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Strange Taskbar/desktop


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#1
19believe59

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First off hope I'm putting this in the right place new here.

I just got a Lenovo G530 With WindowsXP Pro all was great in the beginning. After a couple of reboots my graphics went nuts and I couldn't change the setting. Rebooting a few time corrected that but it was a silly way to have to start my laptop. I ended up doing a full system recovery reformat and the whole 9 yards started from scratch. Fixed the graphics problem.

Now I seem to have a new problem. I can boot and get to windows all my icons show up and my taskbar shows up. Problem is when i click on anything nothing happens taskbar icons won't respond desktop icons won't respond.
For the heck of it did the good old ctrl/alt delete and low and behold when the task manager starts up everything starts working and I can access the taskbar and all of the icons on the desktop.

I've been calling Lenovo who claim they don't support their preinstalled software and have been directed all over the place even back to newegg where I purchased it. Nobody seems to have a clue except run system recovery yet again. Been there done that twice already and it doesn't help.

Hoping somebody here has an idea I've even tried a few fixes from here with no success.

Anyway I ramble if you can help it would be great.

Thanks and again sorry if i put this in the wrong place new here.

Karen

Edited by 19believe59, 09 June 2009 - 10:05 AM.

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#2
The Skeptic

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Try to boot in safe mode and see if the icons work. The problems can be the result of a lot of causes such as corrupted preinstalled windows, viruses, a program or hardware that you installed etc.
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#3
19believe59

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Thanks ran a virus program did 2 recoveries defragged a couple of times tried some scripts. It also is including the taskbar when it doesn't respond. Not sure what f key starts in safe mode but working on finding out guessing it is a software issue or something as simple as a registry key. just running out of ideas.
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#4
19believe59

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I think it has something to do with the start menu. I changed it to classic view (which I hate yuck) rebooted and low and behold the taskbar worked and everything on the desktop responded. Now if anybody knows a fix a setting or whatever it takes to make the other start menu work I would be so happy.
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#5
Ectech

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I suspect you might be infected with malware. Do you have any antivirus programs?
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#6
19believe59

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I ran my anti virus I ran Windows defender. Avast came up with nothing defender came up with a few things that I quarantined didn't delete them in case something else went and i needed to restore them. The fix using the classic start menu was a fluke still didn't work.

I ran all of Lenovo checking software and have come up with no errors anywhere. Taskbar still freezes and can't be accessed the icons can sometimes be opened on the desktop but won't respond after that. ctrl/alt delete still makes everything work fine till the next reboot it's real strange.
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#7
diabillic

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I would recommend posting up in the Malware forum first so we can rule that out.

http://www.geekstogo...uide-t2852.html
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#8
19believe59

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No Malware involved. This laptop came with a XP downgrade and vista restore cd's so after nothing worked and the problem got bigger I loaded the vista and all was good for a day or so then the same problem. If I bring up the task manager then close it all works great till the next reboot. I've been reading around and seems I'm not the only one with the problem but there doesn't seem to be any permanent fix for it yet. I did find one corrupted file for the sidebar but it's just a ini file which is text and the sidebar works just fine.

Thanks for the help hope somebody comes up with the solution soon it's a pain starting the computer with task manager but it works. No need to stop the explorer exe either and restart it just opening it seems to do the trick for now.
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#9
diabillic

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Have you gotten a clean bill of health from the Malware forum?
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#10
19believe59

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I have ran every program recommended have done system restores system recoveries went from XP to the Vista upgrade that came with the laptop. It's a Lenovo G530 (4446). I've called microsoft called Lenovo of course they just keep passing the buck.
This has me baffled and as I read around here and other forums I'm not the only one with the problem.

All runs normally if I bring up task manager and then close it don't even have to type explorer exe as a new process.

I hate to be a pest but I do know there are no bugs of any kind in this thing. One of MS fixes is add something to the registry so I am guessing they are aware of the problem but not doing a whole lot about it.

I'm getting ready to try another recovery the last one I did was straight from the recovery dvd's that came with the laptop.
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#11
19believe59

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Ok one weird thing I think I may have found is in task manager under processes there are three instances of taskeng.exe two under my name and one under system I checked the properties of both of mine and they are identical the one under system comes up on it's own when I check the properties.

Edited by 19believe59, 19 June 2009 - 11:03 AM.

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