Stupid Virus

[attemptedsk8er]

I have a hewlett packard thats only 2 years old. its had its share of problems and continues to get more. it has a cd burner and dvd player and 40 gb. and i believe 800mgz. windows 98. its decent. why is it giving me problems? the problem is this: for about the last 6 months i haven't been able to access my control panel... among other things. i go to the control panel folder. double click on what i need to access and the pointer gets an hour glass as though its loading for about 3 seconds then it dissapears. nothing comes up. i could do it a million times on anything in the control panel folder. but not one actually loads. i can't go to system, internet options, or anything i really need to go to. I need access the add/remove new hardware because i just got a new digital video camera and when i plugged the ubs port in it gave me some options. i clicked close on accident and not there is no way for me to get back to that screen no matter how many times i replug the ubs or restart my computer. the computer can't detect that my camera is hooked up cause it doesn't know its there. i need to add it through the add/remove software tool. but like i said, it just won't work. i need help oh so badly. thank you so much.

[grasshopperbe]

i can't tell if your problem is caused by a virus, but it seems to be quite serious indeed.
I would at first go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
and check for viruses there.
Do you have any antvirus software running now. is it upgraded recently, does it still work properly ?. There are viruses that seriously mess up your antivirus software.
personally i would advise a format. since having no control panel is quite a serious problem yes.
Do you notice any strange behaviour from your pc taht may point to viruses?
(slow shutdown, hard drive working at strange moments, ...)
It is best to be sure your disk is clean before you migh do a format.

I dont know if this is of any help at all, but you might try the 'system files restore' program in windows/system dir.
(click start -> run and type sfc. )
hope this can be of any help

[pointd]

Run the virus scan as suggested above.

Run a search for files or folders named "*.cpl" (without the quotes). This will produce a list of all the Control Panel Applets currently in use on your system. The Add/Remove Hardware wizard is probably called hdwwiz.cpl. Double click it.

I agree that you really should try and find out why the icons aren't appearing as they should but the above might be a way round it for now.

Have you ever used TweakUI. If so you may have turned off all your Control Panel applets using this. If so then double click on TWEAKUI.CPL in the search results. If you haven't used it then installing it MAY let you turn them on so they work.

[kittyfire]

Just addressing the usb issue... go up in safe mode (reboot then as soon as it hits POST and BEFORE it hits Windows, hold down the shift key and leave it held down as you boot up... it'll take you into safe mode.) Then right click on my computer, go to device manager. Find the entry for Other. Click on the plus sign and delete everything that drops down beneath it. Go to universal serial bus. Click on the plus sign. Remove root hub and anything that shows as unknown or usb composite device. Do not remove the controller unless you have the 98 CD. Best advice is just don't remove it. If you remove the hub and unknowns and composites you should be fine. Reboot. Windows should be able to detect the device again.

[morriswindgate]

The problem with Tweakui is that it runs from the COntrol Panel. I had a similiar problem with a persons computer and tried tweakui and after I installed it I could not get it to run. Ended up having to re-install windows.

[catfishjoe_1]

Check for viruses first! If you used tweak ui, try this by xteq. x-setup . It doesn't run in the control panel. Also has a lot of things that can mess you up too, but there is a log file and you can go back to defaults. It will open up control panel settings that you didn't even know were there.
cat