The Conservative Cave
The Help Desk => Computer Related Discussions & Questions => Topic started by: jinxmchue on August 22, 2008, 11:26:20 AM
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I'm having trouble starting up Windows. It was working just fine yesterday, but now it gets to the desktop and the icons don't show up. I can get a few programs to run using the Task Manager (ctrl+alt+del), but no internet programs work. Sometimes when I restarted, the icons would pop up right before it restarted. Any ideas what would cause this?
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Something in the startup file got corrupted or a virus. When's the last time you ran a virus scan and WHICH anti-virus do you use?? You could attempt a system restore.
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Has Intel Extreme Graphics invaded your computer? It has mine. I'm having all sorts of new problem while all attempts to delete it have been for naught.
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Something in the startup file got corrupted or a virus. When's the last time you ran a virus scan and WHICH anti-virus do you use?? You could attempt a system restore.
Norton scans every week, though I cancelled this week's scheduled scan because I was working on something at the time and didn't want the slow down. But that was Wednesday night and the computer was working fine Thursday morning and early afternoon and I just visited my usual websites. Don't know if my wife did anything that morning, though. (She searches for knitting stuff on IE and doesn't practice any discernment about which websites she visits.)
I've found a few procedures online to try.
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There's a 'Show Desktop Icons' option on the desktop Properties on XP. Display properties --> Arrange Icons By --> Show Desktop Icons (below the Auto Arrange/Align to Grid option). Maybe it got un-checked?
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win2K, XP, or vista?
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There's a 'Show Desktop Icons' option on the desktop Properties on XP. Display properties --> Arrange Icons By --> Show Desktop Icons (below the Auto Arrange/Align to Grid option). Maybe it got un-checked?
Nothing on the desktop shows. Not even the taskbar at the bottom (not with the Windows key, either). I will see if I can try that somehow, though.
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win2K, XP, or vista?
Oh, sorry. Thought I mentioned that. XP.
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There's a 'Show Desktop Icons' option on the desktop Properties on XP. Display properties --> Arrange Icons By --> Show Desktop Icons (below the Auto Arrange/Align to Grid option). Maybe it got un-checked?
Nothing on the desktop shows. Not even the taskbar at the bottom (not with the Windows key, either). I will see if I can try that somehow, though.
You don't get anything when you right-click on the desktop? It's on that menu.
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You don't get anything when you right-click on the desktop? It's on that menu.
Nope. Right-click doesn't work. Something isn't working right. Possibly the explorer.exe program from what I've seen online.
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that's a "buried shovel"; you can't get to the tool you need to solve your problem. come up in safe mode, and restore your last good session . . . (and pray).
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that's a "buried shovel"; you can't get to the tool you need to solve your problem. come up in safe mode, and restore your last good session . . . (and pray).
Yeah, that's one of the fixes I saw to try. Thanks, man.
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that's a "buried shovel"; you can't get to the tool you need to solve your problem. come up in safe mode, and restore your last good session . . . (and pray).
I thought I already suggested a "system restore" ?!?!? :???:
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that's a "buried shovel"; you can't get to the tool you need to solve your problem. come up in safe mode, and restore your last good session . . . (and pray).
I thought I already suggested a "system restore" ?!?!? :???:
eh. yes, you did. :p
oops. sorry. :-)
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It appears to be the "DHCP client" program. I restarted with all the system programs off and the icons came up just fine. I went through the system programs and turned them on one at a time (and then 5 at a time!) before restarting. I quickly found that when the "DHCP client" is on, the startup stops. Everything else is now active and the "DHCP client" is off and the computer starts up fine. Unfortunately, the DHCP client needs to be on for the internet to work. I'm going to try resetting the DHCP settings and also calling my ISP for help. Anyone got any other suggestions?
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If DHCP is causing the machine to hang, it could be a problem with the notwork interface (the "card").
I'd take the steps suggested before, Using the XP "restore points" , or failing that a system recovery (if available) , to see if it is software related first though.
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I found this while googling the problem. This was the answer given for a person whose DHCP was causing crashes.
* Boot from the XP CD
* At the Setup screen - Press enter (NOT R for repair)
* PgDn and press F8 for the Licensing screen
* Select the XP installed location and press R to repair
* Setup will copy install files and then reboot the machine DON'T REBOOT FROM THE CD. Let it boot from the hard drive.
* When it is done the process, remove the CD and reboot normally.
