truly strange

[Kevin Nelson]

Hello all, I am new to this group but not new to computing. This, though, I
have never seen.

A client brought me a laptop they use mainly for downloading board of
education email and working on the school budget. It is an IBM ThinkPad
running Win2K. It is Pentium3 with at least 512 mb of ram. The harddrive is
20gb with 15gb free. It has not been dropped and has not left it in the sun
or rain or out in the snow. He is the only user.

The problem is there is no desktop. The machine goes through post with no
problem, get to the cntl-alt-del window, gets to the login window. After
hitting enter, it gets the blue background, the music of windows startup
plays, and yet there are no icons whatsoever, there is no start button,
there is no taskbar. In order to start any programs he types cntl-alt-del
and chooses file-new task, then browses for the program he wants, selects
it.

Yeah it works but it is way too complicated.

I have tried last good configuration, but the machine sees itself as fine
and that also brings up only a blue background. There is a recovery program
on the computer but that would wipe the harddrive and reinstall windows.
That is the last option as there are files that are crucial and no way to
get them off of the harddrive.

Has anyone seen this before, either on laptop or pc? I know there is a
checkbox somewhere about hiding icons but I do not think this is that.

Hope you can help me,
Kevin Nelson

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

What do you see in the event logs (run eventvwr.exe)?
Can you get into safe mode w/networking & run Windows Update, chkdsk, etc. ?

 

[Vance Green]

Sounds like he may have set the screen resolution
to one that is larger than they physical resolution of the
screen, and everything is off the edges of the "virtual"
desktop. This feature is supported on a lot of laptop computers.

Try:

right click on blank part of desktop>>properties>>settings
set resolution to 800 x 600.

If that doesn't do it, I'm stumped...

 

[shawn modersohn]

Is the explorer process running?

 

[Kevin Nelson]

Hello and thanks for the replies.

1. the resolution is fine, once he goes through the process of getting a
program running it is not so big that only a part is on the screen, nor is
it so small that a whole page of word is in a corner. also, there is no
right click or left click, it is as if the blue background has replaced
everything on the desktop.

2. explorer is running and by selecting internet explorer, he can get
online.

3. as for the other options, i will have access to the computer on monday
when i return to the school. i have told him that a complete reinstall may
be the only answer so unless a flash of inspiration hits me, after trying to
remove the budget spreadsheets, that is what i will most likely do.

if you have any other ideas, please do not hesitate to post them.

thanks again
Kevin Nelson

 

[shawn modersohn]

Things you might have overlooked.

SFC- scanonce
Re-install display drivers
Virus Scan
Does is to exhibit the same behavior in safe-mode?
Does the event log give any indications?

Honestly though, while there is certainly a reason for the problem, it
sounds like it is probably just easier to reinstall Windows rather than
spend hours and hours being the electronic Sherlock Holmes.