At Boot nothing comes up but desktop background

--
in a tail spin


"turt288" wrote:

> The computer in question belongs to my daughter and is a Dell Dimension 4700
> Micro-Tower with a pentium 4 Processor 520 (2.8Ghz, 800 FSB). She has the
> Windows XP Home Edition.
> We had a power outage in the area and her power was off for 6 days. (From
> Oct. 25 to Oct. 30) When she got on her computer on Oct. 31 it was running
> slow and internet explorer wouldn't open browser windows. She rebooted and
> everything was working fine. She ran a virus scan and it showed up clean.
> (I might add here, a few days before the power went out her virus scan turned
> up a Trojan and said it had deleted the files from it. She can't remember
> the name of the Trojan it found.) She was on the computer for about 3 hours
> and turned it off. The next time she turned it on the only thing showing was
> the desktop background, no taskbar, start menu, or shortcut icons.
> I am sorry this is a long description but I am a firm believer in the "the
> more you know, the more you can do" philosophy.
> We tried opening in safe mode, nothing but a black screen with the system
> listed top, center, and safe mode in all 4 corners.
> We tried last known working configuration, nothing but desktop background.
> We tried safe mode with command prompt, still nothing.
> We tried booting from the CD-DVD drive and got the Windows XP CD to open and
> tried to use the repair. At first it seemed to be working, it started off
> deleting files but when it came time to copy files it said it couldn't copy
> any of them so we finally gave up on that.
> We tried booting from the Dell Resource CD and got it to run diagnostics,
> the CD-DVD ROM drive did not pass the confidence test or the read test.
> Everything else passed. (I ran the test again later and it passed the
> confidence test but still not the read test.)
> We got the taskmanager to open and tried to run CD's from the CD-DVD drive
> (D but it says "no disk in drive". We tried running from the CD-RW drive
> (E and got them to run from there but they wouldn't do anything. The
> Windows XP CD would open but if we tried to open anything but the install
> button it stopped responding. We tried to do an upgrade install but it
> didn't work.
> From the taskmanager I found that her I386 file was missing from drive C so
> I put the Windows XP CD in drive E and copied it with the command prompt.
> I386 was back where it was suppose to be. That didn't fix the problem though.
> I copied the Dell resource CD the same way, still nothing.
> I have looked through her files and from what I can tell they are there.
> Her program files, drive files, system 32 files, windows files, are all there
> but when I try to open most things I get the invalid file path message.
> Since she has no floppy drive I tried to copy files to a RW disk from
> command prompt (which I read in the help and support doesn't work except to
> put it to the CD Burning file) but it said invalid file path.
> I tried to open some of her picture files and the only thing that will open
> them is the Windows picture and fax viewer but it won't let me send them or
> save them. The program stops responding if I try anything but viewing.
> I am really sorry it has taken me so long to get to my question, but here it
> is: What next? Should I give up and just do the Dell Restore to factory
> settings?
> Thanks for your patience and your help.
> DJB
 >> Stay informed about: At Boot nothing comes up but desktop background 

Hello to the community, was really in a tail spin. New to all this and did
not know how to reach my replies but in searching I found help and success
with F8. Took a while going through the safe modes but here I am on my own
comp.
To the lady who had no success wiith F8 may this newbie suggest going back
on earlier date.
Disregard other request from me. Thanks so much. Keep up the good work.
Unfortunately nothing in the MS help ?? addressed my prob. bye

--
in a tail spin


"thecreator" wrote:

