XP is behaving VERY strange

[Guest]

Upon starting my system very early one morning I discovered:

No Start button;
all icons on the taskbar were gone;
No menu descriptions at the top of my browser ie File,Edit .. etc, although
the standard buttons were visible and I can use the internet fine;
None of the programs located in the windows\system32 directory were able to
load - these include regedit, notepad, media player, solitaire, freecell
etc.; (Windows tells me: This application has failed to start because the
application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix
this problem.).
The start menu was accesable throught the keyboard but Nothing was in it
except for the "All Programs" option along with the Shutdown and Log Off
buttons. In the programs popup i was able to access the programs there.

I did the following things:
Ran Chkdsk. - This resulted in free space allocated to volume bitmap. Not
enough disk space to correct (I have 45% free of 60Gigs).
Ran defrag from command prompt.
Ran Chkdsk again - this resulted in the ommision of the "not enough free
space" however I didn't get the Windows fixed it message.
Ran Virus check - no viruses
Ran vcom system checks - everything passed
Searched the Microsoft database for any references to fix this - none found.
Restored to an earlier point 2 days prior with no apparent errors.

Other info: While I originally thought that this was limited to microsoft
products - Office 2003 programs seem to work fine and Adobe products don't.
Also, while trying to get online customer support I discoverd the "General"
tab in the "System Properties" box doesn't exist. Also I can't load the
ActiveX install when prompted by microsofts webpages during the "update"
process or any other time I was asked to do so.

Lastly, I did nothing the session previous to this occuring except check my
email and there was nothing unusual during that session.

I'm at a complete loss at this point as to how to fix this issue. Could use
some advice.
Perry

 

[paulmd]

Upon starting my system very early one morning I discovered:

No Start button;
all icons on the taskbar were gone;
No menu descriptions at the top of my browser ie File,Edit .. etc, although
the standard buttons were visible and I can use the internet fine;
None of the programs located in the windows\system32 directory were able to
load - these include regedit, notepad, media player, solitaire, freecell
etc.; (Windows tells me: This application has failed to start because the
application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix
this problem.).
The start menu was accesable throught the keyboard but Nothing was in it
except for the "All Programs" option along with the Shutdown and Log Off
buttons. In the programs popup i was able to access the programs there.

I did the following things:
Ran Chkdsk. - This resulted in free space allocated to volume bitmap. Not
enough disk space to correct (I have 45% free of 60Gigs).
Ran defrag from command prompt.
Ran Chkdsk again - this resulted in the ommision of the "not enough free
space" however I didn't get the Windows fixed it message.
Ran Virus check - no viruses
Ran vcom system checks - everything passed
Searched the Microsoft database for any references to fix this - none found.
Restored to an earlier point 2 days prior with no apparent errors.

Other info: While I originally thought that this was limited to microsoft
products - Office 2003 programs seem to work fine and Adobe products don't.
Also, while trying to get online customer support I discoverd the "General"
tab in the "System Properties" box doesn't exist. Also I can't load the
ActiveX install when prompted by microsofts webpages during the "update"
process or any other time I was asked to do so.

Lastly, I did nothing the session previous to this occuring except check my
email and there was nothing unusual during that session.

I'm at a complete loss at this point as to how to fix this issue. Could use
some advice.
Perry

Perhaps your memory (RAM) may have started to crap out.

Try memtest86 to see if it turns up anything.

Given the vareity of problems, and given that it's not a virus, or hard
disk problem, there is a good chance of memory failure.

Either that or something has royally been screwed up somehow. If it's
that bad, then you have multiple issues that would take a bit too long
to fix. Back up your important personal stuff, then nuke it.