Never came across such an issue... Can anyone help???

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Guest

Well.. This is quite long, so please bear with me. I have tried to explain
everything in detail in the best possible way I can.

I was troubleshooting one of my friend's laptop who is using Windows XP
Professional with Service Pack 1. His desktop wallpaper has been changed to a
screenshot of windows blue screen error which said problem caused by
malware/adwares. The display settings have been disabled. I tried running ad
aware and spybot with updated definitions and that didnt help. I tried
changing the wallpaper using the group policy editor. That didnt help either.
And after I took him off from the company's domain (which I had to) and log
in to the local computer, it doesn't even show any of the desktop icons, task
bar or properties forcing us to believe that it is actually a blue screen
error. I tried logging in as other user, then it shows the deault XP
wallpaper, but still not any of the icons or properties. I tried few of the
options like the group policy editor using the task manager>new task option
unsuccessfully. Now that is the only way I am able to gain access to this
computer. I have tried almost all the options, deleted all other profiles,
etc. I am not able to launch explorer.exe or iexplore.exe using the task
manager>new task. And am able to see the desktop icons as well while I access
it this way. So basically, something is just preventing the deskop from
appearing. I tried installing Srvice Pack 2 by burning it on a CD, but
surprisingly that file doesn't show on the CD on this laptop whereas in all
other PCs it does. So I had to finally resort to the good old way of
re-installing XP Pro after spending ages to resolve this issue. I feel
someone has hacked into his computer and played around. I was using a new XP
CD with Service Pack 2 and was trying to upgrade. I couldn't run boot setup
as the laptop didn't have a boot from cd option. So I tried disabling the
hard drive, but then it said operating system failed. So I ran setup from CD
using task manager>new task. It launches the installation and very soon says
that a previous software installation was not completed and exits the setup.
I tried removing the Symantec antivirus using System Mechanic Pro, but still
the same problem persists. Now what do I do? I shouldn't be loosing any of
his data. How do I install XP now as I am not able to run the setup from the
CD or boot from the disk and install. Please note that this laptop doesn't
have an internal CD drive, so I had to use HP external CD writer (of which I
had great trouble installing the drivers and to get it working).

I feel this is highly unusual. Can anyone help me with this? Any help will
be highly appreciated. Thank you for your patience.
 
Saajan said:
Well.. This is quite long, so please bear with me. I have tried to explain
everything in detail in the best possible way I can.

I was troubleshooting one of my friend's laptop who is using Windows XP
Professional with Service Pack 1. His desktop wallpaper has been changed to a
screenshot of windows blue screen error which said problem caused by
malware/adwares. The display settings have been disabled. I tried running ad
aware and spybot with updated definitions and that didnt help. I tried
changing the wallpaper using the group policy editor. That didnt help either.
And after I took him off from the company's domain (which I had to) and log
in to the local computer, it doesn't even show any of the desktop icons, task
bar or properties forcing us to believe that it is actually a blue screen
error. I tried logging in as other user, then it shows the deault XP
wallpaper, but still not any of the icons or properties. I tried few of the
options like the group policy editor using the task manager>new task option
unsuccessfully. Now that is the only way I am able to gain access to this
computer. I have tried almost all the options, deleted all other profiles,
etc. I am not able to launch explorer.exe or iexplore.exe using the task
manager>new task. And am able to see the desktop icons as well while I access
it this way. So basically, something is just preventing the deskop from
appearing. I tried installing Srvice Pack 2 by burning it on a CD, but
surprisingly that file doesn't show on the CD on this laptop whereas in all
other PCs it does. So I had to finally resort to the good old way of
re-installing XP Pro after spending ages to resolve this issue. I feel
someone has hacked into his computer and played around. I was using a new XP
CD with Service Pack 2 and was trying to upgrade. I couldn't run boot setup
as the laptop didn't have a boot from cd option. So I tried disabling the
hard drive, but then it said operating system failed. So I ran setup from CD
using task manager>new task. It launches the installation and very soon says
that a previous software installation was not completed and exits the setup.
I tried removing the Symantec antivirus using System Mechanic Pro, but still
the same problem persists. Now what do I do? I shouldn't be loosing any of
his data. How do I install XP now as I am not able to run the setup from the
CD or boot from the disk and install. Please note that this laptop doesn't
have an internal CD drive, so I had to use HP external CD writer (of which I
had great trouble installing the drivers and to get it working).

I feel this is highly unusual. Can anyone help me with this? Any help will
be highly appreciated. Thank you for your patience.


Hopefully the laptop does have a 3.5 diskette drive.

1. Backup the user's data files, configuration settings etc. by using
the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard in XP and then burn the
resulting file to a CD or copy it to a network drive. See MVP Gary
Woodruff's article on using FASTW at
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/fast.htm


2. Get copy/wipe from www.bootitng.com and run it to totally wipe the
hard drive.

3. Reinstall Windows XP. You will probably need to the the boot
diskette set from http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=310994 in order to
do this.

Note: Test the boot disks and make sure you can use the CDROM drive
before you wipe the hard drive.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm
 
Well, that is where the problem lies. The laptop doesn't have a floppy drive
either. And am unable to burn any cds or copy the data to network drive as I
have taken it off from the network. Remember I can't even get the desktop. I
can only access the contents of this pc using the task manager. And the BIOS
doesn't have a boot from cd option. Under the boot section, cd is first and
then the hard drive. As it didn't boot from cd, I tried disabling hard drive
and then it said the error hard disk not found. But it still it never tries
to boot from cd. I am able to run the xp setup from task manager, but the
setup fails as i mentioned earlier. I used a xp professional oem cd with
service pack 2. Any other suggestions please?
 
Saajan said:
Well, that is where the problem lies. The laptop doesn't have a floppy drive
either. And am unable to burn any cds or copy the data to network drive as I
have taken it off from the network. Remember I can't even get the desktop. I
can only access the contents of this pc using the task manager. And the BIOS
doesn't have a boot from cd option. Under the boot section, cd is first and
then the hard drive. As it didn't boot from cd, I tried disabling hard drive
and then it said the error hard disk not found. But it still it never tries
to boot from cd. I am able to run the xp setup from task manager, but the
setup fails as i mentioned earlier. I used a xp professional oem cd with
service pack 2. Any other suggestions please?

Even if it won't boot from the CD, can you run "D:\setup.exe" from the Start
button to run the version of setup on the CD?

AlanD
 
AlanD, thanks for replying first of all. Well, I guess you haven't read my
previous messages. I am not able to get the start menu or anything. The only
way I am able to gain access to the contents of this laptop is through the
task manager. This way I tried running the setup and it launches the setup,
but terminates midway saying that a previous installation of some other
sofware was not completed. Well, i tried removing few other software that
could have caused the conflict, but that didn't resolve either. Any other
suggestions please? Tanks again for all those who replied.
 
Have you tried booting with a Knoppix CD? If you could do that, you will
have access to the HDD and can modify the temp setup folders from there.

Bobby
 
Wow.. that sounds interesting. But how and where do I get it? Never heard
about this. Can you please tell me more? But then again, do you think it will
make the windows setup run properly after that? Thanks a lot for replying!
 
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