Addendum.. one thing I did note when I clicked on one of the links above was that someone was having a problem with their HP printer. Well, mine has USB ports for camera cards and my computer stopped recognizing my card reader quite some time ago. This rang a bell, so unplugged HP printer from computer and plugged in camera card reader. For a brief while it DID show up so there IS a connection (or conflict) between my printers card slots and the computer. Must piddle around with this some more!

My problem had to do with the batch of updates on 10/15/09. When rebooting, I get the welcome screen, an hourglass, then a blank blue screen and it takes a full 8 minutes before the start/task bar and desktop icons show up. It would not allow a system restore. After that it works fine.
I have tried everything I could find online to fix this.
As I told someone else, I don't feel like spending a couple hours on the phone with a Microsoft tech. that probably doesn't speak English!
This had nothing to do with "interface between the chair and the keyboard".. this had to do with Microsofts auto updates, which I now have set to NOT allow that anymore!

lol...

agree with you, Graylox...

i've caused quite a few myself...

: )

Thanks Violet, it's interesting (and entertaining) to read the user comments, especially :

...just feels abit like alot of these issues are more to do with the interface between the chair and the keyboard...

Prevx apologizes to MS, says malware is to blame:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/183551/Security_Firm_Retracts_Black_Screen_Claims_Apologizes_to_Microsoft.html?tk=rss_news

http://www.prevx.com/blog/141/Windows-Black-Screen-Root-Cause.html

I found this the other day:

Prevx offers a free fix for Windows Black Screen

This black-screen-of-death is one of the few bugs my system doesn't annoy me with, so I didn't try the fix.

http://pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/pcw.nsf/feature/7783156C7397FD72CC25768000001E6F

Microsoft denies blame for 'black screens of death'
The windows patches which seem common to the issue arising are KB915597 and KB976098."

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2254291/microsoft-shoots-black-screen
*
Microsoft today denied that its November Windows updates are causing a widespread "black screen" lock-out of users' PCs.

Wow. That was quick. Good news.

Thanks to Prevx support.
I received a brand new serial number plus login data for the customer support area.

This giveaway has been deactivated after the latest update.
It´s the third update i think.
Retyping the serial number worked the last two updates.

After this update none of the serials works anymore.
I get an error message that all free activations have been taken.

Please fix this error or repost the giveaway with new serials.

I also could try to downgrade. I saved the update files. But i don´t think this will help.

Downgrade didn´t work and the original giveaway installer didn´t work either.
The error message is still the same.

Please fix the licences or repost the giveaway with new and working serials.

oh! got it. thanks! *wink wink, nudge nudge* ^-^

All of the keys were provided with the original giveaway on 7/5. We cannot give you one now.

If you had the original giveaway - there were 10 different keys listed in the readme.txt

what keys? can you give me one?

Weird, I installed it about 40 minutes ago 10:08 gmt and registered it with the serial at the bottom of all the serials given, it activated fine and said I have 290 days left.

I suggest downloading it from their website and reinstalling it.

It works with the keys provided by GAOTD.

previously offered on 7/5

this was a great one. tonight it tried to autoupdate but died for some reason at the last minute, the install and reg key was nuked. please, please, consider reoffering it for those like me and those who did not get a chance to install it.

If all else fails, read destructions! ;) Boy aren't we a bunch of tech wiz's? Glad you got the answer dkn0101 and solved the problem.

@ jaygor:

Sounds like you may need to reinstall and then follow dkn0101's lead to rid yourself of it once and for all. Good luck!

oh and the pxagent process would not die though I tried to kill it many times

Most of the above information didn't work for me but the overall solution is ridiculously easy the following is quoted from prevx........

"Uninstall Procedure

Firstly: DO NOT MANUALLY DELETE FILES, ESPECIALLY FILES IN THE WINDOWS FOLDER

To uninstall, you need to shutdown Prevx2.0 using the System Tray icon menu. Right click this and select Shutdown. This will drop the protection policies from the driver and shutdown the PXAGENT and PXCONSOLE processes".

Then uninstall... If its not running just turn prevx2 on and then shut it down (absolute madness if you ask me)

My problem was that I had disabled it in startup and disabled the services yet pxagent.exe insisted on running. Turning on the programme and shutting it down removed pxagent.exe so you were free to uninstall

It's a possibility, but I strongly doubt anything would have wanted to change Foobar2000's configuration file (It's in %AppData%, by the way.). This is why I'm certain System Restore did it, though I'm baffled as to why it restored to such an ancient copy - that's all.

Stranger things have happened with MS Windows.

