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Thread ID: 92803 2008-08-23 08:18:00 no desktop showing wotz (335) Press F1
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699751 2008-08-23 08:18:00 My brother has a laptop that all of a sudden wouldn't boot to desktop (XP home). It boots to a black screen with no shortcuts, task bar, nothing. Makes no difference in safe mode. He can get task manager with ctrl alt del and can run apps from there. Any ideas as to the problem? wotz (335)
699752 2008-08-23 08:32:00 Sounds a bit odd - but try this and see if it helps -- ( from another site, but I modified it slightly)

See if you can get a menu. ---- RIGHT click on your desktop and choosing PROPERTIES and then clicking on the DESKTOP tab, then click on CUSTOMIZE DESKTOP button and then on the WEB tab.
Make sure the LOCK DESKTOP ITEMS is NOT on and as well, there should be nothing checked, nor should there be anything listed except 'my current home page' which should NOT be checked. If there is anything else you should remove it.

Your Laptop may have some sort of spyware - bring up the task manager / Processes, look to see if anything is using system resources, if there is take a note of it, then kill the process..

If that doesn't work, try starting the laptop as if going into safe mode, but this time select safe Mode with command prompt.

With the Command prompt box open, type in

C:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe Press Enter, that will load up system Restore, wind the system back a day or so to before the problem occurred.

If this works, download HiJack This (www.trendsecure.com) - do a scan, save a log and copy paste it back here.
wainuitech (129)
699753 2008-08-23 08:35:00 What happens if you select last known good config in the menu?

What did you install recently?

this sounds similar (www.daniweb.com)

One reply was SP2 hung during install and stuffed it, till they uninstalled / reinstalled it

So it could be a corrupt install / file
Speedy Gonzales (78)
699754 2008-08-23 09:06:00 boots to a black screen with no shortcuts, task bar, nothing. Makes no difference in safe mode.

I had one like that. It had had major malware.
I had to do a repair install and recreate the profile. It lost most of the profile too.
pctek (84)
699755 2008-08-23 09:22:00 system restore did the job wotz (335)
699756 2008-08-23 10:11:00 Good that its working again - Now post a log file using Hijack This - as Pctek mentioned the PC could be infested with malware, and needs a good clean out other wise it will happen again, and next time may not work.

Better to have the system checked here by people who know what they are doing and make sure its as clean as possible.
wainuitech (129)
699757 2008-08-23 10:18:00 Can't get hold of him now. He has up to date av, spybot and adaware. wotz (335)
699758 2008-08-23 10:22:00 Hmmm - Ok then if possible, download from my sig, Spyware terminator, Malwarebytes - both free, install and run .

It may have just been some sort of once only corruption, but If possible get a hijack log - better to be safe than sorry .
wainuitech (129)
699759 2008-08-25 02:39:00 I had the same problem in the weekend, and in task manager if I closed down MSIEXEC.exe the taskbar and desktop icons would come back and I could used my computer as normal. I fixed the problem by unregistering the Windows Installer files and then rebooting in safe mode and reregistering them. Penetrator (14021)
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