[Caffeine_Powered]

So I turned off my computer yesterday and went to start it last night (to play Left 4 Dead ) and I got to the desktop fine. First thing I noticed was RocketDock didn't start up - weird because it always starts up. Moving on nothing would start up. Click on any icons, anything in the start menu, anything anywhere and no windows come up. I can only get things open like 'My Documents', 'My Computer', etc.

And while I do have everything backed up and in theory I could do a clean install, I'd like to figure out whats wrong. I like to learn as I go along, so If I could get to the bottom of this problem it'd be great.

I'm currently running off my Windows 7 partition - which has amazing compatibility, ran left 4 dead flawlessly.

I don't think it's a virus but at the same time I'm looking for a scanner that'll scan my Vista 64 partition.

It seems more likely that it's a windows bug of some sort. I have a registry backup, from ERUNT, from a few months ago on my external hdd but I couldn't figure out how to get it to merge with my existing registry. I couldn't get ERUNT started either (because of the symptom listed above).

So trying to figure it out, and am still looking at finding a fix and whats wrong, but posted here on the off chance somebody knows whats up.

Edited by Caffeine_Powered, 22 February 2009 - 06:08 PM.

[Advertisements]

Safe mode works. Stuff opens up and everythings normal in safe mode.
Registry restoration didn't work so well. Messed with the boot process. Fixed it with Vista CD.
Booted back in still same problem.
System Restore didn't help at all either.
Had one trojan - Hijack.DisplayProperties - got rid of it - no help there.
Still looking.

[Caffeine_Powered]

Safe mode works. Stuff opens up and everythings normal in safe mode.
Registry restoration didn't work so well. Messed with the boot process. Fixed it with Vista CD.
Booted back in still same problem.
System Restore didn't help at all either.
Had one trojan - Hijack.DisplayProperties - got rid of it - no help there.
Still looking.

[Caffeine_Powered]

I may just end up doing a clean install because as much as I want to figure it out I also want the better part of my HDD back

[Ayreon]

Try running the System File Checker (will check your system files and replace any corrupted ones). Here's how:
1. Open an elevated command prompt. To do this, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
2. Type sfc /scannow and then press ENTER
If any files require replacing you may be asked to insert your Vista DVD for the process to continue. At the end of the scan if everything is okay you will see "Windows resource protection did not find any integrity violations"

Also try the chkdsk utility. Chkdsk can repair problems related to bad sectors, lost clusters, cross-linked files, and directory errors:
1. Open the command prompt with administrative privileges as you did before.
2. Type chkdsk X: /F /R where X is the letter of the Vista partition.
3. If it asks you to run chkdsk on the next reboot, type 'y' and hit enter, then restart the machine and chkdsk will do its thing. Be aware that this process could take a long while.

Edited by Ayreon, 24 March 2009 - 09:58 PM.