Your just hell-bent on chasing me around and exploiting my flaws aren't you. LOL... ;)

Windows and related software don't always play well with one another and this is likely what caused your config loss; considering you probably installed more apps since last you knew the settings were to your liking.

It's a possibility, but I strongly doubt anything would have wanted to change Foobar2000's configuration file (It's in %AppData%, by the way.). This is why I'm certain System Restore did it, though I'm baffled as to why it restored to such an ancient copy - that's all. Really, the most annoying portion of it was the list display (heavily customizable) that I lost... the rest of it is fairly easy to set up.

Every now and then you should remove old previous restore points to save hdd space.

I don't bother. It automatically deletes old ones after a certain period of time, though I forget what time span that is.

Btw - your welcome. :)

What about my welcome? .. Oh, you mean "you're"... </tease> ;>

Defragging can't possibly do that - they're copies of the files. Defrag just moves them around.

Let me clarify what I tried to say, which doesn't always come across as intended when one is tired at zero-dark-thirty. ;)

Defrag itself can't, your right. System restore can only restore what hasn't been deleted from the hdd. It can't restore anything that has been manually deleted or removed after the fact; restore point or not (from above post). Defrag will remove/overwrite these areas because it sees them as empty spaces on the hdd. First I assumed this was a recent event you experienced. That said, I also assumed the possibility that since you stated only using system restore a couple times that you may have forgotten to set a current restore point prior to reverting back. If that was the case, all settings/config's would've been lost that incurred after the last restore point which you reverted too. That was my point though it didn't come across that way.

Many times depending on what I've done since the last restore point, I'll set a new restore point before defragging as a safe guard. Windows and related software don't always play well with one another and this is likely what caused your config loss; considering you probably installed more apps since last you knew the settings were to your liking. It's just the nature of the beast and poor or conflicting software programming by some. Glad to hear you've got the settings close too, if not totally the way you had/like them for your audio player.

Reverting restore points back and forth is a good trick to recover certain things such as settings configurations and such amongst other things. Just always remember to "set a current restore point before hand" so you don't lose current settings/config's. Reverting to a previous restore point also restores the settings in place at-that-point and for some unknown reason to me when reversing the operation, the old settings of some apps seem to overwrite the current ones. This has only happened to me twice, but be aware of the possibility. System restore is a God-send for windows and is the best idea MS has had to date for their OS's shenanigans. It can be played to ones advantage to recover some things like recovery of settings configurations etc.; such as you might have been able to do for your audio player config if it hadn't been such a long time since this happened. Your right - going back too far can really make a mess of things. Every now and then you should remove old previous restore points to save hdd space.

Btw - your welcome. :)

Defragging can't possibly do that - they're copies of the files. Defrag just moves them around.
Anyway, what I was saying was that the config file was in the state that it was for a long, long time, and I'd only restored to a point from a few days ago. It's been a while since this happened, though, so there's no restoring it now - I'd only make things much worse ;> At any rate, I managed to set most of the stuff back to the way it was - I had a copy on my laptop of (more or less) the same settings, so it wasn't too hard to grab the essentials and manually set the rest.
That's a nice trick, though, and I'll have to remember it in case it happens again ;>
Thanks.

I can only assume that was the settings file in place at the time you created the restore point. When you restored to that point, all settings and configuations etc. that existed at the moment you created that particular restore point were restored. Defragmenting after the fact can remove/overwrite areas/files and that may be what happened to your settings file. You might try to restore back to that point (if it hasn't been too long) and see if you can copy or document the settings/configuration file. Then reverse the restore process/operation and paste or retype/reconfigure your 'audio player' settings.

Don't forget to 'set a new restore point' before doing this so you can return to the current state of your system or you'll lose any settings and configuations since the last restore point was created. ;)

Wish I'd known that before! I don't think I can get it back now. Oh well... Either way, I think System Restore did fix my problem, so I figured it was a, well, acceptable loss (though I have no idea why that settings file got restored - it had been like that for a long time!).

Agreed for someone versed with editing the registry.

I've had a very good experience with TweakNow-RegCleaner-Standard for the last two years. Very user friendly UI, results color coded for removal (grn = OK to delete; ylw = caution, look and review; blu = unknown, don't delete unless you know what it's for). UnLocker speaks for itself and also is very intuitive IMHO.

I dunno about System Restore's efficiency - I've only had to use it once or twice, and the latest time it wiped my settings file for my audio player (or restored it to an older one, at any rate). -_-;

Yha..., any settings or installs after a restore point will be lost if you restore to an earlier reference restore point. They're still there and can be regained by reversing the restore operation.

