Weird stuff when I lock my computer...

This happened both before and after my reformat of my precision m4600. What happens is I lock the computer by hitting ctrl + alt + del and hit enter in the menu as I have with the computer for years (as with any win 7 computer) and IMMEDIATELY it shows "Welcome" and a spinning ring. The only way to stop it is to force a shut down as sleep/hibernate only make it come back to a blank screen and ctrl + alt + del does nothing.

Im at a loss here as I have been searching and searching and found nothing that even closely relates to this issue. So here I am hoping that someone else has experienced this anomaly. This is a fresh system (reformatted a few days ago). Thanks!

EDIT: this is for Windows 7

 

the good news is 'ctrl + alt + delete' then 'enter' still locks W8 on a fully functioning install. the bad news is neither your pre- nor post-reformat installs were fully functional. do you have other user accounts it might be trying to get to the login screen for after you hit enter? how long will it sit with the 'welcome + spinning ring' and how long have you let it sit like that? to the contrary, forcing a sleep or hibernation while it's hung like that probably won't help anything. this was a clean install from bootable media?

 

Sorry its a windows 7 machine and the issue took over 2 years to develope the first time around. This time it was almost instantaneous. I am the only other user other then admin.

The welcome screen + ring will literally sit there until the end of time. This was indeed a clean install from the dell disc they provided with the rig.

 

Sounds like a session error...aka registry.

First time I've ever heard of ctr-alt-del + Enter being used to lock the system. I've always used Windows + L button (I never used lock on Windows XP, always logged off).

 

Magically it seems to be fixed...not sure though. Further testing needed.

 

Well its BACK and causing some serious work heartburn. Had to make a video of it to show the crazy things its doing.

 

super cringe-worthy video. my guess is one of your peripherals and/or applicable driver/s is hanging the system -- and i'd be leaning towards your display setup. GPU is also implicated. i don't play WoW, but is there a (safer) way to exit the game without just closing it out? is running 3D applications what causes everything to start getting hosey? have you tried a different graphics driver? what else have you done to narrow it down? i'd wager that you're unable to recreate the issue from just the laptop with nothing connected. i'd make a slightly smaller wager that you're unable to recreate the issue with everything but the external displays connected.

i also don't think you're getting a truly fresh install from the dell recovery disc. why don't you download a W7 ISO yourself and reinstall that way? regardless, it's not a fresh install anymore once you've loaded all your sh*t back on.

 

All I have loaded are drivers, WoW, AV and MS office/VS2008 and 2010. Sure I could exit wow better but I dont have issues with the game at all and Im getting good (for the laptop) FPS. Yes I have done some testing and and replaced man many drivers over and over again as well as fresh format after fresh format. Im pretty sure its my dock thats causing this issue and will be further testing that avenue. I really only put the video up as it was bothering me this morning and I felt like showing you what I was referring to.

 

yea, no i see that -- and you ended up capturing all those other issues too. what makes you suspect the dock?

 

Well come to think of it it only happens at work where the laptop is docked. Never have this issue at home when its a free range laptop. Will be doing some testing tonight to confirm that its the dock or the angle in which the connection is made between the dock and laptop.

 

Not the dock. Pretty sure its a bad GPU and motherboard. Heres hoping our taxes come back good.