Multiple XP problems

[boweasel]

An 80-year old friend of mine REALLY screwed up his PC (XP Home Edition 2002), and I told him I'd take a look at it for him.

His PC wouldn't even boot properly (even in safe mode), so I could never even get to a place where I could resore his PC to an earlier date, and since he didn't care about any data on his machine, I slapped in the 2 emachines CD-ROMs and fired up the PC. It reinstalled Windows, but when the desktop displays, the is no taskbar, no Start button. Just a handful of basic icons. It also brings up the Add New Hardware Wizard, which is looking to install a VGA Comparible Video Controller.

Neither of the 2 CD-ROMs supplied from emachines have any video contoleer stuff on them.

The Start and Taskbar DO display when I start in safe mode.

Any ideas?

[glc]

Sounds like you did not complete the restoration process. It requires both CD's.

[boweasel]

Uh, yeah... When I said, "I slapped in the 2 emachines CD-ROMs and fired up the PC", I meant that I inserted both of the CDs that came with the unit.

The only weird thing is that after it finished w/ the CDs a message displayed that read "please wait while windows prepares to start". That screen stayed there for 2 hours and did nothing. So I turned off the PC and restarted. At startup a message came on that said I had to finish the setup process and to click on a button to continue. I did, and it seemed to finish without error. It then prompted me to restart the PC. Which I did and then noticed the distinct lack of a start button and taskbar.

Since I assumed something went wrong with the setup, I performed the CD-ROM restore a second time. And got the exact same results.

[glc]

I would contact eMachines and ask if you can get the CD's replaced - it sounds that they are likely defective.

[boweasel]

I really don't think that's it. They're the same CDs he used to install the system a couple years ago, and he's kept them in the original jewel box since that one-time usage.

Plus, do you have any idea how irritating it is to deal w/ emachines personnel?

[rjfvillarosa]

Originally Posted by boweasel Plus, do you have any idea how irritating it is to deal w/ emachines personnel?

Probably about as irritating as dealing with an EvilMachines computer.

Download the UltimateBootCD and run some diagnostic tests on the harddrive.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html
You will need to make a boot CD from the download then boot up the EvilMachine with the UBCD in the optical drive.

[glc]

If you are going to do that, test the ram too.