Can't log in, welcome screen icons/accounts missing

[Anon]

I am in desperate need of help. My Windows Xp Home Edition Sp2 (up to
date) will not boot. I turn it on, and it comes up to the welcome
screen, the screen looks as if it is still loading, but i click on my
account (1 of 5 others) to login, and suddenly the other icons
disappear and the hour-glass appears as if loading, but it just stays
that way. I was able to logon prior to this and the characteristics
were similar, some of my desktop icons were missing and my norton
internet security came up with an error report saying something about
not being able to properly run along with my mouse driver and my free
ram xp pro came up with errors. I shrugged it off and went to look at
the event viewer, but before i could start it up the blue error screen
came up. I didn't copy down the entire code (figuring it would come up
again), but i was able to get the first series of numbers: 0x0000008E.
After that, I couldnt even log into windows. I was able to login under
safe mode (after pressing f8 at start up) but i was unable to run my
norton and the event view would not come up. I am in desperate need for
answers, because I am working on a project for work and the dead line
is July 8 and my team and I are nearly a week behind! Thanks for the
help in advanced, and I will try and either paypal the person who is
able to solve my problem (if i still have a job by then)

Sincerely,
Jason

PS. I am sorry if i posted this in the wrong section.

 

[Malke]

I am in desperate need of help. My Windows Xp Home Edition Sp2 (up to
date) will not boot. I turn it on, and it comes up to the welcome
screen, the screen looks as if it is still loading, but i click on my
account (1 of 5 others) to login, and suddenly the other icons
disappear and the hour-glass appears as if loading, but it just stays
that way. I was able to logon prior to this and the characteristics
were similar, some of my desktop icons were missing and my norton
internet security came up with an error report saying something about
not being able to properly run along with my mouse driver and my free
ram xp pro came up with errors. I shrugged it off and went to look at
the event viewer, but before i could start it up the blue error screen
came up. I didn't copy down the entire code (figuring it would come up
again), but i was able to get the first series of numbers: 0x0000008E.
After that, I couldnt even log into windows. I was able to login under
safe mode (after pressing f8 at start up) but i was unable to run my
norton and the event view would not come up. I am in desperate need
for answers, because I am working on a project for work and the dead
line is July 8 and my team and I are nearly a week behind! Thanks for
the help in advanced, and I will try and either paypal the person who
is able to solve my problem (if i still have a job by then)

Jason, open up the Yellow Pages and call a local professional computer
repair person to come on-site and look at your machine. Or ask friends
and colleagues for the name of someone they like. If you are really on
a tight schedule, it is foolish for you to spend time trying to get
answers on Usenet. You might get them or you might not. From your post,
you're not particularly computer savvy and fixing this computer by
trying to follow instructions you've gotten in a newsgroup from people
who can't see the machine is not the best solution in a crunch.

I'm not saying this to hurt your feelings. I'm just being practical and
giving you the most efficient way to get back on track.

Malke

 

[Anon]

I see what you are saying, I called 5 different companies and none of
them would be able to see me until thurs. the earliest and i figured on
here I would be bound to get a decent answer within a day or so. I
don't think asking friends would be smart for me, because my friends
always ask me. And prior to this, I have always considered my self
pretty computer savy, I'm not sure what you are judging that by, but
ask away and i'll answer, I just would like a solution asap.

-Jason
(I'm more of an all around tech guy, I used to have my own tech
assistance website, kind of a cross between Cnet, Engadget, Hackaday,
and forums for help, but I didnt have enough time to handle everything,
so I just turned it over to a couple of guys that were maintaining it
with me)

 

[Malke]

I see what you are saying, I called 5 different companies and none of
them would be able to see me until thurs. the earliest and i figured
on here I would be bound to get a decent answer within a day or so. I
don't think asking friends would be smart for me, because my friends
always ask me. And prior to this, I have always considered my self
pretty computer savy, I'm not sure what you are judging that by, but
ask away and i'll answer, I just would like a solution asap.