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Okay, I don't think we got any disks from Gateway when we got the computer. However, the computer has a partitioned drive. Could what I need be on the other part of the drive?
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Okay, I don't think we got any disks from Gateway when we got the computer. However, the computer has a partitioned drive. Could what I need be on the other part of the drive?
You didn't get repair disks? If not, then look for instructions on how to boot from the recovery drive partition.
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Okay, it's very slow, but the icons do come up and I can get online now. Any thoughts?
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Backup and reformat? :-)
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Sounds like you may need to make some delicate adjustments to the system with a #4 percussion wrench.
(http://mfinley.com/gif/sledgehammer.jpg)
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I hate you both. :censored:
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Okay, it's very slow, but the icons do come up and I can get online now. Any thoughts?
What is your antivirus? You appear to be infected. IN fact I am sending this message through a proxy since I am afraid of your doo doo.
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Okay, it's very slow, but the icons do come up and I can get online now. Any thoughts?
What is your antivirus? You appear to be infected.
Better not be, dammit. Grr. We have Norton, but we let the subscription updates lapse a bit. I'll have to renew it.
IN fact I am sending this message through a proxy since I am afraid of your doo doo.
Oh, bite me.
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Instead of renewing Norton, go get AVG Free at http://free.grisoft.com. In my experience, Norton has always seemed to hog more memory than it should and has never been truly effective at getting everything. There are also free online scans at http://www.trendmicro.com and http://www.pandasecurity.com/activescan that you can do in the interim.
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Instead of renewing Norton, go get AVG Free at http://free.grisoft.com. In my experience, Norton has always seemed to hog more memory than it should and has never been truly effective at getting everything. There are also free online scans at http://www.trendmicro.com and http://www.pandasecurity.com/activescan that you can do in the interim.
All of those are good ideas. I used AVG for quite some time and it works pretty damn well.
And until I am coninced otherwise...
(http://www.kasla.ca/images/gantblancG.jpg)
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Okay, I don't think we got any disks from Gateway when we got the computer. However, the computer has a partitioned drive. Could what I need be on the other part of the drive?
You didn't get repair disks? If not, then look for instructions on how to boot from the recovery drive partition.
Many vendors no longer provide repair disks. My latest HP didn't come with any.
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Okay, I don't think we got any disks from Gateway when we got the computer. However, the computer has a partitioned drive. Could what I need be on the other part of the drive?
You didn't get repair disks? If not, then look for instructions on how to boot from the recovery drive partition.
Many vendors no longer provide repair disks. My latest HP didn't come with any.
Most HP/Compaq desktops (at least Asia-Pacific issue ones) do not come with the recovery CD set. You have the option to create them once you have run through the minisetup when it comes out of the box. You can only do this once, and if it ****s up, HP are unsympathetic. Normally you start their recovery with a shortcut key when the BIOS splash is displayed.
You can also kick it off by deleting the user partition and setting the recovery partition to be active using fdisk or other utility.
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Yup. Most newer HP/Compaqs come with a recovery partition on one of the drives. After the POST test ends, press F11 to load the recovery manager.
You may be able to order recovery discs from the manufacturer. Someone else here had a similar problem with a laptop, and was able to order discs.
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Okay, I don't think we got any disks from Gateway when we got the computer. However, the computer has a partitioned drive. Could what I need be on the other part of the drive?
You didn't get repair disks? If not, then look for instructions on how to boot from the recovery drive partition.
Many vendors no longer provide repair disks. My latest HP didn't come with any.
Most HP/Compaq desktops (at least Asia-Pacific issue ones) do not come with the recovery CD set. You have the option to create them once you have run through the minisetup when it comes out of the box. You can only do this once, and if it ****s up, HP are unsympathetic. Normally you start their recovery with a shortcut key when the BIOS splash is displayed.
You can also kick it off by deleting the user partition and setting the recovery partition to be active using fdisk or other utility.
Not a problem for me. I just go buy a new one when the old one F's up. :-)
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rich, please send all your F'ed up computers to me !! :-)
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rich, please send all your F'ed up computers to me !! :-)
No way. I use them for target practice.
LOL
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:rofl:
I delivered two boxes of old junk to a computer recycler in downtown Nashville. They have old VAX machines with chips the size of your hand.
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Found a go-around for this problem: standby/hibernate. Do those instead of a complete shutdown and the desktop pops right up. Now we only have to deal with the slow startup when we have to do a full shutdown or restart.