[glcv]

Please help. Desktop and laptop connected via vireless access point. Printer connected directly to desktop. Previously file and printer sharing worked without incident. Suddenly laptop cannot see desktop (doesn't appear on workgroup, and network locations can't be accessed) Desktop can see the laptop (its listed in the workgroup) but it cannot access laptop's shared files. I decided to ping from each computer to see if they could talk. Laptop can talk to desktop - ping comes back just fine. BUT the desktop has a major error when I ping .... I type the ping and IP address and I get a bunch of garbage on the screen and an error message that says NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction. CS:0549IP:ffe4OP:feff1d094f

I have no idea what this means - but it seems fairly serious. Like perhaps a registry problem, and maybe it was caused by a virus??? I have a router, with mac address filtering and 128 bit security, plus I use Norton Internet security on the dektop, and norton antivirus and windows firewall on the laptop. I HAVE however downloaded music and other files recently, and I had a big problem with adware on the laptop that forced me to system restore - but it seems OK now, and the desktop has always been clean.

I am going to run antivirus and anti spyware on the desktop now .. if anyone can help me figure this out I would be very appreciative!
Thanks!!
Gretchen

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[glcv]

I appreciate the response, but given as this is the dos cmd and not some fancy third party software it is pretty difficult for MS to blame it on them.

By way of explanation for anyone else reading this, I did A LOT of searching on the internet and found a number of people who had similar errors while using different programs or files. In several cases the user was prevented from editing their registry files, and some had the system 32 folder apparently missing ....
which turned out to be my case too.

So I know it sounds crazy, but the system 32 folder actually appeared to be missing. Others speculated this is a virus that hijacks the system 32 folder and hides it, which I believe is the case. I tried doing several restores to points several weeks earlier before I loaded software that might have given the virus a point of entry, but no luck - each restore said that nothing had changed (and definately a lot had changed, so I know the system files had been compromised.)

Basically I figured this was a very tricky worm and I am only a mediocre user with limited time to work on this. I had already backed up everything, so I just reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled XP. It fixed the problem and now virus and adware scans are clean (though they were before too, probably because they managed to remain hidden ...)

So no wonder my networking wouldn't work eh?? It worked after I reinstalled the OS, but then dropped again once I installed norton firewall and antivirus as well as antispyware. So there is some kind of firewall issue here, though I have allowed both firewalls to have printer sharing and done every other sort of trick I could think of, they just can't seem to connect to each other anymore. Ping works now for I address, but not for computer names on both ends, so that means they are having trouble resolving the name - but how to fix this?? I guess that's what you get for using a simple MS solution with a complicated security setup (which most simple users never bother to do). I am frustrated since I can no longer print, so if anybody has some suggestions I am all ears.

Gretchen

[BLACKACREGIRL]

Anything further on this-- i have the same problem.