[Ste]

Hi, I've been having some trouble recently after booting up.
The start menu shows but no other program titles or icon links respond, neither does task manager or right click menus. The only thing that is available is to shut down.
This was happening occasionally but today it took three boot ups before it acted normally. Any suggestions? (Win7 64bit Ultimate)Thanks.
Steve.

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How does it behave if you boot to Safe Mode with Networking? If better then something is starting at boot that is causing the problem.

Advanced startup options - XP
Advanced startup options - Vista
Advanced startup options - Windows 7

Use msconfig to determine what is causing the problem

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP, Vista or Windows 7:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista
How to use msconfig in Windows 7

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see if it runs better.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system. Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.

[Ztruker]

How does it behave if you boot to Safe Mode with Networking? If better then something is starting at boot that is causing the problem.

Advanced startup options - XP
Advanced startup options - Vista
Advanced startup options - Windows 7

Use msconfig to determine what is causing the problem

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP, Vista or Windows 7:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista
How to use msconfig in Windows 7

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see if it runs better.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system. Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.

[Ste]

Hi, I'm really grateful for your comprehensive explanation and links to help with this problem.

I have to apologise as I've been a bit impatient with this. I realised I had a clone of the drive which I copied a about a month earlier before the problem started.

Replacing the old drive with this has obviously solved the problem but I have copied the information you have given me in case this happens again, plus I need to reinstall programs I didn't have on the drive at the time of cloning so it may become clear if one of those is the culprit.

Unfortunately I can't put the problem drive back in order to check it out as prescribed as I've played safe and re-cloned the good drive to it as backup.
I am sure your advice with come in useful at some point so thanks again.

Steve.

[Ztruker]

Any fix is a good fix

I'm glad you had a backup, most people don't.