After SP2 on Pro Win Explorer beeps at any mouse clicks, does nothing

[Don Taylor]

Win XP Pro, have had patches kept up to date, virus/spy scans done.
Everything is squeaky clean.

So download 110 megabytes of SP2. Surprisingly, everything seems
to work, well I turned off the included firewall/virus because I
already had those products from Norton. But the various things I
tried all seemed to work. I'm impressed.

Then I clicked on the recycling bin and found I couldn't select a
file to delete. Odd. In fact I couldn't click to close that,
couldn't click anywhere in it, every attempt just beeped at me.

Did a little digging, found control panel behaved the same. More
digging, anything that uses Windows explorer refuses any mouse
clicks in the window. It doesn't crash, like so many here have
reported. The show desktop button in the quick launch will minimize
them, so they haven't simply locked up, they respond to outside
requests. But mouse and keyboard input are refused/ignored.

I've now search Microsoft's web site for any suggestion. Nothing.
I've googled microsoft.public.* for any hint in any newsgroup. Nope.
Lots of people reporting theirs just crashes. But nothing like this.
Did find a few postings where people said something, like control
panel, didn't work and they might be seeing this same behavior, can't tell.
I don't think I have any Divix crap installed or anything else that
has been mentioned as a problem.

So, how do I fix this?

 

[Don Taylor]

Win XP Pro, have had patches kept up to date, virus/spy scans done.
Everything is squeaky clean.

So download 110 megabytes of SP2. Surprisingly, everything seems
to work, well I turned off the included firewall/virus because I
already had those products from Norton. But the various things I
tried all seemed to work. I'm impressed.

Then I clicked on the recycling bin and found I couldn't select a
file to delete. Odd. In fact I couldn't click to close that,
couldn't click anywhere in it, every attempt just beeped at me.

Did a little digging, found control panel behaved the same. More
digging, anything that uses Windows explorer refuses any mouse
clicks in the window. It doesn't crash, like so many here have
reported. The show desktop button in the quick launch will minimize
them, so they haven't simply locked up, they respond to outside
requests. But mouse and keyboard input are refused/ignored. ....
So, how do I fix this?

One other potential clue, in "Safe Mode" windows explorer does work,
mouse clicks and keystrokes are accepted, in normal mode they just beep.

 

[Don Taylor]

One other potential clue, in "Safe Mode" windows explorer does work,
mouse clicks and keystrokes are accepted, in normal mode they just beep.

I opened an incident with Microsoft via
http://support.microsoft.com/windowsxpsp2

After about a day, a reasonable amount of time considering what
I imagine circumstances there probably are about now, I got back:

(Note: I do realize as is often the case, the analysis can easily
be wrong and will sometimes even compound the problems, been there
and seen that before. But sometimes it can fix things.
A quick summary, "somehow some file got corrupted, do a repair of
windows, download the whole 250 megabyte SP2, install in safe mode,
twice?!?! and see if your problem goes away.
This advice may not apply to any problems anyone else is having.)

Dear Don,

Thank you for using Web Support. My name is Leo and I will be assisting
you with your case today.=20

To give the most accurate support possible, I would like to give a brief
summary of this problem as I understand it:=20

Your encountered problems after you installed Service Pack 2. We shall
be working to resolve this specific issue through the course of the
case. If I have misunderstood your concern, please let me know.

I appreciate your efforts invested in this issue. Please be assured that
I will work closely with you to resolve this issue efficiently.=20

Based on my research, this problem may very likely occur if some system
core files are corrupted. To resolve this issue, I recommend using the
following steps to repair Windows XP. This method will reinstall all
system files.=20

Note: Although System Repair will not damage your documents or registry,
and will not impact most third-party programs or personal settings, it
is possible that some network issues occur after reinstallation.=20

It is always recommended that you back up your important information and
files to other partitions or other disks before carrying out a System
Repair. If your network connections do not work correctly after
repairing Windows XP, please refer to the following articles to resolve
them:

You Cannot Create a Network Connection After You Restore Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=3Dkb;EN-US;329441

Dial-up Modem or PPPoE Option in New Connection Wizard Is Unavailable
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=3DKB;EN-US;320558

Repair
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
1. Disable all anti-virus features.

2. Close all running programs.

3. Insert your Windows XP installation disc into your CDROM drive.

4. Double-click <CDROM>:\setup.exe. Here <CDROM> is drive of your CDROM.

5. You will see the Windows XP installation welcome interface, please
click Install Windows XP.

6. Choose New Installation (Advanced) and then click Next.

7. Mark I accept this agreement and then click Next.

8. Enter your Product Key, click Next.

9. Click Next to accept the default language and accessibility options.

10. Choose Yes to upgrade your drive to NTFS, otherwise, choose No.
Click Next to continue.

11. Please choose if you would like to download the updated setup file
from Microsoft Windows Update website and then click Next.

12. When your computer is restart, please select Windows XP Setup.

13. After you get the following three options, please press Enter not to
press R.

* To set up Windows XP now, press Enter.

* To Repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

* To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

14. After the next page appears, click R to repair your Windows XP.

15. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the Setup
procedure.

You can reactive Windows XP by phone

Toll free number: 888-571-2048
Toll number: 716-871-2929

Now please try the following steps to manually reinstall Service Pack 2:

1. Download the full update pack from the following link and save it to
the hard disk:

Windows XP Service Pack 2
<http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165b076b-aaa9-443d-84f0-73
cf11fdcdf8/WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe>

2. Install SP2 in Safe Mode:

a. Restart the computer.=20
b. Keep pressing the F8 key until the Windows Startup menu appears.=20
c. Choose Safe Mode, and press Enter. =20
d. Try to install SP2 again.

Note: In Safe Mode, your system display and Desktop will look and
perform differently than in Normal Mode. This is only temporary.

I hope the above information can be of assistance. At this point, unless
you have any further questions or concerns regarding this particular
issue, I will go ahead and closed this case. If this is premature,
please feel free to send email to me or respond by posting a supplement
to this case; I am always happy to be of assistance.
=20

Best Regards,

Leo Chang
....