Windows XP Stuck at Welcome Screen after using ASC 5

[Armadillo]

I guys, new to the forums. I don't know what else to do except to post my problem here.

 

I was using ASC 5 to do a Deep Clean. Afterwards it says I need to reboot for the Registry Fix to do it's job.

 

Afterwards I proceeded to use Smart Defrag 2 and it finished it's task to defrag C:

 

Last thing I did was to use the iobit uninstaller to uninstall a Yahoo Toolbar and iTunes which then caused the first sign of the problem.

 

My "My Computer", "My Documents" and 2 other icons suddenly turned to generic icons (no name, and the icon looks like it failed to load) while my Recycling Bin lost it's name and became unusable (there are a few options when I right click but nothing to open it with).

 

After that I decided to restart to see if it would resolve my problem.

 

Then after booting, it just stays at the Welcome Screen forever. I can still move the mouse and use the Keyboard but that's about it.

 

Tried Load Last Configuration and Safe Mode, still stuck.

 

Alt+Tab shows me two programs "Log in to Windows" and "Windows login" while Alt+CTRL+Del isn't working.

 

Can someone here help me out? The last resort I was going to try was to use a Windows XP Bootable Disc to try and repair it.

[Melvin_Deal]

Tried Load Last Configuration and Safe Mode, still stuck.

 

You were unable to get into safe mode at all???

 

 

I suspect the culprit here was Iobit uninstaller by your description. Did you run the powerful scan? I suspect this thread is relevant here though it offers no solution at this time. http://forums.iobit.com/showthread.php?t=12172

 

Sincerely,

-Mel

Live long and prosper!

[Armadillo]

Thanks for the reply Melv.

 

Booting up in Safe Mode results in the same problem (stuck in the welcome screen for eternity).

 

Yes I performed a Powerful Scan when I uninstalled the Yahoo Toolbar, same with the iTunes uninstall.

 

Will check the thread you provided.

[Melvin_Deal]

I think your only hope other than re-format is if you are somehow able to get to the restore function. I am not fluent at all with XP. Perhaps Solbjerg, Toppack, WozofOz, or Enoskype can help you get there, as they are all adept with XP. Hopefully one of them will offer some guidance here!

 

Sincerely,

-Mel

Live long and prosper!

[Armadillo]

If I could only get past the welcome screen I would gladly use the system restore.

 

Thanks for your help anyways ;)

 

Hoping that someone could help me while I try other solutions.

[Melvin_Deal]

Please be patient Armadillo! I see that you are researching here on the forum, that is good. One of the ones I mentioned is here now... hopefully he has some input...

 

Some of these people live over one third of the way around the planet (time difference)! All are volunteers, same as I!

 

Sincerely,

 

-Mel

[Armadillo]

http://forums.iobit.com/showthread.php?t=12213

 

This sounds almost exactly like my current problem.

 

There is no "repair" option on when I use the Disc, as if my whole windows folders disappeared (autocheck.exe is missing as well).

 

It just jumps to the Partition Page as if there's no OS on my system yet when I load my system it still goes to the XP Welcome Screen (up to there only, stuck till eternity).

 

By any chance did ASC just delete my entire System32 folder?

[Melvin_Deal]

Damage done by Iobit uninstaller... Not ASC! Iobit Uninstaller is part of the Advanced SystemCare toolbox.

 

-Mel

[Armadillo]

ASC did a Registry Fix after a Reboot while I only deleted Yahoo! Toolbar and iTunes using the Uninstaller yet for some reason chunks of my OS disappeared rendering it "irreparable" by some standards since I've scouted every possible idea and the last resort didn't even work.

 

Is there no other work around for this?

 

I'm currently preparing a Live CD to recover my files and reformat if there is no other option.

[Lyon275]

Hi Armadillo , im sorry for your problem .

I had the same with iobit uninstaller but i could somehow bypass that screen and then i used system restore

Try to restart computer several times , that helped me .....

BTW. Iobit should fix this big problem

[Armadillo]

restarted a bunch of times already, still the same problem.

 

Trying to get inside using a Live CD so I can retrieve my files. My only worry is that it somehow deleted my entire My Documents Folder.

[Cicely]

Hi Armadillo,

 

We are very sorry for the trouble you encountered.

 

We reported this issue to our coders and they also think that the powerful scan of IObit Uninstaller caused this problem. They have improved the IObit Uninstaller and fixed this bug in IObit Uninstaller v2.1, which will be released soon with Advanced SystemCare v5.1.

 

At present, as you can not enter the welcome screen, the available solution may be reinstall the system. Hope it will not cause too many troubles to you. We are very sorry for all the inconvenience caused to you. Please accept our sincerest apologies.:oops:

[Armadillo]

Already retrieved my files using BartPE Live CD Solution.

 

Files are intact at the very least and managed to retrieve and reinstall my OS successfully.

 

Thanks to Melv for helping me get over this problem.

[Melvin_Deal]

Hi Armadillo!

 

You did the work! I did nothing!!!:-|

 

For the benefit of the future users who come to Iobit Forum, please elaborate and explain what you did!

 

I am happy that you have found the solution!!!!:grin:

 

 

Sincerely,

-Mel

Live long and prosper!

[Armadillo]

@Melvs: You confirmed my suspicions and helped me determine if there is no other way to solve this which there wasn't helping me to make up my mind in reformatting.

 

I used a BartPE Live Boot USB of XP to get inside my system and recover all my files without the need to remove the actual drive and place it on another PC as a slave drive to recover my files.

