I'm going to copy part of a post that was made in 2006 so I can save myself some typing.

My computer recently had a bit of a meltdown and I ended up playing around a little in the Recovery Console and running a chkdsk. The check disk fixed a little bit (namely an error that my computer could not start because C:\Windows\system32\config\system was deleted or corrupt or something).

My computer now starts up, but when it does, I get these problems:

"1. all the icons on my desktop looks weird, and everything that's not on my desktop has no icon whatsoever

2. The "Start" button on the status bar is gone, so I cannot click "Start", then choose "Admin Tools" to do a system restore.

3. If I need to turn off the computer, I have to press the power off button because again the Start button has disappeared, also I cannot use the task manager even if I press "alt-ctl-del"."

4. When I start up my computer, I get a "failed to load dll" error.

5. I can start some programs, and peripheral devices work, but not exactly right.


I have a Dell XPS Gen2 and I am running Windows XP Pro SP2. I just did a repair installation, so all my System Restore points are gone ( I didnt think of that until after the repair).

Thank you for your help.