[JamesCowes]

First off, I have spent all day searchig for a solution but none would work for me. And I do mean plus many many hours of searching googling and have not found the solution.
I have a desktop Dell Dimension 3100. Something has caused it to now only boot up till the desktop page, but no icons and no start bar.
I thought easiest solution would be to do a Repair Install. (yes I know not the best first option!!!)
I used the Disk XP SP2 provied with the computer XP SP2 Media Home Edition.
I did the install and it gets a long way in and then comes up with a long error about
mscoree.dll and then mscorwks.dll that they are not available.
So then I did the research. Yep, I have learnt my lesson on this one. Research first, then action!!!
I have used Ctrl Alt Del to get to task manager.
I have tried entering explorer.exe, a brief flash of the Start Bar and nothing eles.
I have tried the option of renaming explorer.exe to explorer1.exe
I have tried all other "safe" modes. none let me see any desktop icons or start bar. Safe mode comes up as a black background with Safe Mode in the corners.
I have tried to but found no way of copying mscorwks.dll & mscoree.dll from my other laptop. I tried to download from a website only had zip files. the default option to unzip is an expired option. I cant right click and use another option. I have now managed to pass this but still no joy.
I am unable to do a restore to an earlier point due to running the repair install.
I have run AVG 2011 free and it healed some items, sorry didnt make a note of what.
I have run Spybot and let it do its thing, it cured some items.
---------------------------------
All to no success. Still at the system boots to the desktop page no icons no start page.
I can open the Task manager with Ctrl Alt Del. Here I can access my desktop and open most items. i can launch Safari but not Explorer 8. If I run explorer.exe I get a 1 second flash of the Start Bar.
any ideas of how I can get this back running again. ----------------------------

[Saga Lout]

Press Control, Shift and Escape together to bring up the Task Manager. Under the Processes tab, from the File menu select New Task and type explorer.exe into the box and hit Enter. That should restore the screen to normal but the reasons why it happened are worrying and you need to scan for malware.

[throoper]

On your keyboard press the Windows key+R. That should call the Run box.
On the command line type sfc /scannow(note the space between f and /) and click OK.
Insert your disc if prompted and let it run to completion.
That should restore any missing or damaged system files.

T.

[gfne]

Sounds like registry corruption. From task manager, run regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/explorer. Go to the menus and find the export feature to use it to back it up. Then right click explorer and click delete.

Then try to run explorer again.

If that doesn't work, you may need to reset your users registry. To do that, we need to access another "administrative type" user, go into your users documents and settings folder, backup and replace the ntuser.dat with the ntuser.dat file in the default users documents and settings folder.

[JamesCowes]

Originally Posted by Saga Lout

Press Control, Shift and Escape together to bring up the Task Manager. Under the Processes tab, from the File menu select New Task and type explorer.exe into the box and hit Enter. That should restore the screen to normal but the reasons why it happened are worrying and you need to scan for malware.

Firstly, many thanks for your message. This has been driving me nuts!

I tried your suggestion, but all that happens is that explorer.exe appears briefly in the Task manager Processes collum then dissapears ... The Start Bar flashes up for a second and then also dissappears.

I can launch most other items, AVG etc and safari which all work but iexplorer.exe wont launch.

[JamesCowes]

Originally Posted by throoper

On your keyboard press the Windows key+R. That should call the Run box.
On the command line type sfc /scannow(note the space between f and /) and click OK.
Insert your disc if prompted and let it run to completion.
That should restore any missing or damaged system files.

T.

Hi throoper,
Thanks for your suggestion,

The shortcut windows key + R wouldn't work, so I opened the task manager via ctrl alt del and then launched sfc /scannow from there.

It ran all the way to completion but I still have a desktop with no icons or start bar.

any thoughts ???

[JamesCowes]

Originally Posted by gfne

Sounds like registry corruption. From task manager, run regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/explorer. Go to the menus and find the export feature to use it to back it up. Then right click explorer and click delete.

Then try to run explorer again.

If that doesn't work, you may need to reset your users registry. To do that, we need to access another "administrative type" user, go into your users documents and settings folder, backup and replace the ntuser.dat with the ntuser.dat file in the default users documents and settings folder.

Hi thanks for your help, alas no change.

I exported explorer and then deleted it.
then went to the taskmanager and entered explorer.exe via the Run option.
same symptons, explorer.exe comes up in the processes collum briefly and also the Start Bar flashes briefly. then its still just my wallpaper, no icons and no start bar.

Your next option, could you give me a bit more of a description of how to do that. dont quite follow what i should do. thanks

[gfne]

Its virus/malware alright. I've had one of these. I wouldn't even allow for me to open task manager or regedit or anything else to troubleshoot the matter.

What about the event viewer? Can we somehow access that to see what (if any) error is being thrown?

[notnewcivilman]

I think that gfne is right. Get to a run screen again and type this: eventvwr.msc

That should open event viewer for you.

[JamesCowes]

Hi okay tried that one this is new territory for me.

Under the Application section.

Red X Error various dates for COM+, ASP.NET 1.0.3705.6018, and others

Lots of Information sections numerous sources,

Warnings, various dates, Sources are WinMgmt, Event System,

One thing is a Google Update lots of Errors back in 12/07/2010

Next Security
nothing to note.

Next System.
red X Error various dates Source DCOM, Service Control Manager, SideBySide (many times).
Warnings. various dates Source ftdisk

Internet Explorer.
Nothing

Media Center,
Warning for various dates going back to when I bought the computer (1,074 events) all source is Recording.

Sorry to not be of much help but this section is new territory for me. let me know what information I can pass to you and your help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks.

[gfne]

I would like to see the red X errors for the system, starting with service control manager, dcom, and sidebyside.