-Jason
(I'm more of an all around tech guy, I used to have my own tech
assistance website, kind of a cross between Cnet, Engadget, Hackaday,
and forums for help, but I didnt have enough time to handle
everything, so I just turned it over to a couple of guys that were
maintaining it with me)

Fine. You have to determine whether you've got software or hardware
issues. What changed between the time things worked and the time they
didn't?

The first thing to do is test your RAM. I like Memtest86+ from
www.memtest.org.

Actually, the first thing to do is make sure any critical data on that
hard drive is backed up. Remove the hard drive from the computer and
slave it in a testbed box. Either use Knoppix or a working XP install
to get the data. If you suspect virus/malware infection, it would be
safer to use Knoppix.

Malke

 

[Anon]

Thank you guys for all your help. I shall try everythhing just after I
make this post, The stange thing is, that the computer is nearly 2
years old and I haven't made any modifications to it (so I'm not sure
why there would be a ram problem). And the only recent change I have
made to it was installing XBCD for my son, which allows the xbox
controller to be used as a joystick on the computer. Even so, I have
shut down and turned my computer back on at least 3-4 for times since
then. The only thing that happened was my wife was on the computer and
she logged of, about an hour later she returned to lo back on and she
realized the welcome screen was missing everything, it only had a black
bar on the bottom and top, blue in the middle, and a thin gray line in
the middle of the screen (which usually has the welcome text on the
left and the different accounts on the right). After that she just left
it, and thats when I discovered it.

-Jason

 

[Malke]

Thank you guys for all your help. I shall try everythhing just after I
make this post, The stange thing is, that the computer is nearly 2
years old and I haven't made any modifications to it (so I'm not sure
why there would be a ram problem). And the only recent change I have
made to it was installing XBCD for my son, which allows the xbox
controller to be used as a joystick on the computer. Even so, I have
shut down and turned my computer back on at least 3-4 for times since
then. The only thing that happened was my wife was on the computer and
she logged of, about an hour later she returned to lo back on and she
realized the welcome screen was missing everything, it only had a
black bar on the bottom and top, blue in the middle, and a thin gray
line in the middle of the screen (which usually has the welcome text
on the left and the different accounts on the right). After that she
just left it, and thats when I discovered it.

Why would there be a RAM problem (or other hardware problem)? Because
hardware doesn't last forever. Stuff dies. Nothing strange about it.

Based on your description of the screen in this latest post, I'd add
troubleshooting your video card to the mix, too.

If you can get into Safe Mode, you can do any testing for malware
(although it doesn't sound like that is the issue) or other software
troubleshooting. If the machine is virus/malware-free, you might want
to try a System Restore to before you installed XBCD.

General malware troubleshooting:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

General hardware troubleshooting:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Troubleshooting

All troubleshooting must be done methodically. Make only one change at a
time, test, document, and then if necessary move onto the next thing.
If you do scattershot testing, you will have a hard time finding the
cause of problems and fixing the issues.

Malke

 

[Anon]

Thank you very very much. I just took some photos f my screen and
everythign I will upload them and post them momentarily.

 

[Anon]

Here are all the pictures. I'm still in the process of uploading.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jason724/ When you click onthe image you
can select differnt sizes.

 

[Malke]

Here are all the pictures. I'm still in the process of uploading.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jason724/ When you click onthe image you
can select differnt sizes.

The pictures were very helpful. I'd start troubleshooting with your
video card, RAM second. Definitely looks like failing hardware and not
software-related. Since you are a tech guy, I won't insult you by
taking you through the troubleshooting steps unless you want them.

Malke

 

[Anon]

Thanks. I was thinking video card driver maybe. When I get home i'll
try it and let you know how it goes. I'm hoping its not a virus (like
HaxDoor).

 

[Malke]

Thanks. I was thinking video card driver maybe. When I get home i'll
try it and let you know how it goes. I'm hoping its not a virus (like
HaxDoor).

Well, you can start with the video card driver since that's easy, but it
looks more like failing hardware. If reinstalling the drivers doesn't
help, swap the card out for a known-working one.

Malke