strange no load problem

[NightShade01]

I was working on a computer the other day and it came to me as strange the problem with it. When fully booted (which occured fine) nothing on the computer worked?! You click on the icons on the desktop and in the start list and nothing happens the computer just sits there. I found it odd so i restarted in safe mode. Trying to click on desktop icons and start menu things again i was just getting errors this time that the program needed to shut down. After re installing a few apps i still found the same problem occuring....is this odd or is it just me? I'm getting ready to wipe the system and start from sratch but i wanted to know if anyone had any other ideas first....thanks

[chuck4456]

As usual. no one tells us what OS they areusing or the PC features. Tell everybody that - maybe someone can be of assistance.

[GaryRouth]

Hi Nightshade01

Nothing wrong with doing a clean install - at least that will get rid of any malware laying about. Why not save the users important data first, though (slave the drive, or use an external hard drive enclosure, or burn to CD, etc.) ... and of course you'll scan that data before restoring it into the freshly installed system [and have your antivirus, antispyware, & firewall running before re-connecting it to the Internet - to grab the Security Updates for that version].

Depending on the errors you saw while in Safe Mode, there might be an underlying hardware issue that is causing some of the behavior - so might as well run some diagnostics (might save time over the long run).

If the diagnostics finish without errors, and the user would like to try to salvage the current installed base of programs & system setup - why not scan the drive as thoroughly as you can (while you've got it slaved, or in an external enclosure)? Once clean, you could then try an over-the-top reinstallation http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=70846

My first guess is that the system was badly infected, and the .exe file association is corrupted. If the infection had friends along, there's probably a fair amount of cleanup.

I imagine you know most of the tools you'll need -- if you need any links, let us know.
. . . Gary

[NightShade01]

Hey thanks for all the info gary yeah i have been testing the hard ware for a couple of hours now and everything checks out ok i just think that i'm missing alot of windows files too which never helps. Windows 98SE btw sry i forgot that in the beginning it's an older system P3 64MB RAM 20 GB hd ...you know how it is. Just going to wipe it...did a back up already and we'll see what happens

[edfair]

An "overlay install" might have saved some time. SE is probably the best at self correcting using an overlay but for really bad issues sometimes it takes multiple shots.
And sometimes it doesn't help at all.