> Hi Marge,
>
> Does she have the Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 Upgrade CD? You
> can fix it, by doing a repair of the operating system from the Windows XP HE
> CD.
>
> Attached are the instructions for doing so.
>
>
> --
> thecreator
>
>
> "Marge" <Marge.DeleteThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:35661041-72BB-41AA-A4A9-68A4408046BA@microsoft.com...
> >
> > --
> > in a tail spin
> >
> >
> > "turt288" wrote:
> >
> >> The computer in question belongs to my daughter and is a Dell Dimension
> >> 4700
> >> Micro-Tower with a pentium 4 Processor 520 (2.8Ghz, 800 FSB). She has
> >> the
> >> Windows XP Home Edition.
> >> We had a power outage in the area and her power was off for 6 days.
> >> (From
> >> Oct. 25 to Oct. 30) When she got on her computer on Oct. 31 it was
> >> running
> >> slow and internet explorer wouldn't open browser windows. She rebooted
> >> and
> >> everything was working fine. She ran a virus scan and it showed up
> >> clean.
> >> (I might add here, a few days before the power went out her virus scan
> >> turned
> >> up a Trojan and said it had deleted the files from it. She can't
> >> remember
> >> the name of the Trojan it found.) She was on the computer for about 3
> >> hours
> >> and turned it off. The next time she turned it on the only thing showing
> >> was
> >> the desktop background, no taskbar, start menu, or shortcut icons.
> >> I am sorry this is a long description but I am a firm believer in the
> >> "the
> >> more you know, the more you can do" philosophy.
> >> We tried opening in safe mode, nothing but a black screen with the system
> >> listed top, center, and safe mode in all 4 corners.
> >> We tried last known working configuration, nothing but desktop
> >> background.
> >> We tried safe mode with command prompt, still nothing.
> >> We tried booting from the CD-DVD drive and got the Windows XP CD to open
> >> and
> >> tried to use the repair. At first it seemed to be working, it started
> >> off
> >> deleting files but when it came time to copy files it said it couldn't
> >> copy
> >> any of them so we finally gave up on that.
> >> We tried booting from the Dell Resource CD and got it to run diagnostics,
> >> the CD-DVD ROM drive did not pass the confidence test or the read test.
> >> Everything else passed. (I ran the test again later and it passed the
> >> confidence test but still not the read test.)
> >> We got the taskmanager to open and tried to run CD's from the CD-DVD
> >> drive
> >> (D but it says "no disk in drive". We tried running from the CD-RW
> >> drive
> >> (E and got them to run from there but they wouldn't do anything. The
> >> Windows XP CD would open but if we tried to open anything but the install
> >> button it stopped responding. We tried to do an upgrade install but it
> >> didn't work.
> >> From the taskmanager I found that her I386 file was missing from drive C
> >> so
> >> I put the Windows XP CD in drive E and copied it with the command prompt.
> >> I386 was back where it was suppose to be. That didn't fix the problem
> >> though.
> >> I copied the Dell resource CD the same way, still nothing.
> >> I have looked through her files and from what I can tell they are there.
> >> Her program files, drive files, system 32 files, windows files, are all
> >> there
> >> but when I try to open most things I get the invalid file path message.
> >> Since she has no floppy drive I tried to copy files to a RW disk from
> >> command prompt (which I read in the help and support doesn't work except
> >> to
> >> put it to the CD Burning file) but it said invalid file path.
> >> I tried to open some of her picture files and the only thing that will
> >> open
> >> them is the Windows picture and fax viewer but it won't let me send them
> >> or
> >> save them. The program stops responding if I try anything but viewing.
> >> I am really sorry it has taken me so long to get to my question, but here
> >> it
> >> is: What next? Should I give up and just do the Dell Restore to factory
> >> settings?
> >> Thanks for your patience and your help.
> >> DJB
>
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: At Boot nothing comes up but desktop background 

--
thanks for you help!


"turt288" wrote:

> The computer in question belongs to my daughter and is a Dell Dimension 4700
> Micro-Tower with a pentium 4 Processor 520 (2.8Ghz, 800 FSB). She has the
> Windows XP Home Edition.
> We had a power outage in the area and her power was off for 6 days. (From
> Oct. 25 to Oct. 30) When she got on her computer on Oct. 31 it was running
> slow and internet explorer wouldn't open browser windows. She rebooted and
> everything was working fine. She ran a virus scan and it showed up clean.
> (I might add here, a few days before the power went out her virus scan turned
> up a Trojan and said it had deleted the files from it. She can't remember
> the name of the Trojan it found.) She was on the computer for about 3 hours
> and turned it off. The next time she turned it on the only thing showing was
> the desktop background, no taskbar, start menu, or shortcut icons.
> I am sorry this is a long description but I am a firm believer in the "the
> more you know, the more you can do" philosophy.
> We tried opening in safe mode, nothing but a black screen with the system
> listed top, center, and safe mode in all 4 corners.
> We tried last known working configuration, nothing but desktop background.
> We tried safe mode with command prompt, still nothing.
> We tried booting from the CD-DVD drive and got the Windows XP CD to open and
> tried to use the repair. At first it seemed to be working, it started off
> deleting files but when it came time to copy files it said it couldn't copy
> any of them so we finally gave up on that.
> We tried booting from the Dell Resource CD and got it to run diagnostics,
> the CD-DVD ROM drive did not pass the confidence test or the read test.
> Everything else passed. (I ran the test again later and it passed the
> confidence test but still not the read test.)
> We got the taskmanager to open and tried to run CD's from the CD-DVD drive
> (D but it says "no disk in drive". We tried running from the CD-RW drive
> (E and got them to run from there but they wouldn't do anything. The
> Windows XP CD would open but if we tried to open anything but the install
> button it stopped responding. We tried to do an upgrade install but it
> didn't work.
> From the taskmanager I found that her I386 file was missing from drive C so
> I put the Windows XP CD in drive E and copied it with the command prompt.
> I386 was back where it was suppose to be. That didn't fix the problem though.
> I copied the Dell resource CD the same way, still nothing.
> I have looked through her files and from what I can tell they are there.
> Her program files, drive files, system 32 files, windows files, are all there
> but when I try to open most things I get the invalid file path message.
> Since she has no floppy drive I tried to copy files to a RW disk from
> command prompt (which I read in the help and support doesn't work except to
> put it to the CD Burning file) but it said invalid file path.
> I tried to open some of her picture files and the only thing that will open
> them is the Windows picture and fax viewer but it won't let me send them or
> save them. The program stops responding if I try anything but viewing.
> I am really sorry it has taken me so long to get to my question, but here it
> is: What next? Should I give up and just do the Dell Restore to factory
> settings?
> Thanks for your patience and your help.
> DJB
 >> Stay informed about: At Boot nothing comes up but desktop background