Auto Config

aardvaak

My Windows 7 laptop is suddenly flashing Auto Config Please Wait.

What is this and how do I get rid of it - I have done nothing to prompt it?

wongataa

The make of your laptop is? It's not a standard Windows thing.

AndyPix

Smells like malware ..

Have you run a malwarebytes scan yet ??

AndyPix

Scratch that - Its this :- http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-hardware/attention-auto-config-please-wait/5eecbcbb-6da2-498d-878a-cd36ae0e5981

(Found with a simple google search I might add )

aardvaak

wongataa wrote: »

The make of your laptop is? It's not a standard Windows thing.

HP Pavilion

Maelwys

AndyPix wrote: »

Scratch that - Its this :- http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-hardware/attention-auto-config-please-wait/5eecbcbb-6da2-498d-878a-cd36ae0e5981

(Found with a simple google search I might add )

aardvaak wrote: »

My Windows 7 laptop is suddenly flashing Auto Config Please Wait.

"Auto Config" prompts generally relate to an external screen (trying to display whatever image is being sent to them)... but if the OP is using a laptop, chances are that they're using the built-in screen.

If not using an external screen, when does this happen - once logged into windows, or immediately after turning on the computer, etc? Can you still see the mouse cursor? Does the screen turn back to normal after a short period or does it stay like that until you power off? What colour is the screen/prompt and are there any logos or titles visible when it happens? etc. etc.

AndyPix

same fix applies

Graphics card drivers

sofiar

apologies but have you tried switching off and on again (so so sorry :-(:-))

Maelwys

AndyPix wrote: »

same fix applies

I'm not so sure...

A built-in laptop screen won't throw up an "Auto Config Please Wait" message. If it gets set to the wrong resolution, it'll just not be able to display the image.

In my experience you might get a mangled image, a blank screen or a very short error code or Blue Screen of Death or the ever-friendly "You have selected a non-optimal screen resolution setting for your LCD display panel"... but there'd be no Auto-Configuration delay involved (whereas an external monitor has to try and determine whether you're serving it up a viable VGA/DVI/HDMI signal and then re-jig the image so that it gets appropriately scaled to the boundaries of the physical screen).

It's very unlikely to be Graphics Driver related since the standard Intel, ATI and NVIDIA driver packages don't trigger that kind of prompt when changing resolution settings, or even when autoloading preset display profiles. And it's not a standard Windows error message either.

So if the laptop isn't connected to an external screen, my money's on malware.

You might be able to alleviate the symptoms by changing your video driver's setting for screen scaling (so that the graphics card performs any scaling rather than the monitor) which will mean that the resolution never actually gets changed... but we really need more information to go on here.

(What does the prompt look like exactly, when does it appear, are there any other things on the screen at the time, etc)

aardvaak

sofiar wrote: »

apologies but have you tried switching off and on again (so so sorry :-(:-))

Yes and readjusted screen Res.

aardvaak

Maelwys wrote: »

I'm not so sure...

A built-in laptop screen won't throw up an "Auto Config Please Wait" message. If it gets set to the wrong resolution, it'll just not be able to display the image.

In my experience you might get a mangled image, a blank screen or a very short error code or Blue Screen of Death or the ever-friendly "You have selected a non-optimal screen resolution setting for your LCD display panel"... but there'd be no Auto-Configuration delay involved (whereas an external monitor has to try and determine whether you're serving it up a viable VGA/DVI/HDMI signal and then re-jig the image so that it gets appropriately scaled to the boundaries of the physical screen).

It's very unlikely to be Graphics Driver related since the standard Intel, ATI and NVIDIA driver packages don't trigger that kind of prompt when changing resolution settings, or even when autoloading preset display profiles. And it's not a standard Windows error message either.

So if the laptop isn't connected to an external screen, my money's on malware.

You might be able to alleviate the symptoms by changing your video driver's setting for screen scaling (so that the graphics card performs any scaling rather than the monitor) which will mean that the resolution never actually gets changed... but we really need more information to go on here.

(What does the prompt look like exactly, when does it appear, are there any other things on the screen at the time, etc)

It does have an external screen attached and I have done a full antivirus scan with no threats

I also have never seen this before

Why would it suddenly start displaying this message?