 

After that I just reformatted.

 

As for the underlying issue, I deleted the Yahoo! Toolbar and iTunes before the incident occurred so that might give the development team a little bit of idea on what really caused this.

[BCVolkert]

Same Sort of Symptoms -- Slightly different situation

 

I am using XP Pro, Avast, ASC 5 Pro, and Smart Defrag. All software is legitimate and Microsoft Update is active and current with all security patches installed. The only stuff we don't use are Windows Search, Windows Live, or anything Bing.

 

The PC would get to the Welcome Screen and allow the user to login using a password. It would get to the Desktop and then spontaneously reboot. Sometimes we could get to Safe Mode, sometimes Last Known Good Configuration. There was no apparent pattern to this. However, sometimes when we selected Safe Mode it would go to a Normal Restart anyway. We kept trying different combinations to get to a Safe Mode Restart. Then use System Restore to go back a few days. Sometimes it would take two cold boots (one right after the other) to get Safe Mode to start from a cold boot. Additionally, the System Restore and other parts of the boot cycle would take inordinatly long times - requiring patience.

 

After getting to Safe Mode or a Normal Mode via System Restore, uninstalling Smart Defrag seemed to get things functional again. However, any reinstallation of Smart Defrag or contact with Smart Defrag (even just via ASC), caused the PC to reboot and we needed to go through the System Restore or Safe Mode and uninstall Smart Defrag.

 

I reinstalled Smart Defrag from a fresh download from CNET and got the same problems during the installation. Uninstalling Smart Defrag resolved the problem again. Subsequently, I uninstalled ASC (even used Revo Uninstaller) and reinstalled that. No problem immediately after reinstalling ASC. However, using ASC Scan (not Scan and Repair) caused a reboot as soon as it got to the Defrag step.

 

Some of this has been done remotely (via LogMeIn), but when the spontaneous restart occurs, it requies a trip to the office and work directly on the PC to get it to boot far enough to uninstall Smart Defrag.

 

I have had major problems using ASC 5 if I Enable Deep Clean and check "ActiveX and Component". I get problems 100% of the time that I allow any High Risk deletion to occur.

 

ASC 4 and the earlier version of Smart Defrag (2.2?) were fine and robust. I could trust them. ASC 5 and Smart Defrag 2.3 have been a real disaster for me, a huge waste of time, and a near-death experience for all of my data. Ghost and MozyBackup are the only things that have saved personal and corporate data from total loss.

 

IOBIT needs to fix this stuff immediately and roll back the software that is out there until they do. This is a real problem for those of us out here who depend on our computers to manage our lives and that are essential for our businesses. This is absolutly serious and IOBIT needs to take action in a big way to stop the problem. To allow this to continue is amoral.

 

If you have had similar trouble, please take the time to post all the information you can on your problem. That effort should give IOBIT something to work with in resolving the problem, give other users a clue as to how to solve their problems, and warn new users to stay away until the issue is resolved.

[Toppack]

Try Windows-7!

You will Love it!

 

The latest versions of software produced now are designed to work with W-7 and W-8

and Not so much with Obsolite XP.

 

I know it may be Sad to Loose an Old-friend, but It's Time to Move-on.

[BCVolkert]

Windows 7 as a Solution to IOBit Problems

 

Well, Windows-7 could be a solution. The problem with that approach is that I have 5 computers and a variety of employees that would need to be trained. Say $700 for software, who knows how much time to sort out all the new Windows issues, angst among the employees, etc.

 

IOBit solves some trouble and seems to cause some trouble. Going to Windows 7 would cost me a bunch of money, a certain loss of productivity to install it on all those machines, and an ongoing demand for support during the transition.

 

If ASC and Smart Defrag are not compatible with XP Pro or require Windows-7, that really should be stated prominently.

 

In the end, I may need to lose an old friend. The big question is which friend (my old trusty Windows XP Pro with a legion of experienced users to help) or IOBit with all its impact on the rest of my world.

[Toppack]

Yes, I definitely understand what a Hassel the conversion can be.

We only upgraded one computer at a time on our network to reduce total confusion,

but that can cause problems also, since W-7 want's to set up a 'workgroup' type network, which is slightly different,

and all computers on the network need W-7 installed to do that.

 

With that many systems to upgrade, it might be better to wait for W-8 to be released?

But I think you will Need to do it sometime soon, even though it may be Painful.

 

But I can remember when I converted our network from Novell to Windows-2000.

Man, talking about *PAINFUL*! :cry:

I still have Mental-Scars from that one! :lol:

[Melvin_Deal]

Hi BCVolkert!

 

Your experience is most misfortunate! With so many different hardware and software configurations out there, Iobit tools still have a relatively low incidence of harmful interaction. It is of course always a bad thing when it happens to you! I am glad you have back ups. Have you ever considered using Macrium Reflect or Prodigy imaging softwares? They are very easy to use and offer excellent protection from disaster!

 

Just so you know... high risk items detected in the registry fix function are a high risk of damaging your system! If you don't know what an item is, un-tick it or place it in the ignore list so that it will not be picked up on subsequent scans.

 

I agree that some of the more powerful functions of ASC should come with more of a warning and that they install disabled by default!

 

The earlier versions of Iobit software are still available.

 

Some of the information in this thread is a bit dated but it still contains usefull information concerning Iobit products. Usage of Iobit Products

 

Sincerely,

-Mel

Live long and prosper!