[daddy]

Hi guys...here is what happened. This is on my girlfriends computer. Anyhow she has Windows XP, home edition. I have installed spybot, cleanup, adawareSE on the computer which she has used weekly for over the last year and the computer has worked great. As an FYI she uses AOL.

Anyhow, yesterday, she ran all of the above programs except this time she deleted out ALL the items that were in quarantine in adawareSE (by lavasoft). Anyhow, next time she went to start her computer her START button, taskbar, and desktop items are all gone. She can do absolutley nothing. All she sees is her wallpaper and that is it. So she calls me, and I usually can fix the problem, but not this time. Here is what I have done.

First, the quick fix I do for almost everything is to just simply do a system restore...but how, since I have no start button. Well, I called up the task manager, click on new task (run) and browsed to the folder where the system restore applications resides. I ran it and the window comes up BLANK. There is nothing there, no matter what I do. Note...this is the NOT the blank calendar issue...The whole page is blank, ziltch, nada....plain [bleep] WHITE!!! LOL

To make this shorter, yes...I have done the f8, Safe mode options and nothing works there as well. It all ends up the same. Oh, and on another note, when I bring the the command prompt in safe mode, why does it have DOCUMUENTS AND SETTINGS already filled in after the C:\
Nothing you type in works with it that way??????

Also, we do not have a disk. It's an HP Pavaliion that was given to her by her work when they got new ones and the disks are lost.

I was able to launch the adaware SE program from the task manager, but there is no RESTORE function I could find in it. I also don't think we can get a HIjack this file to this forum since her floppy does not work in order to transfer it. (I CAN RUN HIJACK THOUGH FOR I DID IT LAST NIGHT AND PRINTED IT OUT...maybe I can scan it and post it????)

Please help....Thank you

peace out,
daddy

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Hello daddy...

Try running FixDesktop on the machine. Download and extract the file to "My Documents" as it will not show up on the desktop at this point...doubleclick the file to run it. Does this help?

This can also be caused by a malware infection...if we get this thing running better, it would be a good idea to run through the Malware Forum.

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 19 March 2006 - 07:34 PM.

[wannabe1]

Hello daddy...

Try running FixDesktop on the machine. Download and extract the file to "My Documents" as it will not show up on the desktop at this point...doubleclick the file to run it. Does this help?

This can also be caused by a malware infection...if we get this thing running better, it would be a good idea to run through the Malware Forum.

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 19 March 2006 - 07:34 PM.

[daddy]

Thank you for the reply wannabe1. Well, first off, like I said, this is my girlfriends computer and she cannot download anything let alone do anything. So, I came home and dowloaded the fixdesktop program, put in on a DVD, then took it to her computer and accessed it through the browse feature in the task manager. I then double clicked it to run it and nothing. I restarted the computer to see if any changes happened and nothing. Still the same. Man...if I could just get to system restore...grrrrr.

I have also noticed something. Whatever happened seems to have wiped ALL the main programs off the computer...BUT standalone applications still seem to run (like notepad, spybot, adaware, etc...)

Remember, this all happened after she deleted out her quarantenned items in adawareSE...don't know what that means, but everything was fine and dandy up till that point :-) As a matter of fact, I searched down a post on the net from someone who had the EXACT same thing happen, but in the thread it never got resolved (back in 2003 or so)

Anyhow...where do we go from here bro.

Thanks for your time!!!

peace out,
daddy

[Retired Tech]

Start the System Restore tool at a command prompt

1. Restart your computer, and keep tapping F8 during the initial start-up until you get options, select Safe Mode with a command prompt then press enter.

2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account that has administrator credentials.

3. Type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to an earlier state.

Look for the most recent system checkpoint created before the errors to restore from

For additional information about the Safe mode with a command prompt, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

http://support.micro....com/kb/315222/


A description of the Safe mode boot options in Windows XP

[daddy]

Keith,

Thanks for replying but I have tried that and it won't work (check my post above about command prompt issue) Anyhow, I can access the system restore exe file through the task mangager-->run-->Browse feature, but when I open it all I get is a BLANK screen.

Thanks,
daddy

[daddy]

BTW...I was wrong about her having xp home edition...it is xp professional

peace out,
daddy

[Retired Tech]

If you copy and paste this in to file, new task in task manager does it still give a blank box

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

[daddy]

I will have to get back with ya on that one Keith since my girlfriends computer is 3 miles away right now!!! LOL

But, that is the EXACT path I followed on the browse (explorer) feature and I double click on rstrui.exe and the System Restore window opens open with SYSTEM RESTORE in the title bar, but the page is blank...nothing but white for miles!!!

peace out,
daddy

[Retired Tech]

It may well happen here but worth a go, does ctrl + alt + delete give you task manager so you can click file then new task



Did you try running sfc /scannow from file then new task

[daddy]

That's how I have been accessing everything...by going to the task manager (ctr + alt + del) then choosing new task...BUT I have been using the browse button. I just emailed my g/f on her laptop and asked her to try pasting in what you said. I will report back when she answers...I do know it worked on my XP cause I tested it just for the fun of it!

peace out,
daddy

[Retired Tech]

If you can get file then new task, typing sfc /scannow (with the space) should start the system file check

[wannabe1]

Have her try this, as well...

From Task Manager > New Task, type cmd, and press "Enter".

From the resutling command prompt, type the following, pressing "Enter" after each one.

• regsvr32 jscript.dll
• regsvr32 vbscript.dll
• regsvr32 /i mshtml.dll

Then try to open System Restore.

wannabe1

[daddy]

Ok....she did the sfc /scannow and the task bar showed in the status window "windows file protection running" This did not go away...it kept running.

She then did the cmd thing and typed all the things that wannabe 1 said to type. She said that after she hit enter on each one that it gave her some kind of message like it was registered.

She then tried ALL the ways we have gone through to try and access SYSTEM RESTORE and we still have the same results. The window opens with a blank white page.

That's the update guys...any more suggestions to try???

BTW...thank you for your time from both her and myself :-)

peace out,
daddy

[wannabe1]

We will probably end up in the registry on this one...

Are Help and Support, Control Panel, and Search also blank or partially blank?

[daddy]

Nothing is accessable except standalone programs. Nothing else even opens when clicked on.

BTW....how and why do you think this happened from just deleting things out of Adaware SE?

peace out,
daddy