MSCONFIG Boot - Stuck in Safe Mode or Selective Startup

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Kmye - 14 Apr 2008 21:20 GMT

This has not been a week that's made me much enamored of Vista.

In order to troubleshoot my parents' Vista PC after their wireless
mouse/keyboard suddenly stopped working after 4/9's automatic updates, I had
to a do a system restore from Safe Mode. Their corded USB keyboard we got to
work (along with a PS2 mouse) to do the fixing wouldn't work using the
F8-method to get into Safe Mode, so I had use MSCONFIG to force a safe mode
boot.

The system restore worked, and I've disabled automatic updates until MS
comes out with a fix for the apparently widespread original problem, but now
I'm stuck with a very frustrating situation.

My parents' computer will only boot up into Selective Startup (which leaves
some important things such as graphics drivers unloaded) or into Safe Mode.
Within MSCONFIG, when I choose "Normal Startup", it automatically checks the
"Safe Mode" Box in the boot tap, and when I uncheck that box, it
automatically selects "Selective Start" on the previous tab. (I've tried
hitting apply on each of the tabs, but it doesn't help).

I've found a few other threads with this same problem across the web, but
never found a solution. Can anyone help?

Thanks very much.

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SG - 15 Apr 2008 02:29 GMT

Hi,

Don't know if this will help you but worth a shot. Try running Msconfig in
Administrator Mode and make your changes. Click Start, at the bottom of the
menu you will see Start Search, in that box type Msconfig, at the top you
will see it appear. Right click Msconfig and select Run as Administrator.

If this don't work you can try AutoRuns
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cb56073f-62a3-4ed8-9dd6-40c84cb9
e2f5.aspx
It's far superior to Msconfig, but you need to run it as Administrator as
well. When it opens click the Logon tab.

Signature

All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/

> This has not been a week that's made me much enamored of Vista.
>
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
>
> Thanks very much.

Reply to this Message

Kmye - 16 Apr 2008 08:05 GMT

Hi SG,

Thanks very much for the reply. I took your suggestion along with one from
here (
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/703740-solved-msconfig-stuck-safe-mode.html
) to check the "Make All Boot Settings Permanent" box in the boot tab and
press apply.

Unfortunately, I was impatient, and did both at the same time, so I don't
know if only one, or both work to solve the problem, or if both are
necessary; in any case, something worked and everything's booting properly
now. As a note to anyone else who runs into this problem, I had to reselect
the Aero Appearance manually the first time once everything had booted up
normally.

Thanks again for the successful help!

Vista MSCONFIG Normal Startup Stuck Safe Mode Selective Startup Troubleshoot
Tech Support Help Problem Solution Fix Fixed

Reply to this Message

SG - 16 Apr 2008 08:42 GMT

Hi,

Well if would have been nice to know which one worked, but what really
matters is you got it fixed. I'll keep the link you provided and pass it
along next time as well. Thanks for posting back and that link.

Signature

All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/

> Hi SG,
>
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> Troubleshoot
> Tech Support Help Problem Solution Fix Fixed

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tommygun - 29 Jun 2008 20:40 GMT

Hi.

I have a similar problem.

The selective startup can't be reversed to normal startup.

Nothing is checked in the boot tab of msconfig.

I had to restore to an image backup from before I went into selective
startup to have the system start normally again.

Running msconfig as administrator didn't help as well,

Any help on how to fix this would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Signature

tommygun

Tommy

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Brink - 29 Jun 2008 21:10 GMT

tommygun;762430 Wrote:

> Hi.
>
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> Thanks in advance,

Hi Tommy,

Method Two in this tutorial may help you.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/123496-safe-mode.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Signature

Brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask
them.*
'*VISTA FORUMS*' (http://www.vistax64.com)
*Please post feedback to help others.*

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tommygun - 29 Jun 2008 21:59 GMT

Hi Shawn.

Thanks for the quick reply but if I change msconfig to anything else
other than normal startup it can't be reversed.

I tried all I can think of but the only way to get the system back to
normal startup is restore to an image backup because system restore
won't work as well after getting into selective startup.

This all started a couple of days ago when I got an error message from
Windows saying that my Vista will expire in 14 days.

After contacting Microsoft support we figured out that it was because
of the pre-release version of SP1 that I had installed.

So I uninstalled it and then installed the latest SP1 standalone
version as I was advised by Microsoft and ended up with a lot of
problems which I didn't had with the SP1 pre-release version.

One of them was the Windows Search Index which wasn't working anymore
but I fixed this with the help of your tutorial and a few other minor
things that I could handle myself and the activation issue was solved as
well.

Now I got everything kinda working as it should except this msconfig
issue.

If you got an idea how I can get to the grounds of it would be nice.

Thanks again,

Signature

tommygun

Tommy

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Brink - 29 Jun 2008 22:06 GMT

Tommy,

It is safe. You can reverse any changes made by making them and
checking the same "Make all boot settings permanent" box again to apply
them. I have done it several times and can confirm it.

Shawn

Signature

Brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask
them.*
'*VISTA FORUMS*' (http://www.vistax64.com)
*Please post feedback to help others.*

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tommygun - 30 Jun 2008 07:42 GMT

Brink;762487 Wrote:

> Tommy,
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Shawn

......the thing is that if I choose the selective startup and load
only system services I can't undo that.

After that I can start the system only with the system services.

Even in selective startup mode with all services checked won't work
anymore.

I wouldn't mind to start in selective startup if I could do it with all
services enabled but I can't not even with make all boot settings
permanent.

As I said system restore won't work after a selctive startup boot and I
can get back to a normal startup only with a backup image restore.

If you got another idea please let me know.......

Signature

tommygun

Tommy

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Brink - 30 Jun 2008 21:13 GMT

Tommy,

Since the above will not work for you, then I do not know what else to
do other than what you suggested with the backup restore.

Sorry,
Shawn

Signature

Brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask
them.*
'*VISTA FORUMS*' (http://www.vistax64.com)
*Please post feedback to help others.*

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