Question Splash/ Lock Screen

Pez

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Jul 26, 2008
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18,535
Hi all.

Some refer to it as the "splash" screen, or also, the "Lock Screen"; you know, when you first boot up the computer and it arrives at the screen where, if you want to login with your password (or PIN), you tap a key and whatever picture you have for your splash/ lock screen "fades" to a soft blur, and then the field appears for you to enter your password/ PIN.

Well, with no real rhyme or reason, something happens every once-in-a-while. There's no pattern to this: Sometimes many, many months can go by before it happens again, or, a couple of weeks; I'll do my best to describe it:

When I boot up my computer and it arrives at the splash/ lock screen, what I usually do to get to the login screen is to tap my Space bar on the keyboard (sometimes the Enter key....it really doesn't matter), and then my splash/ lock screen picture fades to a blur and then I type in my PIN, but what sometimes happens is, I tap a key at the splash/ lock screen, the picture fades to a soft blur and.......the field for the password/ PIN does not appear, the picture just stays there as a soft blur.

My system, overall, has not seized or frozen up; if I move my mouse the cursor moves on-screen. Over at the right-hand side of the screen I can see the icons for Network, Ease Of Access, and the Power Button icon. So when I'm stuck at this soft blur of the Lock Screen, I usually click on the Power Button icon, and then from Sleep/ Shut Down/ Restart, I choose Restart, and then when it reboots and comes back to the splash/ lock screen, I can then get to the passwords/ PIN field and login to my desktop.

So: Any ideas as to why this happens?

As I mentioned, there's no pattern to this; sometimes many, many months can go by before this happens again.

I've done some general searches on the 'Net on this, and yes, some people have come across a similar issue, but from some descriptions I've found, their system totally seizes up and freezes: no response from keyboard or mouse so a hard shutdown is required. At least I can use my mouse on the Power Button and do a Restart.

From my searching, some suggestions are to look for a virus or malware; I've done scans, looked in Task Manager, looked at the Processes running, and also looked on the Startup tab: nothing suspicious.

Any input for me? Suggestions or ideas? :D
Pez
 

Pez

Distinguished
Jul 26, 2008
58
1
18,535
Hi Mandark; thanks for the reply.

But could you elaborate a little more? Point me in the right direction?

If you suspect it might be a virus or malware, could you tell me where to look? And if it was a virus or malware, then why wouldn't this behavior at the splash/ lock screen happen on a more consistent basis?

Some years ago, a bit coin miner had gotten into my system, but the behavior was consistent, and I was finally able to pin it (file) down and remove it; it was showing up as a falsely-named process in Task Manager.

Pez