safe mode

[Guest]

I have been trying to use Safe Mode. I do everything I've been instructed to
do. I get to the screen where it says to click on administrator and I do. I
then get to the screen to click yes to continue to safe mode. When I click
OK, the screen indicates safe mode but just remains there - black and white
screen - heading on top of "safe Mode Microsoft XP, etc. It says Safe Mode at
the bottom corners of the screen but NOTHING happens. The mouse doesn't work
and the screen just stays at that spot.

How can I fix this to get into Safe Mode?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Are you able to logon normally?? If so look in the logs via Event Viewer to
see if anything is recorded as an error/warning that may help explain the
problem. Also give it some time. I have on occasion walked away from a
computer that I though was frozen and came back half hour later to se that
it no longer is frozen. What happens when you pres control-alternate-delete
in Safe Mode? --- Steve

 

[Galen]

In Steven L Umbach <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Are you able to logon normally?? If so look in the logs via Event
Viewer to see if anything is recorded as an error/warning that may
help explain the problem. Also give it some time. I have on occasion
walked away from a computer that I though was frozen and came back
half hour later to se that it no longer is frozen. What happens when
you pres control-alternate-delete in Safe Mode? --- Steve

Hmm... This makes me wonder if the effort to load the initial offering for
restoration might be causing it to choke. I'm actually in the process of
working on an article for the site similar to this... If the OP can actually
get the task manager to pop up via CTRL ALT DEL then the bit that I'm
working on might be a solution for 'em.

You've booted your PC and there are no icons on the desktop and all you see
is your wallpaper. The taskbar isn't showing and when you press the Windows
Logo key (WinKey) on your keyboard nothing happens. The process is simple
enough:

1.. Press CTRL + ALT + DEL
2.. Click on Task Manager if that doesn't automatically open task manager
with your setup
3.. Click on the processes tab
4.. Look for explorer.exe
5.. If it's there then right click it and select "End Process Tree" if not
then skip that step
6.. Click on File
7.. Click on New task (run)
8.. In the dialogue box type "explorer.exe" (without the quotes)
9.. Press Enter or click Okay
10.. That should bring up the desktop icons and taskbar if so then reboot
and skip Step #11
11.. If it doesn't bring up the desktop or icons repeat Steps 6 through 7
only type ""%SystemRoot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe" without the quotes
12.. Restore to an earlier point

If, for some reason, that does not work than you will probably be interested
in the following two links:

Malware Cleaners and Repair:
http://www.kgiii.info/windows/all/general/malwarefix.html

Corrupt Profile:
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/general/corrupt_profile.html

And if not one bit of that does the trick for you then...

Repair Installation of XP:
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/general/xprepair.html

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the responses. I did check the Event Viewer and there was a
message that Safe Mode could not be started. I will try again and wait
longer after I get what appears to be a locked in screen. When I get that
screen, neither the mouse nor the keyboard work and Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't work
either.

I haven't tried any of the other Safe Modes since the anti-spyware specified
to use the "Safe Mode" only in order to run their program.

As I go through the process of Safe Mode I get a screen asking me to click
Yes or No but the screen appears for one second only ands if I don't click
immediately it disappears and the process continues on its own.

 

[Guest]

Thanks. Some progress. In Safe Mode, still get the black and white fixed
screen. The Windows key does not work. However, Ctrl-Alt-Del does work and
the Task Manager pops up.

there is no explorer.exe listed; typing it in as a new task gets me the
popup to choose to continue in Safe Mode and then back to the Task Manager -
no icons appear.

On the Task Manager list are: taskmgr, svchost (3x), LSASS, Services,
winlogon, crss and smss ALL .exe. Also there is a system and a system Idle
process.

Applications is blank.

Any suggestions?

 

[Guest]

Hello again!

Tried again with explorer.exe and responded yes to the popup screen before
it disappeared. An IEXPLORE.EXE apeeared on the lost of processes. The icons
generated and then DISAPPEARED.

Tried again and attempted to launch the Spyware Doctor program fast and it
appears to have worked.

It's doing the scan - it may not find anything but at least it's working in
the Safe Mode. Thanks both of you for responding.

This process is too hit-and-miss.

 

[Galen]

In alwaysneedhelp <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Thanks for the responses. I did check the Event Viewer and there was a
message that Safe Mode could not be started. I will try again and
wait longer after I get what appears to be a locked in screen. When I
get that screen, neither the mouse nor the keyboard work and
Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't work either.

I haven't tried any of the other Safe Modes since the anti-spyware
specified to use the "Safe Mode" only in order to run their program.

As I go through the process of Safe Mode I get a screen asking me to
click Yes or No but the screen appears for one second only ands if I
don't click immediately it disappears and the process continues on
its own.

Sounds like you hosed it pretty good. I'd try restore or backup and reformat
if it's this bad. Steve might have a good idea or two so wait and I'm sure
he'll post if he does.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes

 

[steve umbach]

Good info! Thanks for posting that. --- Steve

In Steven L Umbach <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:


Hmm... This makes me wonder if the effort to load the initial offering for
restoration might be causing it to choke. I'm actually in the process of
working on an article for the site similar to this... If the OP can
actually get the task manager to pop up via CTRL ALT DEL then the bit that
I'm working on might be a solution for 'em.

You've booted your PC and there are no icons on the desktop and all you
see is your wallpaper. The taskbar isn't showing and when you press the
Windows Logo key (WinKey) on your keyboard nothing happens. The process is
simple enough:

1.. Press CTRL + ALT + DEL
2.. Click on Task Manager if that doesn't automatically open task manager
with your setup
3.. Click on the processes tab
4.. Look for explorer.exe
5.. If it's there then right click it and select "End Process Tree" if
not then skip that step
6.. Click on File
7.. Click on New task (run)
8.. In the dialogue box type "explorer.exe" (without the quotes)
9.. Press Enter or click Okay
10.. That should bring up the desktop icons and taskbar if so then reboot
and skip Step #11
11.. If it doesn't bring up the desktop or icons repeat Steps 6 through 7
only type ""%SystemRoot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe" without the quotes
12.. Restore to an earlier point

If, for some reason, that does not work than you will probably be
interested in the following two links:

Malware Cleaners and Repair:
http://www.kgiii.info/windows/all/general/malwarefix.html

Corrupt Profile:
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/general/corrupt_profile.html

And if not one bit of that does the trick for you then...

Repair Installation of XP:
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/general/xprepair.html

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes

 

[steve umbach]

Safe Mode is a bare bones mode in which Windows is running on as few
processes as possible to hopefully allow troubleshooting. If you are still
having the kind of problems that you are in Safe Mode then I agree with Mr.
Galen that repair install, new install, or his suggestion to try System
Recovery are your best options. What I would try first is to try the command
chkdsk /f to check your disk which may require a reboot and then use
cmd.exe to open a command Window and then use the command sfc /scannow to
start System File Checker which may ask you for your install disk. If you
have not run a malware scan for viruses lately you can use Sysclean from
Trend Micro to run in Safe Mode. Sysclean does not need to be installed.
Just download Sysclean and the latest pattern file to a common folder and
you can run Sysclean from the command prompt from that folder. The pattern
file will however need to be unzipped or extracted first. --- Steve

http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp --- link to Sysclean and
pattern file. Be sure to read sysclean.txt.