desktop flashes after startup

[glenrose]

hi:

win98se

Computer goes through it proper startup, comes to the desktop, the desktop appears for a second and then disappears leaving the background color but no icons or start menu. The desktop flashes icons and menus are gone.

Press control alt delete nothing appears in the box. From this window i can use shutdown to shut the computer off.

Same problem occurs in safe mode, thought maybe it was the video card, even changed it slot but same problem.

anyone experience this before? virus maybe?
thanks

[GaryRouth]

After you ctrl-alt-del to bring up the shutdown menu, see if you can restart in DOS. If yes, then from the C:>prompt, type

scanreg/restore

You will see a list of dates to choose from. Choose a successful boot from prior to the icons disappearance.

If the pc won't boot to DOS from the menu, use a bootable floppy, choose "start computer without cd-rom support", then type the scanreg/restore command. If you have your bootable Win98 installation disk handy, you can boot from that, too "start computer with cd-rom support", then type the scanreg/restore command. To boot from any particular device, you can change the boot order by entering the Bios Setup screens: when the computer starts, press the key indicated in the banner displayed "Press DEL (or F1, F2, F10, etc) to Enter Setup". There should be an item in one of the first few menus about boot order.
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By all means, do a full system antivirus scan once things are back in working order.

Post back with your results if this doesn't work.
Best of luck
. . . Gary

[Edit: ---noticed you moved the video card. Problem isn't likely the video card: before you restore the registry, shutdown, power off/unplug, and put the video card back in it's original spot. If anything was added just before this happened, post that info too]

[glenrose]

thanks Gary:

should of worked but from each restore the same problem, display flashed then disappears, machine is haulted.

thanks

[GaryRouth]

Another quick try:
1) Right-click on your screen
[if it brings up the Display options box, then-->]
2) Click on Properties
3) Click on the Web tab
4) Uncheck View my Active Desktop as a Web page
5) Click on the Effects tab
6) Uncheck "Hide icons when the desktop is viewed as a web page"

Not a high chance that this will work, since this is part of what the scanreg/restore should have taken care of.
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You mention the machine is halting? Did that also happen before you restored an older Registry?

Since the machine is halting, and not showing any activity for ctrl-alt-del's task list, you do want to run a full system scan with a bootable antivirus cd or diskette (write-protected, of course). There is a virus that can cause similiar behavior, but it isn't very common http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/viru...e=WORM_BRAID.A

Should you find an infection (or two) trend micro does have a removal tool, even if you are not a current customer of theirs. The non-customer version just requires a little more work, the customer version is more automatic.
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If you are lucky enough that there are no viruses involved, perhaps the highest percentage chance for a fairly quick fix would be an over-the-top reinstall. [an even quicker, but not always as successful approach, would be to extract & install a fresh copy of explorer.exe].

Here's a short guide to over-the-top reinstalls: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=70846

Hope that does it - post back in case it's a virus: that way folks finding this thread in a future search can scan for that.
Best of luck
. . . Gary