strange symptoms

[Bill SG]

Hi all,

A friends computer with W2K (in another country, so I can only access it
slowly with VNC) has some weird symptoms. (A) Windows Media Play 6 won't
launch. (B) The control panel has all the icons jammed into the left pain
and the right pain is empty. (C) The Program Files window is empty, even
though the status bar says there are 29 items. (D) Buttons in web pages
won't respond to being pressed (the status bar shows they are javascript
buttons). (E) hyperlinks in yahoo IM don't respond when clicked. I looked
through must of the Internet Options and they were set the same as mine and
my computer has no problem. (The McAffe virus scanner is up to date and
shows no viruses.)

Here's a weirder thing.

On a computer at work (W2K server), I have seen the (B) symptom and the (C)
one too in a different folder.

Makes me wonder if there is an undetected virus or a new Windows bug or a
common hardware problem causing these similar symtpoms.

Does anyone have any insist into these problems?

Thanks,

Bill

 

[DL]

There are a number of MS kb articles re 'odd/corrupt' windows afraid I dont
have specific kb, but I recently corrected a similar problems with my
control panel and Winnt Folder by ref to several.
It involved repairing missing registry entries.
I would think that this sys has a corrupt registry
David

 

[Bill SG]

I'm not surprised there is something corrupt on my friend's computer. But
the other one I mention was actually two different computers with completely
fresh installs of W2K server.

I search for hours for the kb articles you mentioned but can't find
anything. Can anyone suggest where to look???

Thanks,

Bill

 

[DL]

I've searched my history files but cannot locate article I'm afraid
My control panel had all icons on one side and empty pain to the right, it
was caused by a missing reg.entry cured by ref to kb article I can no longer
locate
David