This was a very strange and annoying problem that I had to troubleshoot on a client’s computer which was running Windows XP Home. Basically, every time I rebooted the computer, the system would hang for an unknown reason. Web pages wouldn’t load in Internet Explorer, I wasn’t able to load system properties if I right-clicked on My Computer.
I looked at the services list (Start—>Run—>services.msc). Two services were hanging in the “starting” state: Server and Fax. Apparently, Print Spooler was trying to start before Server, which can cause this hanging behavior.
To fix this glitch, I reconfigured the Spooler service to be dependent on Server to prevent the wrong start-up order. Simply open regedit, navigate to:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Spooler
Locate the “DependOnService” entry, and double-click to edit. Under Value data, add a new line and enter “LanmanServer” (see screenshot below). This will force Print Spooler to wait for Server to load before attempting to load itself.
This solved half of my problem. When I restarted, I no longer had the hang-up in the system. However, Fax service still did not load fully. To fix this, I disabled it from automatically starting. It was an unessential process on that computer, and if needed, it could be easily started up manually.
If this helps you solve a problem in your own system, please leave a comment. Enjoy!
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