Applying Personal Settings..

[Sheridan]

What is xp actually doing when its displaying 'Applying personal settings'?

 

Is it getting GPOs, writing the user profile to Documents and Settings or something else?

 

We have problems where machines hang at this point, or take a very long time to login every so often. Random times, random logins and random machines.

 

I'm just trying to work out what the steps are during this phase so I can diagnose it further. I've enabled verbose logging but it doesn't tell me anything more.

[X-13]

I had a similar problem.

 

If you have a XP disk try opening cmd [CTRL+ALT+DEL while it's on that personal settings screen] and running cmd.

 

Once that's open use "sfc /scannow" It'll check against the disk and replace corrupt files.

 

That worked for me.

[Domino]

Or see if it is a rogue GPO or similar by enabling Verbose logging: How to enable verbose startup, shutdown, logon, and logoff status Messages in the Windows Server 2003 family

[CHR1S]

Sheridan, do you run Policy Central?

[Sheridan]

CTRL+ALT+DEL does nothing at this point. Verbose logging simply goes through the messages and stops at the same 'Applying personal settings'

 

There are several GPOs, but they apply everywhere - the 'hanging' seems completely random. The gpos applied contain the usual folder redirection, system settings and Office/application settings.

[CHR1S]

Just going through this same issue myself...

 

1) As before, do you use policy central?

2) Can you run dcdiag /test:dns on your DNS servers and post the results.

 

There are a few more steps but lets do these first.

[Sheridan]

No, not running Policy Central - just bog standard 2003 domain. Dcdiag and gpotest don't throw up any errors either. Reboot the PC/laptop and it more often that not will login as normal.

 

Once its hung, it stays like that. No GPO timeout and no hard drive activity once its stopped.

[elsiegee40]

What is xp actually doing when its displaying 'Applying personal settings'?...

 

Corrupting the user's profile if it goes on for any length of time

[CHR1S]

ok,

 

1) Drill down to %windir%\Debug\usermode and post the contents of userenv.log

2) Same for %windir%\debug and post netlogon.log (this may need turning on in the registry - Enabling debug logging for the Net Logon service)

Edited January 27, 2011 by CHR1S
typo

[Gibbo]

I'd also suggest checking the log. Its not the IE "20 second delay" is it?

[Sheridan]

I'll set up a test rig and enable all debugging! I don't think its the IE delay as we rolled out the patch for that some time ago (nearly everything is SP3 here anyway)

[soulsketcher]

-run the winxp setup disk. when it asks you to "install" or "repair" , pick repair. then pick "c:\windows as the directory you want to fix. when it shows c:\windows, then type in "fixmbr" and it will ask if you are sure. type "y" for yes and hit enter. It will tell you that mbr has been repaired. reboot and you shouldn't have the "loading personal settings" hanging up on you.

-we started having this happen to various pc's throughout our organization and figured out that our virus program, "symantec endpoint 11" was corrupting the mbr after a certain number of reboots. (we are a library). this has worked every time.

[MaXiM]

check your login scripts... make sure a script isn't waiting for some kind of input from the user... and thus hanging until the GPO timeout value kicks in...

 

also.. check DNS.. that can be a culprit too.

 

Once you get into the PC check the event viewer... I will be surprised if nothing with a red cross has appeared.

 

disable caching on the profiles folder on the server

 

enable roaming profiles and allow the profile to remain on the PC and don't clear them out every day.... This will speed up login times.

 

I have fought with these issues for many years.

Edited February 14, 2011 by MaXiM