Roger Hunen

Hi,

I have a weird problem: after I logon to Windows XP Pro I have to press
Alt+Ctrl+Del another time for the logon to complete.

I run Windows XP in Windows classic mode. To logon I press Alt+Ctrl+Del
and then enter my username and password. The logon dialog now disappears
but after 2-3 seconds there is no more disk activity and the logon seems to
hang. I then have to press Alt+Ctrl+Del again to make the logon process
continue (pressing any other key has no effect). Now the logon continues as
usual ("Loading your settings", etc.) and the desktop appears. From that
point onwards the systems functions normally.
As far as I can tell the problem happens only at the first logon after a reboot.
I have not observerd the problem after logging off and logging on again. The
problem does not occurr after every reboot (though it usually does).

I first observed the problem in late april. A few days before I had installed
the april updates via Microsoft Update (I don't use automatic updates as I
first want to review the updates before installing).

The day I first observed the problem I had replaced AVG Anti-Virus 7.5
by AVG 8.0. I first thought that AVG 8.0 was causing the problem. I
then uninstalled AVG 8.0. The problem did not go away though. It is of
course possible that the AVG 8.0 install screwed up something that was
not corrected during the uninstall.
I think I should notice that I first tries to do an upgrade install from AVG
7.5 to 8.0. This failed. I then removed AVG 7.5 manually and installed
AVG 8.0 successfully.

A few days later Microsoft released SP3, which I then installed. This did
not solve the problem, but it also did not cause any new problems (to be
honest: I am very happy with SP3 :-)).

My current system configuration is Windows XP Pro SP3 with all latest
updates (including the optionals) on a 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 system with
3 GB of RAM and hyperthreading enabled.
Unfortunately I have no usable system restore points before the problem
first occurred, so a system restore is not an option.

I have checked the system for for viruses, root kits and other malware, but
found nothing.

Any pointers are greatly appreciated. I bet that, once understood, it will
be something very simple...

Regards,
-Roger
--
E-mail: rhunen@xs4all.nl
Home: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rhunen
ADSL: http://adsl.hunen.net