29 replies to this topic

[mattyboy]

Ok guys,
My father asked me to install an auto form filler on his PC, and change a fan. No problem right?
So I changed the fan, just one that screwed into the side removable panel.
Now when I start the POS up, I click on his wife's user account (as its not passworded) and it loads but just sits on a frickin "Webshots" back ground, it could be her desktop background, I dunno, but theres no "start button" no desktop icons, just the background.
I can get task manager up, plus some other things to show that the PC is still alive, (holding down "shift" for the stickey keys menu, plus holding "start"+"U" gets the that menu up, but nothing else.
Any ideas. The stupid thing. They install so much lousy software on there, every free piece of software that comes with spyware they install without any thought to what might happen, theres ten thousand system tray icons always runnning at once, (when it works) totally unnecessay stuff to bog it down, and he never listens to me. BAH! Anyway, Im gonna get balmed for messing it even though I gets switrched a fan.
Can someone give me a hand!
BTW In safe mode, the desktop is just black, also no desktop icons, or start menu, (it gave me the start menu once in safemode , but just a quick flash and it was gone!)
Please and thanks guys!

[Nvyseal]

does that account have the taskbar on auto-hide?

[mattyboy]

No, but theres nothing at all, no start button, no blue bar at the bottom, not a thing, except the stupid picture of a puppy for the wallpaper. lol

[Nvyseal]

do you get a pointer? (mouse)

do me a favor and move your mouse to each of the sides of the screen, see if the taskbar appears. also look at the appearence and see how the monitor is set up and resolution

or try pressing CTRL+ESC. If your taskbar magically reappears, then it's probably simply been resized too small, repositioned somewhere you didn't expect it, or perhaps it's beneath another application that's running full-screen on your computer.

[mattyboy]

yes I believe that pointer it there, (yes it is) , but it doesn't give me a Appearance option, nothing works, and no task bar on any side of the monitor.

[simon]

can you do a right click to get to properties and change the setting to a xp default ?

[mattyboy]

nope nothing like that.
Any other ideas? I really dont want to do a re-install of XP.

[Nvyseal]

fire up the task manager. Now on the File menu, select New Task (Run...). Type in "explorer" and press OK. That should restart explorer and re-display your taskbar.

[simon]

correction sorry nvy crl+shift+esc brings up task manager crl+esc brings up program task manager Known as the start button

[chriso_86]

Can you boot into safe mode and try to fix it?

[mattyboy]

Safemode has the same issue, but does someone know where I can get a copy of explorer.exe from MY PC to copy to theirs.
When I try the task manager >run>explorer trick, it shows the start menu and task bar (ie explorer) for a quick flash then its gone again.
But I read that someone copied one explorer.exe to the windows file on the bad PC and it fixed it, but the one in the Windows folder isnt the right one I think. Can someone tell me where to get the one that might do it?

[m.oreilly]

chriso_86, on Oct 22 2006, 09:37 AM, said:

Can you boot into safe mode and try to fix it?

he did chriso, it didn't fly. this is not good, matty :(if you have anAV install disc, it might have an autorun bug detection option, or you can download a bug tool from the popular vendors, and put it on a floppy, and let the system boot to it...).

[mattyboy]

explorer.exe to try and replace the damaged one; Anyone, anyone? Where can I find it on my PC, to transfer to the other PC?

[Nvyseal]

matt, you have a corrupt explorer, you need to look at your processes and see what is corrupting it, most likely its an AV proggy or spyware/virus. My bet is a AV program, get the patch or try removing it.

If that doesnt work, you may want to try and do a REPAIR. Your XP disk should be able to give you the explorer you need. Also, have you looked into a system restore point?

[m.oreilly]

Nvyseal, on Oct 22 2006, 11:40 AM, said:

...most likely its an AV proggy or spyware/virus. My bet is a AV program...

yeah, norton, or spyware/virus...