Computer is messed up, Please help

SC UL8R1990

Registered User
My computer is messed up and im really worried. I have no recycling bin......and when i go to the start button then "All Programs" there is nothing!!!! whats wrong?

please help
thanks
 
another thing -

when i try to search for anything , i get nothing, it doesnt even try searching for files.
 
OS ? i dunno im not a computer pro:(

im on windows home XP , and internet explorer 6

this is really bad, i keep seeing something about the DLL not working or something?. my outlook express mail is not working either.
 
is there a way i can restart the computer from its original settings? like just completely start over again?

is there a microsoft tech line i can call?
 
I'm sorry...OS stands for oporating system and you answered my qeustion by replying you use windows XP.
I have some good news and I have some bad news.
Good news first:
Windows XP has a restore system feature built into it, so in answer to your qeustion yes you can go back in time on the settings of your computer to around the day it was setup as long as the feature is turned on. By default that feature is turned on but check and make sure by left clicking on the start button then double left click the control panel icon. Once the control panel opens you will see an icon called System double left click the system icon. A window should open that has info about your comp listed and you should see 2 rows of tabs along the top edge of the window. Find the one that says system restore and left click it. On that page you will see how your comp is set up to handle certain different problems. Look for a small box to the far left of the window and not quite halfway down the window. The words "Turn off system restore" are right beside the little box. Make sure that box does not have a checkmark in it. No check in the box means system restor is turned ON, a check mark in the box means system restore is NOT turned on and you're screwed as far as an easy fix.
Now for the bad news:
I dont remember how to access the system restore console, but I will find it again here in a little while and post the instructions for you, give me alittle time.
 
OK I remember now!(getting old sucks)
Left click the start button and then place the cursor over the words "All Programs" and a list of all the programs on your comp will expand now move your cursor to the Accesories listing and another list will appear move your cursor to the listing "system tools" one last list should appear and the very last listing is System Restore. Move the cursor to that listing and left click.
System restore is now open and it will walk you through the process. Just take the time to understand the instructions as you go, just select an available date that you want to return your settings to and follow the directions to reset it to that dates settings.
Good luck!
 
well i ended up just rebooting the computer and reinstalling windows xp, now all of a sudden when i go to play mpegs or anything with windows media player is says i dont have the storage?

i have no idea whats going on or what happened to my puter
 
i just went to play different mpegs and all of them said

"there is not enough storage to complete this operation"
"Unspecified XML Parse Error"
 
What kind of comp do you have? in other words who built it?
Microsoft wants you to go the company that built the computer for oporating system problems like you are having.
I can tell you this about XP having been down this road. XP does not like it when you reinstall on top of a previous install. You could do that with 98 or ME but you cant with XP, trying to do that only makes problems worse.
Try contacting the people that built the comp. and be sure to have your Microsoft serial # handy. The # should be on a small decal stuck somewhere on your comp. case.
 
If this happened suddenly, you may have a virus or other problem. If you can run a virus scan. Also, (if you can) download Adaware and SpyBot and do a full scan with both to get rid of anything that shouldn't be there.
 
on xp you need to use the six cd ,s to do a proper reboot
sounds like a klez virus and a worm like blaster .


you need to turn off restore and reinstall or if you know how and you already lost some files and dat files you can fdisk format and reinstall but its alot of work.

and if you restore to a earlyer date the same thing will ahppen if its a virus it writes itself to the restore so you reboot it into your computer when you restore. symantic has a good cure for klez and blaster. do you have a anti virus if so update it and run a scan or go to a free site like stopsign and run from there . write down the list it comes up with , also
some windows updates are meant to fix some of the worm s.
and restore dlls and dat files
 
I hate XP. Too much spyware built into it. Gotta love knowing that microsoft and the government are watching everything you do when you're connected to the net. I'll take 98 any day, or even 3.1, where nothing messes up. I'd definately check for virus's, and if worst comes to, and you gotta restore everything, grab a sixer, and a day off, and cross your fingers.
 
rock5 said:
If this happened suddenly, you may have a virus or other problem. If you can run a virus scan. Also, (if you can) download Adaware and SpyBot and do a full scan with both to get rid of anything that shouldn't be there.

