Can't open applications

[brbarto]

When I started my computer, I had a message something about a problem with the registry and it had been successfully fixed. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what it said. Howerever, now I can't open any of my applications by clicking on them. I have to right click and open. I sometimes get the following message when opening something like Word 2003: An error occurred and this feature is no longer functioning properly. Please run Setup and select "Repair.." to restore this application.

Any help would be appreciated. (I have done CHKDSK /r)

 

[DestinysDream]

Did you rerun the setup for Office and select "Repair"?

If anyone calls and says "I know a little something about computers" just tell them to reformat it.

 

[satrow]

You may have failing memory, hard disk or a virus, as first thoughts; can you reboot and see if the error occurs again?

Give us some background on your hardware too, thanks.

Andy.

 

[bcastner]

The applications may appear damaged because of the registry error. Start, Adminstrative Tools, Event Viewer. Could you locate the exact error event and post it here?

 

[mach04]

If I were you i would scan my drive for trojans. I had a similar problem with my old pc which runs on win98. Norton didn't help at all, instead i used AVG antivirus and it spotted 2 trojans for me ever since those applications began working well again.

 

[brbarto]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. Unfortunately, it may be a couple of days before I can work on this. I am using a Compaq Presario 2575 laptop - 80 GB hard drive-Pentium 4-2.66GHz-512 RAM.

I haven't tried the Office setup and repair yet, since it involved other applications. If I reboot, I do not get the registry error. I am going to look into a possible virus. I don't feel it's a virus, but I know I have to seriously consider it.

I am not sure what I was suppose to be looking for in the Event Viewer. I did find the registry error. Is any of the following info useful? (Again, thanks!)

Application popup: Windows - Registry Recovery : One of the files containing the system's Registry data had to be recovered by use of a log or alternate copy. The recovery was successful.

Faulting application HPWirelessMgr.exe, version 1.0.0.7, faulting module atl.dll, version 3.0.9435.0, fault address 0x00001285.

The application, C:\Program Files\HPQ\Notebook Utilities\HPWirelessMgr.exe, generated an application error The error occurred on 07/27/2004 @ 23:26:59.370 The exception generated was c0000005 at address 76B21285 (ATL!AtlAdvise)

Failed auto update retrieval of third-party root list sequence number from: <

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/v3/static/trustedr/en/authrootseq.txt>

with error: 0x8ca

Hanging application IEXPLORE.EXE, version 6.0.2800.1106, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\D.

The Ati HotKey Poller service failed to start due to the following error:
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

The HPWirelessMgr service hung on starting.

The HPWirelessMgr service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s).

 

[bcastner]

For the registry issue, see: thread779-641755