PC problems

Hey guys this morning my antivirus ran upon startup and then when it
went to actually boot my screen shows my background but will not load
the start bar or any desktop icons....i booted into safe mode and
backed up all my data but i cant get the normal windows to work now or
connect online...and it wont let me do a restore from safe mode....any
ideas>>?

If you are getting the kernel to start properly in safe mode then it's something that is loading under the normal profile that is causing the problem.

What OS are you running, xp or vista? If you are running XP I would recommend checking everything in the registry under the start up nodes and see what is there. I would try disabling or removing the majority of those keys (backup first of course) and see if you can boot. If you can, then you enable them 1 at a time until you find the culprit.

Check what services are runningi n the services control panel and you can also take the same approach there by disabling the majority of them and then turning on only what is necessary and see if any of those services are causing the problem.

If you are vista let me know what version and I'll google around and compare to my laptop which runs vista and see if I can come up with some suggestions. I haven't done much T-shooting on Vista yet.

Iam xp

whats the message that makes it not work in normal windows?

I loads up my Motherboard screen then does the DOS scrolling then goes to enter PW to log on, I then Log on and it goes to my normal desktop with only my background showing up....no bottom bar no shortcuts nothing....i can move the mouse around but if i CTRL ALT DEL it freezes up and i have to Hard reboot.....since there is no start button....!

A suggestion:

To start System Restore using the Command prompt, follow these steps:

1. Restart your computer, and then press and hold F8 during the initial
   startup to start your computer in safe mode with a Command prompt.
   
2. Use the arrow keys to select the Safe mode with a Command prompt option.
   
3. If you are prompted to select an operating system, use the arrow keys
   to select the appropriate operating system for your computer, and then
   press ENTER.
   
4. Log on as an administrator or with an account that has administrator credentials.
   
5. At the command prompt, type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe, and then press ENTER.
   
6. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to a functional state.
   

Can you go in safe mode and create a new user? What I'm thinking is that since your profile got corrupted, you might be able to create a new user with a new profile.

will try that when i get home tonight

Can you try a registry repair with Spybot - Search & Destroy.

i dont see that option in sbsd

no "fix errors" option?

it let me fix the virus but its not saying anything about regsitry

about to leave will be back in a few hours....Pray for my PC.....

doh

No dice with that one.....although it did fix a ton of problems so it says...but still cant log on windows outside of safe mode

Going to bed thanks for the help today Ulfaro....better luck tom i guess..

hmmm..let me see what else I can think of

You can try run the start up with a log to see where it fails. It should be one of the options in the failed start up screen, or when you hit F8 right after the bootstrap from the BIOS loads.

Another option to try requires the original CD and do what is known as a Maintenance Install. It usually does not mess up the programs that are already installed, and those that it might mess up you can usually re-install fairly easily. It beats having to do a full fresh install.

NOTE: If you can get to your browser in Safe Mode then back up your bookmarks/favorites as browsers are usually the thing that gets nuked in the process. Also, if you are using Outlook Express (shudder) for email do what you can to back that up as well.

What a Maintenance Install does is basically lays down a fresh copy of Windows XP and a fresh registry. The downside is that you have to go through all the freaking patches again. The older the original copy the longer it takes to update. (Note: An OEM copy of XP with SP3 is $149 at Tiger Direct.) The other downside is that it will authenticate again, the old ET Phone Home bit to make sure you have a valid copy of windows. You can only re-install three (3) from any single user license of XP. (I think Academic versions are exempt from this.)

Another thought just occurred to me is that you may have picked up a bug that is hiding in the System Volume Restore file. A back up of this is made every time something is installed or your machine is re-booted. If this has been compromised by malware it will replicate itself every time you re-boot. I have never tried this in safe mode but it's worth a shot. Here's what you do:

Once you get booted up in in Safe Mode, right click on the My Computer icon and left click on Properties.
If there is a System Restore tab select it. If you can put a check mark in the "Turn off System Restore", do so. The click Apply and then OK.
Finally, re-boot and let it come up normally and see what happens.
I would recommend you try this before you try doing the Maintenance install. If it works, fine not then the Maintenance install is your next best hope.

(Personally, I am going to hold out and see how Windows 7 fares, but I am NOT touching the Beta. I learned my lesson doing the Beta of Win3.xx, Win95 and Win98. Never again!)

The final solution is a fresh install overtop of your existing install. This is done like a regular new install except you will select the existing Windows folder to install it in. It will warn out that if you do that you will wipe your current install of Windows, tell it to do anyway. The downside of this is that you will have to re-install ALL of your software (your existing data is still there because you did not wipe the drive.) The problem with patching and the number of installs still applies here as well.

Good luck and may The Schwartz be with you!

he's got a XP copy coming in soon...Newegg...he got it yesterday

Glad you are getting this taken care of Para

Ya i will be happy when its all over.....Frustrating operating in safe mode...

I have seen something similar to this with McAfee using all of the CPU resources at startup and not letting anything else run.
Opened up in Safe Mode and went into services and set the mcshield service to disabled. Then the system came up fine.
Then uninstalled McAfee and reinstalled it.

Not sure if you are using McAfee or not, but whatever service is locking you up, you might be able to disable it in Safe Mode and try a restart.

I am guessing you only have one account on the system. If you have more than one you could try logging in to another account to see if it logs in under it. If it does, than it it a profile problem as posted earlier. If it doesn't then it is a system problem. If you created a second account and you can't log into it, then it is a system problem.

If you get the XP CD then when you boot to it, you can try tol do a repair. In repair mode try running "chkdsk /R" without the quotes. This tends to fix most minor problems where a few files are corrupt. Now that I think of it, since you can get into the computer in safe mode, right click on your hard drive and go to properties, then the Tools tab, then click on check now in the error checking section. Check both of the boxes and click Start. That basically runs a chkdsk. It will sya that it can not run until you restart your system. Restart and when it comes up, let it run the chkdsk. It will give you a prompt to click on a key to either continue or stop the check disk. I can not remember what it says. Just let it continue.

Maybe that will fix it.

thanks for the advice ....it is indeed a system problem i tried the alternate accounts to no avail......currently waiting on new xp disc to arrive and doing a complete wipe of the HD and restarting fresh..