can't click on icons

[fenix]

Hi, I have a problem that I'm stuck on and would like some expert help.
I'm using a known good mouse and keyboard.


I'm trying to get a friends computer going. It's a Dell L 733r, PIII.
The label says
NT 4.0 and W98, but it's been upgraded to W2K 5.0: build 2195 Service
Pack 4 Free. I'm not sure if it was a clean install or an upgrade. It
has some version of AOL on it, and some version of Norton AV. User said
that nothing was downloaded or changed prior to this happening. It
boots extremely slow, about 4 minutes to get to the admin logon, then
about 5 minutes to get to the desktop. The task bar takes about 2
minutes to build, then 3 or 4 minutes to get the icons. Then, there is
NO response to left or right clicking on icons and there is no response
to any keyboard shortcuts.


* When the cursor is placed over the task bar, it turns into an
hourglass.


What does work is ctrl+alt+del to open the Task Manager. There, all
mouse and keyboard functions work fine. Processes view takes a few
minutes to open, but there doesn't look like any thing out of the
normal 23 process. I did see ipconfig as a process, but it disappeared.
I think there were 2 entries of it. But when I attempt to close it
with the X, I get a corrupted view result. A small portion of the
taskbar is mixed in with a now blank WTM window and the mouse freezes
up. Cntrl+alt+delete to restart the comptuter works fine.


The processes in safe mode are:
sys idle
system
SMSS.EXE
CSRSS.EXE
WINLOGON.EXE
SERVICES.EXE
LSASS.EXE
SVCHOST.EXE
wINmGMT.EXE
EXPLORER.EXE
taskmgr>exe


In normal start up, these processes are added to the above list:


svchost.exe
svchost.exe
spoolsv.exe
AOLacsd.exe
NAVAPSVC.EXE
regsvc.exe
mstask.exe
mspmspsv.exe


I tried F8/ last known good config and that didn't help. Went to an F8
C: prompt and tried chkdsk /f and it didn't find any errors. I guess
there is no defrag option in W2K or it just wasn't on this computer.
I'm not sure what the degugging option does, but I tried it anyway, no
help.


Is there anything else I can do to recover this OS or is it toast ?


Are there any repairs that can be done from a command prompt ?


I don't have the OS disk, but can I perhaps download a W2K repair
floppy if there is such a thing ?


Actually, I just found a 120 day evaluation W2K disk that perhaps might
have some repair options on it ? But another prob, I can't seem to get
into the bios setup to check the drive boot sequence. It doesn't boot
to the eval disk. I tried F1 and F2 and Ctrl. There was an AOL disk in
the drive, so I'm going to assume that the drive probably works.


Does anyone know which key is supposed to get into the setup on this
Dell L 733r ?


Thanks for any suggestions.

(I apologize for the staggered appearance of the text when I pasted it into this message, not sure what happened.)

 

[electronicsfreak]

If you can navigate in safe mode , try navigating in safe mode with networking. If you can go to this below and run it. Do a full system scan.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Or install this in safe mode and run it in safe mode with command prompt.

http://www.srnmicro.com/downloads/

in dos (command prompt) , navigate to folder which should be somewhere around this location.

C:\program files\srn micro\solclean.bat

solclean.bat i believe is the dos extenion to run this virus scanner.

 

[fenix]

Hi EF,


I take it you suspect that this condition is a virus. I didn't have much luck with your suggestions.

This computer was dropped off to me to fix and it has only AOL installed, so I can't use the links that you suggested.

I can't access the internet without the OS interface working. The first link you gave runs on the computer that is accessing it so that doesn't work, and the second link's download is 2MBs, so I can't store it on a floppy and run it on the bad machine. Any other suggestion on this ?

OR

IF all else fails, since this is just a guy that just needs internet access and eMail, can I run a 98 start up disk to wipe out W2K and repartition NTFS to FAT32, format,and then try to install 98 if I can get access to the cdrom drive?

I still need to find out how to access the bios setup on this machine, can't seem to find it with search engines yet.

 

[tuco7]

There was only thing that might make me think that you have a virus and that is wINmGMT.EXE is it listed like that with the upper and lower case or was that just the way you typed it. if it listed like that then you need to put a virus program in there and run it.

BIOS, reboot at tne start of the post screen, start pressing the delete key, that should get you into the BIOS

Perhaps he has a key to change from evaluation if he doses it would be alot easier to clean install 2000 by just putting the cd in it.

 

[fenix]

Hi, thanks for the help. Sorry I mistyped that particular entry. It is WinMgmt.exe. I checked here:

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/winmgmt/

and it just lists all small letters for a script program, so mayee you are correct. But I'm not sure what I can do about it unless I can
download a free virus program and save it on a floppy and run it on the bad computer from DOS ? Is this possible ?

There is no key available to change from the OS but that was a good idea.

Thanks for the bios setup instructions. Delete key did work. Funny thing though, when I entered Boot Configuration under advanced tab, there wasn't the usual menu that lists the drives and the order in which they boot. It just had, plug + play OS, (no), Reset Config (No)....I tried yes but it didn't give me what I was resetting so I went back to No, and Numlock. That's weird, I'm getting stuck at every angle.

Thanks again

 

[tfg13]

Does this system have a CD drive? Thought about downloading some of the excellent programs mentioned to you by electronicsfreak and possibly even downloading something like Stinger (virus checker) and some adaware stuff?

 

[fenix]

thanks for the reply, I went with a 98 install, and other than some modem and graphic drivers issues at hand, all went well.

I couldn't use the spyware advice/links because I couldn't use the cd drive with no response to mouse or keyboard. MicroTrend Housecall works on the affected computer remotely online so that wasn't possible. I could only use the drives for bootable devices.

 

[tfg13]

Were you able to boot the PC into safe mode? If you were, then you would have been able to find some of the issues electronicsfreak was talking about.

"I can't access the internet without the OS interface working."

I'm not following you on this one. During the splash screen (Windows 2000) did you hit F8? This should have taken you to a screen where you could select "safe mode", or "safe mode with networking". Do you have dial up? If you had broadband, you would have been able to get around the AOL thing.

Since you have loaded 98 on the laptop, I guess all of these suggestions really won't help you now.

 

[bcastner]

faq608-4650