justpassingby

You can run anything using the Task manager => file => new task. It's the same as the run command. But sfc /scannow won't help if you don't have the XP CD.

What's this computer brand and model ? Is this a desktop or a laptop ? If this is an asus motherboard, the key you have to press to access the menu with safe mode and the other options may be F5 instead of F8. Retry pressing F5 or F8 during startup. Just keep hitting the key twice per second from the moment you press the power button.

Any luck with the Norton CD ?

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kinbard

Ok, it seems the only thing you can get to is task manager. So lets go there and kill any norton processes. As a matter of fact it you can list what is there it will be helpful.

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403036387

the norton cd did get it to uninstal [thank goodness] but all my icons and taskbar are still gone, despite re-boots. it's a desktop that has this problem. and i can't seem to find the computer brand or model. both the computer and monitor are in plain black cases, with no markings on them at all- wierdest thing i have ever seen. it's not my main computer so i never noticed that before. do you think it would be on the inside?

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403036387

wscntfy.exe
alg.exe
wdfmgr.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
svchost.exe
lsass.exe
services.exe
winlogon.exe
csrss.exe
IEXPLORE.EXE
smss.exe
taskmar.exe
wuauclt.exe
wmiprvse.exe
system
system idles process

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403036387

there were no norton processes there, unless some of those are and i just can't read them.

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But What Does that have to do with FILMING A PLANT?

justpassingby

You'll definitely find some infos on the inside but it's quite hard to tell you where to look. The motherboard brand will often be written somewhere on the motherboard itself. That won't tell us the brand and model of your computer, but should tell us exactly which key you need to press to access the safe mode menu.

You should manage to boot in safe mode anyway, so retry the F5 or F8 keys at startup. You have to press them before the Windows loading screen appears.

I know you've already done this, but let's try it again : in the processes list in the task manager, confirm that there's no process called explorer.exe. Then go to file => new task => "explorer.exe" (without the quotes) and tell us what happens. If there still isn't any explorer.exe showing, retry with "C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\explorer.exe" and tell us what happens.

If this doesn't bring back your task bar and icons, try to run (same way as above) "C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\msconfig.exe" and tell us what happens.

Edit : Just saw your processes list. All seems ok there, except that explorer.exe is not there, but please confirm it's taskmgr.exe and not taskmar.exe. So try the above steps : running the backup versions of explorer.exe and msconfig.

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kinbard

Explorer.exe is not loading up. Kill iexplore.exe, then go to file, new task, type explorer.exe
Also, kill these two alg.exe and wmiprvse.exe
I don't know what they are.

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justpassingby

Nope, don't kill alg.exe nor wmiprvse.exe, they are important processes that are part of XP.

But you can end iexplore.exe and try to rerun explorer.exe from the dllcache folder following the instructions from my previous post.

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kinbard

Thats weird... I have neither one showing up on my pc or laptop. Maybe I have a problem as well.

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justpassingby

If you're using a third party firewall and if your internet connexion is not shared, it's normal that you do'nt see alg.exe. But most people using XP integrated firewall will have that process. Wmiprvse.exe is also related to some network features I believe, but I don't know if it's meant to be loaded all the time. I can tell you I have both of those processes running on my computer now. They are safe Xp processes and you may render the computer unstable if you kill them. You should never kill a process if you don't know exactly what it is

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kinbard

I agree with you, but in his case I was wondering if one of them was causing the problem, and it really couldn't get any worse. Thanks for the info on the processes, though. Long string of #'s, all of this happened after installing Norton? Had there been anything else going on up to this time, any quirks etc?

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ok, there were deffinetly quirks. i know there was some major virus on this computer. it would constaly try to access my floppy drive and then pop up with a box that told me to insert a disk into drive a. even if there was one. you'd have to click that box a billion times before it would go away. this problem has also seemed to spread to my 2000/nt on my laptop, more than likly through transferring files on the flash drive[bad idea]. it's not anywhere near as bad on that one though, it only pops up every week or so. other quirks...my search dissapeared a couple of weeks ago. the box was there but the button was not. that came back though. there were alot of issues. but yeah, the desktop didn't dissapear untill after i installed norton and then re-booted.

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i just tried running "C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\msconfig.exe".
nothing opened, but both the windows i had open [task manager and internet explorer] went inactive as if something had opened. but nothing was there. then a few seconds later a box popped up that said "system configuration utillity has encountered a problem and needs to close. we are sorry for the inconvinence. if you were in the middle of something, the information you were working on might be lost." then buttons with "send error report" and "don't send"

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whoa, and just a minute later the same box popped up but this time it was DrWatson Postmortem Debugger had encountered a probelm. i have no idea what that is. it's not a program i ever installed.

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Nvermind!!! thank you justpassingby! the "C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\explorer.exe" brought all my desktop back! sick.

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kinbard

Dr Watson is the error recovery/reporting program in xp. See if you can run a command prompt. In task manager, file, new task, cmd. Then try the sfc /scannow.

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kinbard

Ok, now that you have it back you need to get it back to a stable condition. Do a restore to before you installed norton.

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justpassingby

Do what kinbard said, but I have to add some info : sfc /scannow (don't forget the space) will try to replace corrupt system files with those from the dllcache folder. If it doesn't find the requested files there, or if the dllcache files have been corrupt as well, it will ask you for the XP CD which you don't have. There's a workaround if you have a i386 folder somewhere on your drive. Read this article to know what to do :
http://www.updat