My Acer Aspire XC 603 desktop, running windows 8.1 won't open the desktop from the start menu.

NancyDianna

I am new to this community so if I should have chosen another category please let me know. My Acer Aspire XC 603 desktop, running windows 8.1 won't open the desktop from the start menu.  I can't open the task manager either. I have restarted it several ways, however I have to do a hard shutdown each time because it stalls in the loading mode. It boots up normally then once the start menu loads it won't load any of the tiles/charms and after clicking on that page a few times it completely freezes. Ctrl + Alt + Delete, will not bring up the task manager. Windows did an update a few days ago and this problem started yesterday when I booted it up, however it worked fine after I did a hard shutdown and tried again. Today the same problem occurred and after 3 hard shut downs it is stuck on the start menu. Thanks for your consideration and any help you can provide!

billsey

Yeah, your XC-603 is an Aspire desktop, not an All-In-One. I'll ask the moderator to move the thread for you. There were a few things that could give those symptoms in W8.1, though usually it was virus. What happen if you just let it sit in the start screen for a significant amount of time? It might just have a background task that's blocking Explorer from loading and once that task gets done it'll allow normal access. Failing that you might try booting in safe mode to see if the desktop will open there. If so we need to look at applications that run that aren't the ones in the base OS. Especially we need to run an antivirus scan with one of the scans that aren't in your normal antivirus, since it might have let something through.

billsey

Yeah, your XC-603 is an Aspire desktop, not an All-In-One. I'll ask the moderator to move the thread for you. There were a few things that could give those symptoms in W8.1, though usually it was virus. What happen if you just let it sit in the start screen for a significant amount of time? It might just have a background task that's blocking Explorer from loading and once that task gets done it'll allow normal access. Failing that you might try booting in safe mode to see if the desktop will open there. If so we need to look at applications that run that aren't the ones in the base OS. Especially we need to run an antivirus scan with one of the scans that aren't in your normal antivirus, since it might have let something through.

ttttt

Daer NancyDianna,

If the the problem happened after Windows update, how about reverting it back to the prior condition with Alt+F10.

NancyDianna

Billsey and ttttt, thanks for getting back to me. I did let it sit and after about an hour it unfroze. I use Kapersky and superantispyware, so I scanned everything, did a disk cleanup then used TFC by oldtimer before defragging, which seemed to fix the problem. Then we lost our internet for 2 weeks and when I was back online it seemed fine again.

Yesterday windows did another update and this morning the same thing happened. I have let it sit for the last hour and 20 minutes with no change. I will do the F10 fix suggested by ttttt, however that doesn't seem practicle for long term, as I understand that if I don't do the windows updates then things will really get messed up?

Billsey, I looked up instructions for booting up in safe mode, what antivirus scan would you suggest?  I'm wondering if this is windows way of forcing me to upgrade to windows 10, which I have also looked up and is very intimidating to me to do alone using the clear slate method and the other way sounds like it would create a host of problems.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

ttttt

@NancyDianna

Upgrading  to Windows 10 is a good idea. Personally, I hated Windows 8 and pretty happy with Win 10.

billsey

My go to for a scan is Malwarebytes Antimalware and after things are nice and clean I uninstall it... Otherwise it'll keep on running for the trial period and bug you about buying it. I use the stock Windows Defender on all my systems and it puts a smaller load on the system overall.