icon names etc. disappeared

[Jo-Anne]

For a couple months, I've been using my laptop as my main computer (WinXP),
with my desktop's monitor for my screen. I left everything turned on last
night--and when I looked at the screen today, all the icon names had
disappeared, as had everything but a few icons in the Start Menu. The Log
Off and Turn Off buttons were gone.

I turned off the computer and then turned it back on. Now everything appears
to be back, although at least one icon had moved to a new location.

Any idea of what happened--and if it's likely to occur again?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[Twayne]

In

For a couple months, I've been using my laptop as my main
computer (WinXP), with my desktop's monitor for my screen.
I left everything turned on last night--and when I looked
at the screen today, all the icon names had disappeared, as
had everything but a few icons in the Start Menu. The Log
Off and Turn Off buttons were gone.
I turned off the computer and then turned it back on. Now
everything appears to be back, although at least one icon
had moved to a new location.
Any idea of what happened--and if it's likely to occur
again?
Thank you!

Jo-Anne

Hard to say, but a one-off like that is usually a simple glitch on the power
line, phone line, inside the computer, all kinds of sources. If it doesn't
happen again I wouldn't worry about it.
If you're running a UPS with records, it might be listed in its log as
dirty power or many other things along with the time and duration it lasted.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Jo-Anne]

In

Hard to say, but a one-off like that is usually a simple glitch on the
power line, phone line, inside the computer, all kinds of sources. If it
doesn't happen again I wouldn't worry about it.
If you're running a UPS with records, it might be listed in its log as
dirty power or many other things along with the time and duration it
lasted.

HTH,

Twayne`

Thank you, Twayne! Looks like I need to hook up my UPS and check on whether
there's software I can install for it. Here's hoping it doesn't happen
again!

Jo-Anne

 

[Twayne]

In

Thank you, Twayne! Looks like I need to hook up my UPS and
check on whether there's software I can install for it.
Here's hoping it doesn't happen again!

Jo-Anne

Quickest for that would be the UPS web site. What brand do you have?

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Jo-Anne]

In

Quickest for that would be the UPS web site. What brand do you have?

HTH,

Twayne`

It's an APC Back-UPS 600. I just installed new batteries and was planning to
hook it up again. I never looked at software for it before.

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

In

Quickest for that would be the UPS web site. What brand do you have?

HTH,

Twayne`

Hi, again, Twayne. It just happened again, and I don't think there was a
power problem. I was happily clicking on a blogname in Google Reader, when
suddenly most of the text disappeared. I exited IE and looked at some emails
in Outlook Express, which was still open. They started losing text. For
example, one email lost the subject line and all but a few lines of text in
the body. I exited OE, and the icon names on the desktop had disappeared
again, as had my internet connection.

I quickly closed down the computer before I lost the means to do so. I
turned it back on, and everything is fine again.

Could I be losing a component? Could it be malware? I scanned with Avira
AntiVir yesterday, and it found nothing. I'll run SuperAntiSpyware and
Malwarebytes shortly.

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[Twayne]

In

Hi, again, Twayne. It just happened again, and I don't
think there was a power problem. I was happily clicking on
a blogname in Google Reader, when suddenly most of the text
disappeared. I exited IE and looked at some emails in
Outlook Express, which was still open. They started losing
text. For example, one email lost the subject line and all
but a few lines of text in the body. I exited OE, and the
icon names on the desktop had disappeared again, as had my
internet connection.
I quickly closed down the computer before I lost the means
to do so. I turned it back on, and everything is fine again.

Could I be losing a component? Could it be malware? I
scanned with Avira AntiVir yesterday, and it found nothing.
I'll run SuperAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes shortly.

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

Good thinking. I assume you update each before using? Avira is OK, but you
might want to try running the free version of AVG or any other relable AV
too, just as an extra check. Avira didn't fare well for me for whatever
reasons; it also found false positives which to me is unforgiveable but it
can happen to the best of them.
Have you looked to see if there are any Restore Points you can roll back
to that are prior to this problem? Might work, no guarantee. And anything
installed since then would need to be reinstalled.
Was there a program installed just before this happened? If so, try
uninistalling it temporarily andsee if the problem goes away.

Based on what you described, I feel you're on the right track with the
malware detectors.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Twayne]

PS - Your model UPS DOES have communcatons software with it. I have a UPS
500 from them and the comms package works well. I'm surprised it didn't
autoinstall for you unless you never installed anything. They have info on
the web site.

HTH,

Twayne`



n

 

[Jo-Anne]

I'll check it out, Twayne. Thank you!

Jo-Anne

PS - Your model UPS DOES have communcatons software with it. I have a UPS
500 from them and the comms package works well. I'm surprised it didn't
autoinstall for you unless you never installed anything. They have info on
the web site.

HTH,

Twayne`



n

 

[Jo-Anne]

In

Good thinking. I assume you update each before using? Avira is OK, but you
might want to try running the free version of AVG or any other relable AV
too, just as an extra check. Avira didn't fare well for me for whatever
reasons; it also found false positives which to me is unforgiveable but it
can happen to the best of them.
Have you looked to see if there are any Restore Points you can roll back
to that are prior to this problem? Might work, no guarantee. And anything
installed since then would need to be reinstalled.
Was there a program installed just before this happened? If so, try
uninistalling it temporarily andsee if the problem goes away.

Based on what you described, I feel you're on the right track with the
malware detectors.

HTH,

Twayne`

Thank you, Twayne! I don't think I can do the Restore Point, since I think
this problem has been coming on for a while. I'm still wondering if it could
be a hardware issue. I guess if it gets worse and worse, it might finally
"go." I did update and run all three anti-malware programs, and they all
show everything being fine. I don't think I've installed anything new in a
while--although of course I've done some updating.

Jo-Anne

 

[karen gardiner]

Jo-anne

Exactly the same thing has happened to me and same overnight on 4th Nov. Like you I have run malware software and antivirus and found nothing. A hard reboot fixes the problem but it recurrs when the laptop has been on for some time. Never had problems like this ever. I did sytem restore hasnt fixed it. I removed programmes which were using a lot of virtual memory and freed up hard disk space none of its has worked.

Has anyone else had this since Nov 5th and have you found a fix?

karen

Submitted via EggHeadCafe
Visual Studio Async CTP Overview
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/tutorial...3bbad6d/visual-studio-async-ctp-overview.aspx

 

[Jo-Anne]

This is very interesting, Karen! I'm beginning to wonder if there might be a
heat problem with our laptops (see my posts and Paul's in this newsgroup
about my wireless connection being lost). If I mostly keep my laptop turned
off, it works fine when I use it. If I leave it on for a while, this
happens. I also recently lost my wireless connection to my home network with
this computer, although I can get onto the internet by plugging the laptop
directly into my router.

Of course, malware is a possibility too. Sometimes the regular anti-malware
programs don't catch it...

I hope someone can help! I was just about to try System Restore when I read
your post. I think I'll hold off for now.

Jo-Anne


----- Original Message -----
From: "karen gardiner" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2010 11:13 AM
Subject: Re: icon names etc. disappeared