[oblio98]

Booted my PC today and it did not boot. Tried multiple times, and after logging in, it just displays the wallpaper. No start button, icons, or taskbar.

I can Ctrl-Alt-Del and get Task Manager up, and from there I can actually run certain things. I did a HJT to check for weird entries, I ran a complete NAV2005 scan (No Viruses or SpyWare detected). I was able to start an MMC and look at the event viewer and saw nothing odd.

I rebooted and tried the LAST KNOWN CONFIGURATION, and that did not work.

I can boot to Safe Mode, and the PC is fine. Explorer, Icons, everything. In fact, that's where I am right now. There is just something wrong with "Real" mode.

Anyone have any ideas. I suppose I could always boot with the WinXP CD, and "repair" the installation by reinstalling everything. The bad part about that is that my WinXP CD is pre-SP1, and my current installation is SP2 with al updates. I'd rather not do this if someone out there can give me a nudge in the proper direction.

THANKS

:-jon

 

[Blitze105]

weird entries

You say that you checked for weird entries, but are u sure it is clean? If it is, go to processes and let's see if explorer is even running.
-blitze

 

[oblio98]

re: HJT - I compared the scan I just did to one I did a week ago, and they are the same. I ran a Panda ActiveScan in Safe Mode, and it came up with nothing, as did the NAV/NIS AS Scan.

It's really weird, as I can run almost anything from the task manager. However, all programs bomb when I browse to "My Computer". Example, I can run NOTEPAD, browse and open anything on C:, but when I browse "up" to get to MY COMPUTER so I can see the D: drive, the app hangs. Even if I am using the Run command in Task Manager, if I browse to MY COMPUTER, it hangs Task Manager.

I can go online with iexplore.exe, I can run NAV, AdAware, I ever ran the display control panel applet to set the screen resolution down (can't get it by right clicking the desktop).

When I do a shutdown from Task Manager, I get an "explorer" error that the program cannot be closed. I can see it in the active processess, however, if I stop it and RUN it, still nothing happens.

In safe mode, everything is perfect. This would indicate that the explorer.exe file is OK, right?

I ran a system restore going back to Monday, and still no taskbar/icons or explorer.

I suppose I have to do a WinXP boot CD repair, but I sure would like to know what is causing this.

I searched the net and found some scripts that allegedly fixed this problem, but they did nothing. Interestingly enough, NAV/NIS is still running, because it attempted to stop the script from running.

Anyone else have any ideas about this?

:4-dontkno

 

[Geekgirl]

Boot to Safe Mode with Networking
Restore Desktop Icons and Taskbar (Line 195)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

 

[oblio98]

Thanks, GeekGirl, but that did not work. I ended up booting w/ a WinXP Pro SP2 CD, selected install, then repair installation. It loaded all of the files, but it seemed like it was taking an inordinate amount of time, especially shutting down.

On reboot, the PC just sits at the Windows XP logo, with the "cylon" blue bar graphic going back and forth (or whatever). Looks like it's time to run out, buy a new hard drive, do a clean install, then make the old disc a slave and drag out the data.

Bummer. There must be some malware on there, but I run all of the "usual stuff" all the time, and keep my NAV/NIS up to date and all. What's puzzling is even the Panda Active Scan in Safe Mode did not find anything.

Well, I probably needed a cleanout anyway.........................

THANKS

:-jon

 

[wildstar10]

yes there is a new malwhere that does this

i've seen 3 systems come thru the shop with this infection.
i have yet to isolate what is causing it but it does definately affect the way windows explorer.exe loads. The only way i have restored functionality at this point is to reload the OS. There was several registry things that i tried none of which solved the issue.

 

[oblio98]

The strange thing about this is that Safe Mode works perfectly. In Safe Mode, everything works perfectly. The other odd thing is that the Standard Mode Task Manager lets you run almost anything that does not browse past the MY COMPUTER.

I was able to do scans, run regedit, run HJT, almost anything. I searched through the registry and checked that nothing "extra" was in the RUN section. I could open an MMC and check device manager, disk manager, event viewer, services, everything.

In event viewer, there are no errors indicating that explorer.exe did not load or have any problems.

Whatever this is, it's a really sneaky one.