Where did it go?

[sender]

I no longer can access help. I have run a virus scan comes
back clean. Yet when I try to use help all it does it open
up to the first screen asking me to choose a topic then
freezes.
Going crazy please help. thanks

 

[Paul B T Hodges]

Is it just the help function which freezes, or is the pc totally locked up?
Can you run other programs when this happens or get the task manager by
pressing ctrl-alt-del ?
Can you access the network ok when this happens, just incase help is locking
up because it can't access the network.
Do you have a 3rd party firewall set up which may prevent this.
Have you installed any new applications, applied any updates, or upgraded
any drivers recently.

Check the system event log for any errors around the time that help locked
up

start/run
eventvwr.msc

Look in the system log for any disk or network related errors.
Look in the application and security log for any help related errors.

As a catchall, you could try checking the integrity of the file system of
the xp partition

My compuer/right click on the xp partition/properties/tools/check now/ click
both boxes in the window that pops up. As its the xp partition it can't run
chkdsk while the system is up so confirm you want to run at starup and
reboot.

Try
start/run
sigverif

To check for unsigned drivers which may cause issues.

If all else fails try

sfc /scannow

To check for missing system files which it will try to restore from the
\windows\system32\dllcache folder
or the \windows\ServicePackfiles\i386 folder if you've applied sp1 and
failing that the release cd.

If none of this works, you can always try a repair install.

Best of Luck

Paul





The help and support function