Exactly. This is almost definately a virus. Just kleened one off of a winXP machine today that hasn't been online in 2 months :confused: .

Windows Xp still has many exploits that are allowing these vunerabilities.. you need to go to windows update and download the patches.

Also the spyware part. No doubt you have some. Almost everyone who hasn't looked does :eek:

McAffee is probably the antivirus software currently installed on your machine. Rid yourself of it. I have never found it to be effective. Norton currently appears to be the best option; you can also get several good free clients such as the ones available from nonags.com. Make sure to keep them updated.

For spyware, Ad-Aware and Spybot both are very effective. I have found having both ensures total elimination of the problem.

Lastly a firewall will help with this in the future. Under properties for your Internet connection, engauge the XP firewall. This should be fairly effective. Additionally, or as an alternative, you can download one such as ZoneAlarm or Tiny Personal Firewall.

Hope this helps.. YOu will want to work fast in any case as these viruses can work fast.
 
Could be a virus

This may be a virus but I had a very simular problem in Nov. of 02.
I would turn on the comp and sometimes I would get a message that said I had files missing and sometimes it would be problems with the video driver and that would crash the system. I must have installed windows 50 times trying to fix it. Finaly found the problem, I had a FUBARED motherboard that was causing the problem. RMA,d the MB and reinstalled everything and that was the end of the problems.
All of the comercialy built comps I've seen for the last couple of years do infact have up to 6 discs to use for reinstalling windows.
I dont know why but they do. I've built my own PC's for the last 3 years and I buy the windows OS that comes straight from Microsoft and its only 1 disc and very simple to install. The discs from HP and all the others is a searies of disc's sometimes as many as 6. The comp manufacturers must be adding an awful lot of there own junk into those CD's.
HP did'nt even send any disc's at all for recovery on my mothers comp that she bought and neither did my brothers Compaq.
They set the recovery up in a seperate partition on the HD and its displayed as a seperate hard drive in windows.
I still recomend that you contact the maker of the comp about your problem.
As for the backdoors in windows that would allow people into your comp, those were put in starting with 98 and have been there ever since. Gotta love Big Brother!
 
Yep, sounds like a virus.

Ask any past or present Windoze network administrator and they'll tell you XP and Win2k are the best thing to happen to them as far as desktop and laptop clients.

On occasion, I will fix a friend or neighbor's hosed or dead PC that comes in on a gurney. After 20 minutes I'll know whether it's a lost cause or not. At that point I make a ghost image of their drive and copy it up to my fileserver.

Afterwards, I ALWAYS delete and repartition the C: drive and then reload the OS. The most important part on the rebuild is bringing ALL the MS patches up to date (windows update) and making sure your anti-virus signatures are current. (Imagine the fun of working in a large company and having to hunt down and patch infected systems that are eating up all the network bandwidth). Install and run Ad-Aware every now and then to get rid of the Spyware. Sorry, back to the subject. . . When my friend comes to pick up the PC, I use Ghost Explorer to extract and restore the DATA files from the image of their original disk. If they use a dial-up modem at home, I remove the lan card I put in during surgery and close the case. They reinstall their applications from the CD's.

When my kids hose up their PC's, I hand them the the CD and tell them to wipe the disk and reload the OS. All their homework gets saved in their home directories on my server, which gets backed up to tape. Duzn't matter if their PC is dead, they logon to another one in the house and just look on the H: drive for their stuff.

You should get a zip or external hard drive to backup your important files, or burn them to CD. Then you won't think twice about having to start from scratch again.

Sorry for the long speech but it will be less time in the long run and the PC will be faster because it's clean.
 
also- i ahve internet explorer.......and all of a sudden my home page changes all the time, and i have favorites in my folder that i dont want!! im gunna go insane!
 
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