xp boots to desktop, but no icons

[ssb38lsb]

Hey guys! need some help here. Dell Inspiron 1501 w/ win xp. working on this for friend. Boots up to the desktop but there are no icons? Tried to start in safe mode, says it's going to run in safe mode, then it goes back to the login screen. I'm just trying to format the harddrive for him and do a fresh install. The Dell XP recovery disk will not boot on startup either? What next?? Please be specific because i am far from a guru with this stuff!! Would appreciate any help?? Thanks, Bernie

[wylackii]

If you are jumping to clean install, then try another Dell OEM disc with the same version as yours. I have 10 OEM discs and 3 have no visible damage but refuse to install. If you do not have easy access to a disc you can always get one on a file sharing network, just make sure to scan download before installing.
Icons not showing up after log on; if it is not a case of desktop icons being invisible (right click on the desktop then go to arrange icons and see if desktop icons are checked) then your processor is having a hard time keeping up with processing or your memory is having a hard time loading things into memory. Hit control + shift + Esc and see if your processor or memory is running harder than it should be. Not loading into safe mode could mean a driver issue, if possible take out everything except Processor, 1 stick of ram, and hard drive to eliminate other devices as problems. One last thing would be to boot into bios and turn on and off devices to trouble shoot but why bother when loading a linux live cd can let you know which devices load and which ones fail during start up. I recommend Puppy linux or DSL linux for small size.

[wylackii]

One last thing, not being able to boot into safe mode could be indicative of hard drive failure. Hard drive failure would lead to overall system under performance.

[ssb38lsb]

Thanks for the info. i'll give it a try??

[glc]

Press Ctrl+F11 on startup and try to run system recovery. You don't need the CD.