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Task Bar and Boxes Gone

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DonP

DonP

IS-IT--Management
Jul 20, 2000
684
US
Suddenly the Windows taskbar is empty and no windows will open up any secondary window. Even the event viewer does not allow me to see the details of the event. Once a window is in the background, I can see it in the Task Manager but I cannot open it again. Apparently some service has stopped running but I am not sure which one nor how to restart it since the service properties themselves do not appear either! Anyone know some command lines that might help? Thanks!

Don
Experienced in HTML, Perl, PHP, VBScript, PWS, IIS and Apache and MS-Access, MS-SQL, MySQL databases
 
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You can use "net start {ServiceName}" to start the service.

It will be easier to reboot however.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

[noevil]
(Not quite so old any more.)
 
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Rebooting starts it back up just as it is now and I have no idea which service to restart! In the Services panel, there are only 8 or 9 services running out of many that should have been started, yet none will start. They indicate some missing dependancy but do not elaborate on what it is. I was hoping that someone could tell me which services to restart, and in which order to restart them.

Don
Experienced in HTML, Perl, PHP, VBScript, PWS, IIS and Apache and MS-Access, MS-SQL, MySQL databases
 
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I just realized that, while I can move open applications, I cannot move any desktop icons. Otherwise the desktop looks the same as it did before this weird problem began.

Don
Experienced in HTML, Perl, PHP, VBScript, PWS, IIS and Apache and MS-Access, MS-SQL, MySQL databases
 
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It brought forth new things I hadn't noticed: I had to type in the URL manually since I could neither click on it nor copy and paste it from the clipboard. Once I got it downloaded, the installer wouldn't run so I can't try it out.

Don
Experienced in HTML, Perl, PHP, VBScript, PWS, IIS and Apache and MS-Access, MS-SQL, MySQL databases
 
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Interesting that the system connects to the Internet when I reboot (even though booting takes a long time) because I see no connections where there used to be three. It says "the network is not present or started".

net start server

and

net start workstation

both give an error that the service is not responding to the control function.

Don
Experienced in HTML, Perl, PHP, VBScript, PWS, IIS and Apache and MS-Access, MS-SQL, MySQL databases
 
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Its a little late, so I might be off a bit. But, couldn't you download & install this on a seperate PC linked into the network and run it from that PC?
 
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I thought of that but I can't access the other computers since this one can't even find the network. It says simple, "the network is not present or not started" when I try.

Don
Experienced in HTML, Perl, PHP, VBScript, PWS, IIS and Apache and MS-Access, MS-SQL, MySQL databases
 
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May not help, but worth a try:
sfc /scannow

Does this change anything?
 
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I should have asked this first (but you probably have already tried it)... can you get into safe mode? If so, can you access event viewer from here?
 
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No, I haven't tried it yet (I keep thinking the solution will be found before it's necessary) but will once the sfc /scannow is finished running.

Just to be clear, I can see the event viewer now but I can't open the event details. There seem to me many Application userenv and DNS Server errors.

Don
Experienced in HTML, Perl, PHP, VBScript, PWS, IIS and Apache and MS-Access, MS-SQL, MySQL databases
 
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sfc /scannow finally finished running but if it had any results, it did not present them. It seemed to just end. Does it save the results to a file somewhere?

Don
Experienced in HTML, Perl, PHP, VBScript, PWS, IIS and Apache and MS-Access, MS-SQL, MySQL databases
 
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I managed to get into Safe Mode but it was no different and I still could not access anything.

Through the command line, is there a way to reenable services that have been disabled? I know now how to start and stop them but not how to reenable them.

Don
Experienced in HTML, Perl, PHP, VBScript, PWS, IIS and Apache and MS-Access, MS-SQL, MySQL databases
 
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I had the same exact problem with my Windows 2000 Pro.. Ive been told that some files have been corrupted, so I recovered and everuthing went back to normal.. Hope that helps
 
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When I try to recover using the Windows installation CD, I get an error that certain services it needs are not running, hence the problem. I think I may have accidentally disabled a service that should have been left running. It's a good thought but I doubt that anything is actually corrupt in this case.

Although I also tried to reinstall by booting to the CD, the CD won't boot for unrelated hardware reasons that I have yet to resolve (I think it conflicts with my tape backup drive).

Don
Experienced in HTML, Perl, PHP, VBScript, PWS, IIS and Apache and MS-Access, MS-SQL, MySQL databases
 
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From a command prompt you can use SC to change the status of services.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

[noevil]
(Not quite so old any more.)
 
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Thanks! That's very helpful although with my system's current limited accessibility, I can't quite seem to find how to actually enable a disabled service. If I read it correctly, it appears that:

sc config TAPIsrv start= boot

(for example) should do it but doesn't. It gives an error that he parameter is incorrect.

Don
Experienced in HTML, Perl, PHP, VBScript, PWS, IIS and Apache and MS-Access, MS-SQL, MySQL databases
 
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The command should look like this.
Code: 
sc \\127.0.0.1 config dhcp start= auto

Services can be set to auto, demand or disabled. Drivers can be set to boot or system.

Put in 127.0.0.1 so you don't have to worry about name resolution. I did this on the dhcp service.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

[noevil]
(Not quite so old any more.)
 
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