PCs Locking Up on Loading Personal Settings

[Bored Gal]

I have a problem with several PCs that NO ONE, including myself, has a clue to what is causing it.

Whenever you log in, no matter if it's on the Domain or a local account (Windows 2000 Pro) the PCs will sometimes freeze up on "Loading Personal Settings" the only fix is to turn the PC off, then back on. The PCs that are having this problem are all Gateway E4000s, Pentium 4, and they all have Windows 2000 Pro, are virus free, and have the latest Windows critical updates.

Any ideas?

can you log into safe mode?

maybe run chkdisk?

[joeczucha]

This is caused by the hard disk spinning down (power saving) but when you log in again it doesn't spin up for some reason. We've just turned off hard disk spin-down and although the life-span will probably be reduced to about 3 years (our computers are on 24/7) its worth it!

Joe