windows XP login problem - blank screen

Question

I have windows XP SP3 on this machine. All of a sudden, it has developed this problem:

1. Most of the time, after the "windows is starting" logo, nothing comes up. Just a blank, blue screen. Even after waiting for long nothing changes.

2. Occasionally, the press "Ctrl+Alt+Delete" to login prompt comes. And on entering the login/pass, again blank blue screen comes up.

The exact problem is similar to what is described here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318027

I tried safe mode with networking, it starts and logs in fine. But then, following issues:

1. I have norton anti-virus. But it doesn't load automatically in the safe mode (don't know if its supposed to). On starting manual full scan, it just hangs.

2. I tried Method 3 in the link. (1 / 2 are not very applicable to me). Here, when I end the explorer.exe process, it does not automatically restart. However, the link does not say what to do in that case!

Any help would be appreciated. In particular:

1. Is there a way I can find and resolve the issue with the antivirus scan

2. Is the problem with explorer.exe? If so, how to solve it?

3. Any other suggestions!

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STATUS:

I tried various things as suggested in answers. So now status is:

1) In safe mode: Norton Antivirus (I have full version) hangs. Everything else appears to be fine in safe mode.

2) Installed free Avast anti-virus and did a full scan. No threats found.

3) In normal mode, I am basically not even getting to the login prompt. After the initial windows logo and progress bar, screen goes blank. This is after disabling all non-MS services and startup programs, and restoring to a date a long while before the problem started.

Solution

I would try this, which is similar to what MS recommended in the link but goes a little farther (and takes a bit longer):

go into msconfig (windows key + r then type msconfig)

go into both startup and services and uncheck everything not made by microsoft.

reboot

If it loads like normal, start adding stuff back in. If it fails to load after enabling a particular service, this should tell you what the problem is.

Comments

[Shekhar]

what happens when you manually start explorer.exe after killing it ?

[tanon]

It does restart (earlier i didn't know how to do it).

[tanon]

Thanks. I did system restore to a date well before the last time it booted fine. Did not fix anything :(

[tanon]

Thanks. I tried this. Disabled all non-MS services and also all startup programs. Did not help :(

[Blomkvist]

That's bizarre if it will load in safe mode fine, but not in selective start up with all non-essentials disabled. That sounds more like malware or a driver conflict, but given that the issue has just recently developed the latter seems unlikely.

[tanon]

thanks for the comment... yes, I think so its a malware too...but I installed Avast free anti virus (as my noton is just hanging..) and did a full scan... no threat found...