computer down

My sister's provider is a cable company. Yesterday, she left it on, which ran the screen saver, then goes to blank screen...that's fine, but this AM when she moved the mouse to bring it up, all she gets is her main background page - NO icons, NO toolbars, even the "START" square is gone.

She tried cntrl/alt+del and it said it was running a program and she clicked End Task, turned it off and started it again, but same result.

Any ideas?
Thanks for your help

 

What is the program that you "End Task" on? Make a note of it.

First thing I'd suggest is try starting the PC up in Safe Mode - Shut down (with Ctrl+Alt+Del). Turn it back on, and whilst it's booting up, hold down the Ctrl key (may be a different key - possibly F4 - on some PCs). It will give you a list of options - choose Safe Mode.
When Windows boots up, you should have your icons and Start button back, but your display will be messed up (don't worry about this!).
Go to Start, Run and type msconfig. When the System Configuration window appears, click the Startup tab on the far right.
This is a list of all of the programs that automatically run when you turn your PC on. You can uncheck the box of the program that was causing you a problem, then click OK.

Restart your PC as normal and hopefully your problem will be solved.
Reply to this thread to let us know how it goes. If you have a lot of programs in that Start Up list, you may want to post them here and we'll help you identify those you need and those you don't.

Gram

This question should probably be in one of the Windows forums, not Business Apps, if someone wants to move it!

 

Thanks Gram....I will forward this info to her.

Terri

 

Safe mode = F5 in Win95/98

 

Oops! Dreamboat's correct (Cheers lady!), it's F5, not F4.

Gram

 

Thanks guys for the help....I will pass this along. She couldn't get into safe mode, but will try F5.
The systems that are running (the End TAsk ones) are:
Vsstat , and Webscan Explorer

She also mentioned that every so often a small box appears with the windows logo in the corner and states that it is updating the shortcuts program......whatever that means.

Is this something I need to alert her about?
Thanks everyone.....once again this is a great help site!

 

If it were me, I'd get rid of webscan explorer. Unfortunately, webscans cause me problems all the time.

Start-Run and type:

msconfig

Hit Enter.
Click on Startup tab.
Uncheck Webscan explorer.

If it's windows 95, then it's a registry edit probably, but you might be able to remove it from C:\windows\start menu\programs\startup.

Vsstat belongs there--it's the virus checker. Webscan probably is too, but, like I said...

 

thanks Dreamboat....I will tell her.

Appreciate your help.

 

ok...here we go again. went into safe mode OK...etc, etc...
there is no set StartUp tab....she gets a multiple tab folder and clicks on "general". there she has 3 types of start ups:
1) diagnostic 2) normal or: 3) selective.
She says that it keeps starting up in "selective" (even when she chooses NOrmal and reboots) and when she clicks to remove vsstat and 2 webscans then hits OK, they come back up as still on when she reboots.
And she still has no icons or toolbars, etc......
and what is the notice from MS that it is updating her shortcut program?

Sorry about this....but I am totally clueless.
Thanks again!

Terri

 

I think we will be far better off if we first determine what version of Windows she is running.

 

dreamboat.....thanks for hanging in there with me....
She is running Win98....as am I. I went through the same steps listed and found the multiple folder etc....mine is also set on Selective Startup.....
She did find the startup tab and clicked to remove 2 versions of webscan, as well as the vsstat.....then shut down and came back up, but they were selected to run on start up again.
She tells me that she is not connected to internet right now, but still should get icons, etc... the puter is totally nonfunctional.

Thanks again for your continued help

 

Thanks dreamboat....anyone else have ideas for helping this?

Thanks to all!

 

sorry to repeat....but I am totally clueless about this computer failure. No icons, no toolbars, no start ....zero.
She is running win98 and is not connect to net.
Appreciate anyone's help!

Thanks!!