then after about 2 mins displays the wallpaper but then I can't do anything. The mouse moves but I can't click or anything, ctrl-alt-delete doesn't do anything either.

I haven't done anything to it recently, I use it daily for work but have been away this week. Came back and it's broke. No one else has used it.

I googled for solutions and have tried what I can. I haven't got the XP cd though and haven't a clue where it is.

I can't work out how to start it in safe mode either. Pressing F8 takes me to the boot menu where I can select which Hard drive to boot from, both don't work when I start with them.

Any ideas? If I can't sort it out then I'm screwed for tomorrow and will have to resort to PC world or whatever for help!

[sunbeam_alpine]

You're pressing F8 too soon. Wait a bit longer to press, and you'll get the startup menu.

[10JH]

I've tried that. I must have tried at least 10 times pressing F8 at different stages! It seems to be a Mesh computer thing that it is very hard (if not impossible) to enter the usual safe mode options.

[Frederick]

Restart it, and the absolute split second the BIOS screen dissapears, hammer F8 like there's no tomorrow and you should be able to get into the boot menu no probs

[10JH]

Wow, I got to safe mode. Cheers Frederick! I had to hammer at it for about 30 seconds before it did anything!

Not that I've got there any ideas on how to fix it? I checked hardware using device manager and it this appears twice and both have a yellow exclamation mark:

HID Non-User Input Data Filter (KB 911895)

I tried roll-back of driver but it says not driver files backed up. Tried update driver but it wants me to feed it a cd!

Any other ideas on what to look for? Thanks again!

[Frederick]

I've googled KB911895 and it seems like it's a pretty well known problem but it's more related to it not installing or nuking wireless adapters than preventing the comp from starting up.

Might be worth deleting the two instances of it with the exclamation mark and trying to start windows again in normal mode?

There's also what is put in this link to try, might be worth a shot?

Edited by Frederick on Sunday 21st March 18:33

[10JH]

I tried de-enabling them but still the same problem. It seems no one else has had the same problem as me regarding not loading properly and also having the KB91etc problem. Seems it might be an unrelated thing.

[10JH]

I managed to solve it!

Through the safe mode screen I selected 'Windows debugging mode' and it sorted it! No idea what caused the problem initially but it's working fine now!

Cheers for the help Frederick. Your 'hammering' advice solved what I couldn't work out even after 2 hours of google research. Thanks again!

[Frederick]

No prob at all Glad you've fixed it!!

[Man-At-Arms]

Frederick said:

hammer F8 like there's no tomorrow

it's been like this for years

why can't MS have a phrase that appears :
thank-you for pressing f8, for system menu
or thank-you for pressing f6, for RAID menu

how difficult could it be? at least it saves us breaking a finger on the keyboard