"LOST" desktop icons and task bar

[terryJones]

My wife's machine has 'lost' everything. When it boots up the wallpaper apears, but nothing else. No taskbar, icons or anything.
I cannot even turn it off, there being no START button available. I have 'hovered' around the edges to try and find a hidden task bar with no luck.
Any thoughts out there before I do a new install of the OS, Win XP Pro.
TJ

[E-Liam]

Hi Terry,

Can you get it to start in safe mode? It sounds as though at some point in the satrt up it's locking up on one particular program. If you can start in safe mode, then we can try and tie it down to which one.

Cheers

Liam

[terryJones]

Hi E-Liam.
How can I force it into safe mode. It used to be 'F8' in '98se. does this still work?
TJ

[E-Liam]

Hi Terry,

Yep, as soon as the BIOS has initialised, just keep on tapping the F8 key until the options menu comes up. Select Safe mode and let it boot up.

IIRC you can connect to the net in safe mode with XP, so we can have a look in real time.

Cheers

Liam

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

terryJones,

Before installing WinXP, what are the specs on that Win98 machine? (Most Importantly CPU type, speed and amount of RAM.)

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. The comp has not lost the desktop, it is just hanging as Win98 loads (before it gets to the desktop). You should get to your desktop in Safe Mode as Liam said.

[terryJones]

Hi Richard.
The machine has got XP now. My reference to 98se was that I knew about 'F8' on win98, but did not know if it was the same on XP.
The spec:-
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
512 memory (PC2700)
64 m Radion Vid card
40Gb drive.

Worked fine until... It was turned on and no desktop or icons, just the picture.

I cannot tell if it will start in Safe Mode yet, as I cannot access the machine at the moment. (She is having the kitchen 'done-up' so its not connected at the moment), but just trying to get some info for when I can play with it again. A list of 'Things to Try' if you see what I mean.

I forsee one problem 'tho. She has a wireless keyboard and mouse, so have I. When mine threw a wobbly a few weeks back and started in safe mode itself, I could not 'talk' to it as the keyboard/mouse drivers were not loaded. I suppose I can plug a normal board/mouse in to try it anyway.
TJ

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

terryJones,

What are you waiting for!!! Get WinXP in that comp and never look back. :eek:

Take Care,

Richard

[terryJones]

E-Liam
It will not go into safe mode. It just lists a page or so of ' instructions' then freezes.
Ctrl/Alt/Del will do nothing at this point so it's back to just pulling the plug on it...
It gave an option of 'Last working configuration' or words to this effect, but this just froze with a blank screen and a white line across the bottom. I left this for a few minutes before trying to shift it, but again the only way was switching off.

Richard.
It has already got XP in it, and was running great until it was turned on once. Then all we get is the wallpaper and nothing else. There have been no Hardware or Software changes since it last worked properly.

Looks like it's going to be a case of a fresh install, probably Thursday when I can get on the machine again, but thanks both for the interest anyway.

TJ

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

terryJones,

I saw:

It used to be 'F8' in '98se.

And for some reason thought you were running Win98SE. :eek:

Since you are running WinXP, I would take the WinXP CD and use is to do a repair of your OS. This should not take more that 30 minutes to run and will give you a better than 50% chance of reviving your system.

(When running the WinXP CD, do not hit "R" in Recovery Console, go to the next screen where you hit "R" which is System Repair.)

Take Care,

Richard