Windows Vista hangs after login while docked

[RJ 0]

Ok I got one for ya.

 

I have a DELL Latitude D620 running Windows Vista Business Edition. Everything has been working excellent however a few days ago the thing started acting up. Here's my issue below:

 

1) Dell Latitude locked into Docking station

2) PC BOOTS - no problem

2) I'm presented with Login screen - no problem3

4) I login - no problem

5) Vista Hangs (showing the Welcome screen and the animated blue circle cursor) - problem

6) After 5 minutes the screen turns black and continues to hang..... - problem

 

If I turn off the power and boot up, it comes up no problem. It's also ok if I boot up undocked then dock it. No issues.

 

Anyone?

 

RJ

[Steve 1,655]

Ok I got one for ya.

 

I have a DELL Latitude D620 running Windows Vista Business Edition. Everything has been working excellent however a few days ago the thing started acting up. Here's my issue below:

 

5) Vista Hangs (showing the Welcome screen and the animated blue circle cursor) - problem

6) After 5 minutes the screen turns black and continues to hang..... - problem

 

If I turn off the power and boot up, it comes up no problem. It's also ok if I boot up undocked then dock it. No issues.

 

RJ

 

Hi RJ,

 

1: First thing first, looking at the time of post it appears you started to have the issue after patch Tuesday (Aug 14th). There were 9 updates released (MS07-042 - MS07-050) so it was a BIG month. One of those patches could be your issue however it's hard to say. My recommendation would be to remain undocked, fully boot into Vista and then do a full shutdown. This will ensure all the new Windows Updates get fully installed without any change to the system profile (Docked vs. Undocked). I've seen this problem before in VISTA. The patch process works slightly different and more touchy...... in VISTA than it did with XP

 

2: From the behavior you laid out, it could also be a problem with the network interface in the docking station. Either swap out the docking station (if your IT guy has a spare) or, perhaps an easier method just dock your laptop, go into network connections (Click Windows START button, Right-Click NETWORK, Click PROPERTIES, Click MANAGE NETWORK CONNECTIONS) and disable the docking station network interface (Right-Click Network Interface, Click Disable. Almost all Dell Latitude D620 laptops have a built-in WiFI so when you reboot your box, it should boot and login to the network using your WiFI network interface. This should allow you to narrow down the culprit. If it works, it's your Docking Station, if not.... We keep looking.

 

Let us know!

[RJ 0]

 

1: First thing first, looking at the time of post it appears you started to have the issue after patch Tuesday (Aug 14th). There were 9 updates released (MS07-042 - MS07-050) so it was a BIG month. One of those patches could be your issue however it's hard to say. My recommendation would be to remain undocked, fully boot into Vista and then do a full shutdown. This will ensure all the new Windows Updates get fully installed without any change to the system profile (Docked vs. Undocked). I've seen this problem before in VISTA. The patch process works slightly different and more touchy...... in VISTA than it did with XP

 

Let us know!

 

Thanks for the tip. You were correct in that YES, the problem did start after the Aug. security updates. What I failed to mention (but you caught it anyway) was that I had never done a full shutdown undocked after the patches were installed. Essentially I would boot up (undocked), dock, work all day, do a shutdown. After reading your email I recalled that each time I did this process Vista would say "configuring updates" when I did a shutdown. So it looks like I was just caught in a LOOP of some sort. After following your suggestion above everything is working.

 

So, here's how I fixed it. I undocked the laptop, boot-up. Logged in, shutdown and boot up again. After that it looks like all the windows updates were installed and now I can boot up without an issue in the docking station.

 

RJ

[Steve 1,655]

Well that was easy......

 

Glad to see it worked out!