Oh, all true. I don't question the usage of such programs :> I'm just saying that it's not so bad to do it yourself.
Reg cleaners are nice, but I've had a few give me dubious results. I don't remember which one I last used, but it was claiming some keys were empty when they weren't.

I dunno about System Restore's efficiency - I've only had to use it once or twice, and the latest time it wiped my settings file for my audio player (or restored it to an older one, at any rate). -_-;

Keilaron said:

It's true, though, that you should avoid killing processes if you can, because anything that's in due might become corrupted or unusable.
_____
Also, the registry being some amazing ticking bomb is one hell of a myth. Yes, you can seriously screw up your system if you don't know what you're doing, but as long as you don't go around touching things you don't know, you'll be fine.
_____
Just read what you're doing instead of blindly executing advice - which should sound similar to 'don't run that EXE attachment' - and use common sense.

I agree with what you've had to say here Keilaron, but like anything, practice makes perfect. For the uninitiated it makes more sense to try these tools such as Unlocker _(link above) along with a good reg cleaner after-the-fact. This way you've got most of the program removed and there'll be nothing for the reg key(s) to find. Then remove the keys with a good reg cleaner like TweakNow-RegCleaner-Standard_(free version) which has worked well for me. Annnnnnnnnd... by ALL means ask around for advice as you stated.

BTW - I question 'System Restores' ability to restore all keys because I've had problems in the past with deleted keys not being restored through it's use. System restore can only restore what hasn't been deleted from the hdd. It can't restore anything that has been manually deleted or removed after the fact.

Actually, killing explorer is usually not so bad in Windows XP; It's killing the services (lsass, svchost, etc.) that can bring down the system and cause data loss. By the way, you can easily bring explorer back (if it doesn't re-run itself after a crash or such) easily by bringing up the task manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, and also on some systems the usual C+A+D) and run explorer.exe. It's true, though, that you should avoid killing processes if you can, because anything that's in due might become uncorrupted or unusable. I remember having to nuke Nero in the past, and I had to reboot to "get my CD burner back", so to speak.

As for using the command-line/registry, that's why I asked if he still had a problem. I could post the details on how to do this, and usually involves little risk if you're paying attention - which is about the same as saying "Well, as long as you don't click delete by accident instead of properties on your Windows folder...".
Also, the registry being some amazing ticking bomb is one hell of a myth. Yes, you can seriously screw up your system if you don't know what you're doing, but as long as you don't go around touching things you don't know, you'll be fine. Even then, system restore does undo changes to the registry.
Just read what you're doing instead of blindly executing advice - which should sound similar to 'don't run that EXE attachment' - and use common sense. For example, it makes sense to add the environment variable devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices to your System Properties if you want to be able to view all your past hardware devices, but it really makes no sense if, while looking for a way to un-install malware, someone tells you to add CrashOnCtrlScroll and press CTRL and Scroll-lock twice.
Of course, you could always ask someone else (like me :D) for a second opinion before doing something like that.

Quoting maz:

If you can't delete the folder, try deleting the individual files, then the empty folder.

Good advice I forgot to mention. I've used Unlocker to delete individual files within a folder one by one many times to get to the one that has the others locked, and finally deleting the empty folder. Unlocker will show you which files/processes etc. are hooked to the individual file. Keep working (unlocking) each file within the target folder until all are unlocked and then delete the empty target folder / directory.

Be very careful with the 'Kill' feature in either Unlocker or Windows task-manager. Killing processes can corrupt them and in the case of explorer, can cause loss of it's system service all together resulting in a reboot as well as possible corruption. The 'Kill' function/feature is equivalent to pulling the PC plug for a hard shutdown, doesn't allow the state (active app and related services) to save itself and can result in data corruption. If not careful with the 'Kill', you may end up re-installing applications or worse, the entire OS.

@ Keilaron:

That would be nice but not all of us have the skills or knowledge to perform those tasks/processes. Setting registry keys is a dangerous area for most folks that know how, let alone those of us that don't. A large majority of mistakes can be fixed by reinstalling the broken app etc.; worst case scenario usually with a non-destructive OS reinstall. If one mucks up the registry, more than likely the system is toast and will generally require a complete reinstallation of everything from scratch.

@ Archangel: Your welcome. Priceless little tool to have. ;)

If I get this problem, I usually use the command-line. If that doesn't work, I set a registry key that will delete the offending file/directory on start-up, and then forget about it. :>
jaygor, still having a problem?