Missing Icons and Taskbar

[Guest]

This question has probably been asked before but I've been trawling
everywhere and still have no solution.

A laptop has suddenly stopped showing any icons or the taskbar. The taskbar
appears for about 1/4 second then disappears. I've tried most suggestions
i.e. trying to manually start explorer.exe (which isn't running, or as it
seems closes down straight away), trying new user accounts, safe mode and
even a XP repair and then a upgrade.

I don't think it's a profile problem as new user accounts display the same
behaviour.

Any help would be appreciated as I'm tearing my hair out.

Thanks

 

[Rich Barry]

Dave, Take a look here

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q318027

 

[Guest]

Thanks Rich

I'm afraid this is not relevant in my case as the behaviour is the same in
Safe Mode and I'm pretty sure it isn't related to a corrupt profile.

I'm quite sure I've tried nearly everything I've found on the net (even
ensuring the printer spooler was empty).

It's frustrating because it will take at least a week solid to get the data
off and rebuild the machine from scratch. I'm sure their must be a little
registry setting out their messing things up.

Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

Regards

Dave