[RESOLVED] Ctrl, Alt, Delete Not Working At Startup

I work from home and I'm using an old HP Compaq nc6000 computer running Windows XP Professional that was provided for me by the company.

To meet new security guidelines, all home computers are set up so that when you restart your computer, you have to press the Ctrl, Alt, Delete keys before you are granted access to the operating system.

Well this morning when I restarted my computer and it prompted me to enter Ctrl Alt, Delete, it didn't work. It's as if the system doesn't recognize that I'm pressing anything. I'm in the process (this afternoon) of getting a separate keyboard to see if it's key/keyboard related and I will post the results of my test. But I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas of why this could have happened. I've restarted the system many times before without a problem.

Also...I can't start in safe mode either because even in safe mode it asks you to press ctrl, alt, delete!

Just sounds like a bad bootup to me where not all the needed drives loaded. Try to shut it down by holding in the power button and then restart it.

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Originally Posted by Steve R Jones

Just sounds like a bad bootup to me where not all the needed drives loaded. Try to shut it down by holding in the power button and then restart it.

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I tried that many times, but it still doesn't work. Thanks for the quick answer, though.

Time to contact the company. Since the furnished it.

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Originally Posted by Train

Time to contact the company. Since the furnished it.

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I did contact them and I was planning to bring it back tomorrow...however just for grins and giggles...I went up to the Microsoft troubleshooting web site and saw a knowledge base article that described the same kind of problem for ctrl alt delete AND ctrl shift esc.

On a whim....I started the pc and when it asked me to press ctrl alt delete, I pressed ctrl shift esc and then I pressed ctrl alt delete...and low and behold....the login dialog box came up. I was able to log in. I then shut it down and restarted, pressed ctrl, alt, delete when asked and it accepted it like a charm.

I'm not sure why pressing ctrl shift esc freed up the system, but it may have just released whatever was frozen. So my problem is fixed.

Sure seems like it and thanks for posting the fix.
Unusual, but since it worked :D :D